The score doesn't truly reflect the top table clash we had with Ely here. They were obviously very good; we were better.

HT : 1-0 (Lossy)

FT : 6-0 (Lossy x2), (Greaves, J x2), Espley, Mulley

The team arrived to witness the M1s trouncing Ely 2s 4-1 in windy conditions. The M1 players, being such gentlemen offered their yellow, slightly sweaty, shirts to be used/recycled. Joe had anticipated this generosity and had requested that Ely play in their away strip, thinking “If we have to use sweaty shirts, at least it is our own sweat.” Such foresight.

“If we win this we will win promotion!” was the captain’s cry before the match, “and we will be guaranteed second place."  One has to factor into this motivational speech that he is a salesman by trade and the league rules state that only the team that come first is guaranteed promoted, so without stating the obvious, the teams that come 2^nd, 3^rd, etc……aren’t.

With the help of two quick and skilful youngsters in Greaves Junior and Mulley, the team dominated possession in the first half.  Combining youthful running, the pressure-relieving big hitting and Boris getting away from defenders by standing in space, the team created two chances and Boris duly put away one of them. A little controversy then ensued when the Ely keeper claimed the ball has gone over the touch line before Boris brought it back in and scored, but his protest was waved away by a confident umpire.

“Ely is a good team and man for man they are better than us, but we play better as a team.” Yet another motivational speech at the break from the captain. There must be lucrative jobs out there where you can combine sales and motivational speech-making.

For the first ten minutes of the second half, Ely must have heard what Joe (the aforementioned motivational captain with the salesman’s chatter and all that) said about them being “better man for man” and proceeded to prove it by passing around us and coming at us with verve. But we held firm with Greaves Junior and Joe (yes, him again, using his hockey skills this time - is there no end to this guy’s talent?) breaking up play in the middle of the park.

Eventually, having repelled relentless attacks, we were able to break with Greaves Senior scoring from a well-taken shot to take the pressure off. Ely kept pressing and leaving spaces at the back with Boris standing in acres, but it was another swift counter that saw a father-son combo slicing through the middle of the pitch with the G Senior scoring a third.

Mulley scored a neatly taken goal for the fourth and Boris scored a fifth, with the Ely keeper once more protesting the ball had crossed the back line but again to no avail. The sixth goal came from a precise flick into the corner by the roaming Espley, who has spent the first fifty-five minutes defending before going to join the forwards.

While all that scoring was going on, the defenders' union also claimed a clean sheet for this competitive match.  Oh, and “we did play better as a team”, so the cleverly crafted words by the captain were not unheard.