'Or what about a cow? Is beef a vegetable?'

Perhaps it was the ongoing consideration of such pre-match imponderables that led to our slightly sloppy start. There was some neat play in a relatively even first half, but we somehow contrived to enter the change-around three goals down. The first for the visitors was a routine 'back to injector on the left post' shortie. The second, a neat lob that was unlikely to be bettered this season* by the centre forward who we later learned had previously represented his country, albeit some thirty years ago. Finally, a sucker punch came on the stroke of half-time, despite the despairing Trollman's dive.

Some rousing words from the skipper were called for. An almost perfect five minutes of oratory followed; a sparkling stream-of-consciousness affair that both generated and channelled a sense of collective will whilst blending in several insightful tactical points. 3-0 down? No bother, we were still in this!

We conceded straight from the restart.

As in, within ten seconds, none of us having touched the ball.

We weren't deterred though, as some of the oppo were already showing signs of struggling with the heat from the blazing sun. Playing with a little more control, we started to find our way through their backline and generate some chances. Our first step on the scoresheet ladder came courtesy of a Dom Nelson blast from the top of the circle after a neat short corner trap from Inshaw. Minutes later, a second corner again brought rewards. This one was a little more scrappy, as Inshaw and Cooper both had bobbly wiffs and waffs to coax the ball goalward before Owen Russell finished the job.

Now things were interesting and the momentum was building to a purple crescendo. With ten to go, Russell rummaged round at the bottom of his box of tricks and came out with a cheeky lob* (over a still upright, and not short, keeper) that certainly took the 'goal of the game' competition and is an early contender for 'goal of the season'. He even celebrated like a footballer. Fair play.

Could the comeback of comebacks really be on? We were not without chances in the final stages, with a couple of balls flashing just wide of the far post and an appeal ('no appealing, lads!') for a stroke being waved away. Our opponents had been round the block a few times too and were not afraid of the darker arts of the game to defend their lead, Lamming and Maiter both getting unceremoniously crunched as a reward for neat pieces of skill. There wasn't too much point grumbling about that though - if you give teams a four goal head-start, you are always struggling.

So, as with last week, we managed to score three second-half goals. Things to work on next week? Maybe we should start scoring in the first half too! A glance at the fixture list tells me we have an away trip to Wisbech. Always a highlight of the league campaign.