This derby was a tight and evenly fought game of few goalmouth chances and strong Lemon of the Match contenders.

Action

We struck first when a ball was fired over from the right wing by Joe, who had dribbled it past three City players. This zipped across to Paul, unmarked on the penalty spot. Turning it home required Paul to fully get hold of the bouncing bomb, which he did with aplomb.

City equalised when overly-ambitious passing gave the ball away in our twenty-five. There was still work for their player to do, but he rode a number of ineffectual challenges of dubious legality, rounded Jason and flicked home.

We then came oh-so-close to getting the winner when Douglas fizzed a ball in for Rob to deflect. The City keeper, who wasn’t expecting Rob’s touch, looked as surprised as any of us when the ball hit his heel and spun wide of the far post as he tried to shepherd it past the near.

Lemon

Ian tried to start the second half without his stick. 1 vote.

Paul argued with the umpires after the whole match had been put on warning, got a green card for his troubles and then attempted to deflect the blame for this on to his skipper. Which didn’t work at all as this buck passing was mentioned in many of his 4 votes.

Jan fell over repeatedly. Once whilst standing still attempting to take a sideline hit, which is something that even Lou Cantwell, the club’s greatest advocate of the benefits of a nice mid-game sit down, might have considered undignified. And once in open play. On this occasion it was quickly followed by the nearest City player also falling over, presumably in sympathy. 1.25 votes.

But the winner was Dave. The game had already seen three cards, Paul’s green, and a green and then yellow for the City skipper, as players were unable to keep their frustrations quiet. We were playing 11 vs 10 as a consequence when Dave went marauding upfield from sweeper. He reached the circle but then lost the ball to a robust challenge. As the City player was heading away, Dave attempted to nick the ball back and didn’t come close, but did get a lot of ankle instead. Free hit to City. This prompted an annoyed outburst at the umpire. What do you know... green card. 4.25 votes, the decisive 0.25 being a collective Lemon vote for the entire defence for allowing a kid to wander through for the equaliser.