Our 12-man squad was raring to go after an intense training session earlier in the week! We were eager to show the ex-city boys what Southern men are made of by approaching the game with steely determination and discipline.

As the game started, it was great to see that almost all of us had benefited from our fitness sessions. I say almost, because it certainly does not apply to the young Blair. It only took a mere two minutes for Blair to be gagging for oxygen and demanded that he be subbed off! By this point, the game had already become a little tetchy with seemingly every umpire whilstle attracting an appeal, which eventually lead to a yellow card. At this point, tensions were high and I had missed the whistle (clearly I am as deaf as a door-knob) which resulted in a short corner. Here we quickly discovered their secret weapon, which was an ex-national level drag flicker who was, unsurprisingly, lethal. Following this, there was a foot in our D resulting in their second short of the game, which was then flicked into our top corner. But all was not lost, as we had a short of our own, where Maz hit a straight driving shot to make the score 2-1 to the city exiles. All in all, this was a frustrating first half as it was obvious that we were the better team with far more possession and shots!

After some words of wisdom from none other than coach Paul, we started the second half reenergised and pumped! However in my case potentially a little too pumped, as one of my tackles in the D, which you could describe as a passionate love tap, resulted in yet another short corner and a green card. Shockingly with their third shot/flick of the game, they scored their third goal. If it wasn't apparent already, it seemed they only had the one trick, albeit effective one. During my time on the naughty step, there was a silver lining as Paul graced me with some words of wisdom on blocking their shorts. This then later lead to a saucy save off the line during their next short, leaving Paul marvelling in his genius. After some sublime passing plays, Jacko managed to score a second!! Now confidence boosted, we were in full flow state, sending countless waves of attacks at our opponents with Mark and Henry dominating the midfield. Subsequently, this led to a highly intensive final ten minutes, but time had run out before any richly deserved comeback could be completed.

MOM- Maz
LOM- Ali