The mens 6s faced Spalding 4s in the first game of the day on a sunny(?) October Saturday at home.

The pre-pre-game pep talk was held by Sandy attempting to explain that although Spalding 4s occupy a league somewhere above us, they are actually what would have been the Spalding 5s in our league. This was apparently due to some loss Spaldings middle teams that resulted in some odd re-ordering. This also being the reason our game was a friendly - or something like that.

Then the usual pre-game hit-it-about-a-bit ensued whilst everything was set up and Ben, our keeper, got his armour on. Worryingly, there appeared to be two Talmages in keeper kit at one point despite Dan being down to front the mid field campaign on the line-up. It turns out there was an essential bit of keeper kit missing from Ben's kit bag... the box. So an early lemon was awarded to the anonymous mens box thief. In the end, we got Dan back to his usual hunting ground in the middle of the field rather than at the end of it. Ben was also suitably armoured up ready to defend our goal line.

The mens 6s started how we meant to go on with strong positioning in our new favourite 4-3-3 formation. We had the early triumph and got one past their keeper early on. This was thanks to an excellent pass from Andy T with matched skill and positioning from Henry G who saw that the ball made its way past their keeper in the top right of the net. It took the Spalding 4s until a few minutes before half time to equalise from a well played short.

The second half showed great promise in that we didn't struggle to get it up the pitch, helped by some heroic runs with great support and savvy passing. One notable run by Sean from our D to theirs saw him out for the count after a full pitch excursion. All those on the sideline nodding in appreciation of the noble efforts and in agreement that they too would also be on the floor if they did the same. Thanks to ample subs this week, Sandy was able to sub in to pick up where Sean left off in defence.

It was unfortunate deja vu for the South side as Spalding scored the winning second point in the final 5 minutes seeing them win the friendly.

MoM went to Rich.
LoM went to the mens box thief.

Overall, another strong day out for the mens 6s. We are clearly building strong foundations and improving week on week. There was talk of a curse in the post game huddle, I think we'll ward off these bad spirits in no time if we keep up these marginal gains.