We won! It's felt a long time coming, but finally everything came together in a single game played at confident high intensity the whole way through. Not only that, but a clear 3-0 victory against the team at the top of our league table...in fact our league is so evenly matched that this appears to be the (joint) highest goal margin of any non-development-team game across all matches of all the teams. That's confidence-building!

In post-game discussion everyone agreed this victory came from enthusiastically bringing together all the elements we've been building and training the whole season. In fact, it's easy to list off how every team member contributed to that result, so in this match report that's what you get from front to back of the field:

• Daniel scored twice, both well-delivered field goals and his first (I think?) at senior level. This performance won him man of the match!
• Henry was just as active in and around the D, keeping our chances alive and notably leading a brilliant breakaway that led to Daniel's first goal, calmly slipped past the goalkeeper for a tap into the open goal having already beaten all the defenders.
• Paul took plenty of opportunities of his own, assisting goals and being denied his own only by strong work from the opposing keeper (and arguably an unfortunately-timed umpire's whistle).
• David was an unrelenting menace to the opposing defence, who struggled to answer his constant skilful back and forth pressing - a close MoM runner up.
• Lachie constantly shut down the opponents' escape routes to set up another attack again and again...and revealed himself as a skilled short corner injector leading to...
• Wilco scored a textbook short corner straight hit, the vital first goal of the game. And that's without mentioning being the usual midfield wall against which the opposition breaks.
• Gabe constantly cut out opposing options in midfield, being a big contributor to their frustration at being almost unable to find any outlet on every free hit.
• Dan and Nick constantly hustled back and forth on the left and right defensive wings respectively, always supporting the attack but never overcommitting.
• Sandy and Shahzad held up the defensive centre, not able to halt every breakaway but slowing everything down enough for the team to rally. And in the few cases that the opposition were able to manufacture a chance....
• Ben clinically maintained a clean sheet even in the face of some strong shots as the opposition took what opportunities they could.

All this led to a general feeling that nobody on the team had done anything lemon-worthy, although on this note it's fortunate we only realised later that at least 3 people left kit or clothing behind in all the excitement.