We went to Townley on them in the first 17 minutes; our Matteo stand-in conjured a drag flick which tore the glove off their keeper, like ripping a Teddy away from a small-handed and greasy child. We may even have been guilty of thinking that we might leave freshly relegated from national league Ipswich in our Doust, after HL7 found the net for our second.

However, I must compare Ipswich's resolve to a cricket bat. Aptly, their centre forward was nicknamed Woody; and as I was fishing the ball out from our net after his goal (their fourth), I couldn't help but reflect on a property of Willow wood that, under pressure, it becomes all the more resilient; this much can be said of Ipswich after going down 2-0 so quickly.  By half time, they were even-Stevens.

Their tackling too firmed up considerably through the game; much to Teddy's chagrin in the third quarter break, there were plenty of harsh tackles that culprits walked away from Scot free. By the end the umpires were more fast-and-Lewis with the cards, and a green and yellow had Ipswich players Skalkaing off in the second half. We showed glimmers of the team that we were in the first quarter, but their lead had become unassailable.

We did occasionally help Ipswich on their way, our at-times dubious Marking left an Ipswich manIn the D with a free tap-in for a goal or two. 
A few too many times we Puddefoot in front of the ball in the D; their drag flick success rate guaranteed them to be a Schu-in for this fixture.

Nevertheless, the lads have every reason to be proud of today's performance. The first quarter we successfully stunned an ex-national league side, proving the viability of our game plan. Lessons learnt from this game should prevent us enduring a Winter of discontent.

I didn't care for Sam's music.

MOM: Schuey, truly his performance today entitled him to this week's MOM. Do make sure you've got some left in you for the rest of the season!

LOM: Willow Nic'd this week's LOM for a wallop of a pass that, had Ben not got in its way, might have made it all the way to Lindarsfarne.