Goals: Flabbo, Pat 2, Cowley

With a few pullouts and no goalkeeper and others trying to contact our Manager (who’s enjoying the sun in Phuket), we ended up with ONLY 10 players on a rain drenched Happy Valley pitch 6. Pat calls Chi and asks him to come down.

Henry agrees to goal in goals for the first half, so we start off with a kinda diamond formation with Mike, Danny and Sanj the back three. Cowley, Hao, Flabbo and Lionel make up the midfield quartet with Pete roaming between the midfield and Pat up front.
We start off brightly and create an abundance of chances, with Pete, Pat and Cowley all going close. Eventually, Flabbo picks up a square pass from Pete and (I’d say) “rockets” the ball into the bottom corner. 1-0. We continue to press, but on a rare iDistrict break they manage to scoop the ball into the net. I think they are more shocked than our back three. The rain persists. As the half draws, we get a bit of luck. Pat chases down some sloppy defending, the ball rebounds off the keeper and Pat somehow drags the ball into the net. HT:2-1.

No sign of Chi at half time, so the only change is Danny in goal and Henry slots into the back three.

The rain is heavier in the second half and lightning threatens. There is some argument about the rain sodden ball and that is replaced by “beach ball” provided by the opposition. It is very hard to see with the heavy rain, and I guess the iDistrict defense didn’t see Cowley as he surged forward and slotted the ball wide of the keeper and made it 3-1. We continue to make chances, Pat goes one-on-one but somehow misses. Pete, Lionel and Cowley are a constant threat. However, again iDistrict fail to give up and are rewarded with some nice interchange and again they get back into the match. Now 3-2. This seems to give the opponents some renewed hope and they start pressing more and more, as the Spartans 9 outfield players tire, especially since the boots are drenched and weigh about 10kg. The Spartans defense works hard to counter their efforts. At the other end Pat finds himself clear again. He’s one-on-one with the keeper. This time he makes no mistake. Spartans hold onto victory. FT: 4-2.

Excellent effort by the 10 players. Special mention to Mike, Sanj, Danny and Henry who battled well to break down many iDistrict attacks. Hao was excellent in midfield and battled to the end. The offensive unit were a constant threat with Lionel, Pete, Cowley and Pat always causing problems.