Starting our new life in the M7 league saw us return to familiar haunts of pitch 13 at Happy Valley. Not really knowing what to expect from the new league in terms of standard, or refereeing standard with a bunch of new editions to the 7s team we had a strong squad for the opening game after the late withdrawal of Danny due to a sprained ankle playing squash at Lunch time.
Playing a team called Magic Roots who actually turned out to be the team from Morgan Stanley which featured no less than one Mr Patrick Mansfield in their team we started with the following players:

Nick D, Dan, Oz, Rich, Rossy, Nathan and Joe with Tom and Rory on the bench.

We start the first half well controlling the game, Magic Roots never really pressured us and we controlled the game well with Joe getting on the score sheet twice in the first half to make it 2 – 0 at half time. With about 75% of the procession and some nice passing it was a shame not to go into the break with more goals to boot but them camping in their own half made it difficult sometimes to make the killer ball so often required.

The second half sees Tom on for Dan at the back and Rory on for Rich. We start the second half with a bit more vigour with Rory making some excellent runs and getting back in defence well, with only a 2 goal cushion we couldn’t seem to break them down even though we could of scored a lot more, we lacked a little bit of killer edge on the attack with players not releasing the ball quick enough on the break and not playing with a recognised striker did not help even though Joe played very effectively in the role which he does not normally play in. After 20 mins Rich and Dan come on at the back and  Oz and Joe come off with Tom pushing to centre mid and Rossy up front. We finally get our third goal curtousey of Nathan and they manage to nick a scrappy goal back to make it 3 – 1 at the end.

Overall a good performance over a team that never really looking liked threating us much, the result never really looked in doubt but we do need to improve in the final third realising the ball and moving up and down as a unit but that will come as new players need time to adapt and get use to conditions and playing together, but a promising start.

There was some excellent performances Rossy who will hopefully be a permanent edition played excellent and controlled the game very effectively especially in the first half, Oz and Dan were solid at the back and Rory ran his socks off up and down in the 2^nd half, but my Man of the Match goes to Dan who looked solid and made no mistakes.

I don’t know when the next game will be as they text message me to ask with an option to play on a certain night so at this moment in time I don’t know about the next game, but as soon as I do I will let you know.