Sunday saw us back to the footy club to play the young, pacey Colts, Friday evening we had a squad of around 234, Sunday afternoon it had whittled down to the bare 11, that obviously included a 1/4 injured Tarik, Professor Mehmet, who apparently speaks 28 different languages including ‘Pingu’ & the best right back in the club, ‘The Roch’, this could become problematic, I better get on to Nathan’s dealer & find out where he is?

So 5mins before kick off & after lying to Stevie Y that I would buy him some grapes if he ended up in hospital with a spinal injury again, 22 people of varying degrees of talent kicking a ball around an artificial grass rectangle entered the fray, but it’s not all about talent, it’s about determination, desire & the capability of giving some kids a good kicking when you get anywhere near them, that’s the message Bertie, Eashan, Tarik, Tom W, Stevie Y, James, Rob, da Roch, Mehmet, Macca, Steve went onto the pitch with, with able & vocal support from Nathan,Manuel,Rick & Jen’s Mum & Jen’s of course.

We started with a few long balls to Steve, mainly just so I could watch a few players bounce off of him all over the place & to establish a foothold up the pitch to create a few chances, which we did, with Mehmet going on one of his winding runs past 3 players in their goal area & then again in ours, which was slightly less enjoyable, a bit like watching him take corners….Note going forward, someone else take certain set pieces.

Macca who was closing down everything & getting on to the end of snow covered balls from Bertie, to nearly put us in front, with the midfield running their socks off closing down the quick movement & the defence staying solid, with Bertie sweeping up anything that got behind all the way over to each corner flag literally, the first half was a bit of a stalemate, both teams were finding it hard to break down stubborn defences, obviously my plan of not conceding & using our superior fitness against a bunch of shandy drinking kids was taking affect, walking off at half time you wouldn’t of noticed that though, apparently some people were tired?

Water on board, keep concentration levels up, don’t let any one of them get in front of you, as they were very fast & nobody would catch them, also lets start taking the chances were creating, the show must go on, was the motto, along with kick I’m more, we enter the pitch to dutch drum & base, honestly!

Much of the same for the first 10, we had got back into the game & showed with our work rate that it was just as important to keep concentration while we had & did not have the ball, then ‘Da Roch’, went down with a head injury, he was concussed & didn’t know who he was, which was a perfect opportunity to explain to him that he was actually playing centre midfield & called Nemanja Matic, he looked confused, mostly to why he was playing alongside Jan Molby, but the head injury seemed to work, he continued to chase down everything, muttering to himself for the remainder of the game.

Then Stevie Y went down in the box, luckily it was only cramp & nothing to do with his back, up stepped the sexy man, to slot into the left back position & after adjusting with actually having to track back started to push forwards & create some chances, one of these chances saw a nice through ball played onto a great run from Mehmet who squared the ball to Macca on the edge of the box, who clinically finished hard & low into the bottom right corner, we were 1.0 up.

Tight for the next 10 was the shout from the back 4, Mehmet had other ideas, from some nice play in the centre of the park, he found himself some distance from goal & unlike his ‘piddly’ corner kicks, I can only describe it technically, that he ‘larruped’ it in giving the keeper no chance, we were only bloody 2.0 up with about 20mins remaining.

Now we were in control & cruising or as near as we would in this game, I was about to bring Nathan on & asked him if he was ready, to which he replied "There were bats everywhere and I can’t feel my face’, so I waited a further 5 minutes, just to be on the safe side, but Jens in front of his mummy decided to play keepie uppie, but instead played a fantastic ball to their forward who pounced & finished in the inside post, to make it squeaky bum time for the last 10minutes.

With another shout of you "fuc*ing Retard" coming from Jen’s mother in the stands, we knew we couldn’t let a Mum like that down & with the help of Nathan & Slick to assist we defended resolutely for the remainder of the game to take all the points.

It was a hard fought victory over a good team who will pick up points from other teams no doubt, Bertie made some decisive saves when we needed him during times of pressure, Eashan tracked his player & was defensively sound all game, Tarik was brilliant, while also carrying an injury to make the whole game & it was great to see Stevie Y back in the team & only leaving the pitch with cramp this time.

James & Mehmet worked hard all game down the flanks to create chances & also helped out with the defensive duties …..mostly, while Rob & Tom R, never seemed to stop moving & both put their bodies on the line for the win & again as always Macca worked every ounce of energy & a classy finish was his reward, until he stubbed his little toe & had to come off, with Steve giving us that strength & intelligence up front when we needed to retain the ball up front.

But I need to single out the man whose soon to be future mother in law was telling great jokes about a nun and a washing machine after the game & what it was like in various massage parlours in the mid 70’s, that from the back orchestrated the game from a defensive point of view & was magnificent throughout, well done Tom W & well done lads,