Sun Spartan 3 – Boca Seniors 1 – Wanchai Spartans FC

R.Ogden 2, P.Hoy 1

New season, new kit, new mascot, same old sh*te…?

The Spartans squad was boosted by the news, shortly before
kick off that manager Russ was, erm, ‘holed up’ in Bangkok and would miss
the game.

Managerial record – played quite a few, won a couple, lost loads.

Despite missing out on the usual pre match motivational speech from Russ,
Spartans opened well, competing for every ball and soon found themselves
dominating the game. Andy and Bobby solid in the heart of defence, Paul Hoy (more of him later) everywhere in midfield, Simon and Flabbo causing havoc up front and Terry and Alex making solid debuts.

After a couple of clear cut misses from Flabbo ("at least I’m still getting in position" – our stats show no goals last season Flabbo), it took a curling, low struck free kick from new captain and wily old dog Ogden ("I’ll get you 2 goals a season from midfield") to put Spartans into a deserved lead which was taken into the interval. "Nice free kick – did you mean it?" was the burning half time question.

However, it just didn’t seem the same during the interval without Russ. What does a Spartans team do when it doesn’t have its collective head bowed in shame after a dismal first half display and the gaffer spitting

"you bunch of monkeys"?

2nd half and we obviously thought the match was won at 1-0 –
when did we EVER successfully defend a 1-0 lead? It took 15 minutes to
settle again and get back on top (but enough of Russ in Bangkok). Suddenly, out of nothing, something quite extraordinary happened. A floated ball into to the Boca box was headed to the edge of the area and there, leaping like a MacDonald’s farm fed Salmon (burger) was Paul (Skippy) Hoy defying gravity to deliver an unstoppable overhead kick with his new Kangaroo skin clogs.

2-0 and disbelief all round – the Spartans on fire. Goal of the season
decided already – or was it…………..?

A couple more glorious misses and Flabbo decided to rest his
blister, courtesy of the boots he bought from Pete the Painter with the
world’s longest studs (ideal for Hong Kong), and on came Ben with a
debutants fresh legs and full of verve. Rewind, he would have been if it
wasn’t for the fact he’d been ‘detained’ in Wanchai just three hours before
the game.

A couple more missed chances and time for Ogden to fill his quota of goals for the season. Dispossessing a Boca player on the half way line, striding a few paces forward, noticing the keeper left of centre of his goal and too knackered to take another step, he unleashed a thunderbolt (ok, a well struck shot) from 30 yards, rising all the way, rattled the bar and was adjudged to have crossed the line by the ‘Russian linesman’ – an unusual but fortuitous choice of official for a YYL second division fixture. 3-0, happy days and still time to concede a soft goal.

A quality team performance. Well done lads. One big question remains though – can new mascot and good luck charm Scruffy