Spartans 3 Team Shotgun 0
Team line up from left to right: Sam (GK) Def: Eashan, AJ, Ali, Scott; Mid: Charles Rob, Aidan, James; For: Randy, David Jordan. Subs: Jamie, Laurence.
On another blistering hot HK afternoon Spartans faced a young Team Shotgun side who favoured themselves in the heat.
With my phone on the blink from the massive night before, a big thank you to Eashan who got in contact with players to make sure they were still coming along to the game. We get to the pitch and magically have 12 players 4 minutes before kick off! Laurence, our Rick Astley lookalike found his way there 15 mins into the first half after coming from work. We start the game as we mean to go on knocking the ball about very well and keeping possession, with Aidan and Rob linking up again in the midfield, great to see! Aidan still buzzing from Sanjoy’s birthday shenanigans from the previous night, was still showing his magic of years gone by. Rob, coming back from illness was looking like he had never been away. Charles as usual was dancing passed Shotgun players as if they weren’t there and James on the opposite side very comfortable on the ball. Our defence, was rock solid and dealt with the couple of times they hit us on the break with ease with Sam commanding his area as well as ever.
Our first goal came from great build up play and a ball was put through (please remind me who it was!) to DJ who still had a lot of work to do and managed to create some space for himself and scored a great goal, 1 nil Spartans. Well deserved to be in the lead after controlling the whole of the first half. I get booked for trying to look after my players by giving them water and the half time whistle blows. Eashan puts his war paint on for the 2nd half and no one takes him seriously as he gees the team up, but assures Aidan that his skin will be softer by the time he is 40!
The message is simple for the 2nd half, keep playing the way we are and get more shots in on goal. 10 mins into the 2nd half Scott comes off for Laurence and Ali switches to right back with Laurence slotting in to his centre back position along side AJ. 5 mins later Charles comes off for Jamie as he was carrying a slight knee injury. But hold on, Ali gets injured and needs to come off so Jamie switches to right back and luckily enough for us Charles manages to get back on and play the game out.
Our 2nd goal comes just at the right time and Aidan slots a lovely pass through and releases DJ again who this time knocks the ball over the keepers head and then puts it in from a yard out, fantastic! 2-0 up and I can relax although the drink from the night before is still pissin’ out of me! I was getting greedy on the sidelines and informing our lads that shotgun were knackered and that we were to punish them even further. Randy must have heard me as he scored a great goal which was thoroughly deserved as he ran tirelessly all day to make it 3-0 and finish it as a contest. Great to see us keeping a clean sheet again and scoring plenty as well. Just think what we could do to teams if we could have a full squad every week! Man of the match for me had to be Aidan, showing us he’s still got it with great foot work and passing in the midfield with a close 2nd being Randy, non stop running all day and a goal for his efforts. Mug of the day was me for getting a yellow because I kept running on the pitch to give our players water!
After the game, everyone went home to re-charge the batteries before heading down to Wanchai to continue the weekender for Sanjoy’s 40th with plenty of jaeger bombs being put away long into the night.
