So the Doc and I had the honor of selecting the teams for the evening.  I duly won the toss and went for first pick.

We had both selected two players when I noticed Dave Owens hadn't been picked.  I said to Nic that I'd not noticed Dave's name there and Nick said he had also missed him.  That piece of luck on my part was going to come back and bite Nic.

The game started and both teams were making chances in fact it would be fair to say that the yellows were actually winning the battle.  My strong midfield just weren't clicking at this time.

It was against the run of play that the whites took the lead. A long ball down the centre of the pitch was lost in the lights by Nutter and one of those long legs of his completely missed the ball allowing Dave Owen to run onto to it and calmly slot the ball passed the Doc.

A second quickly followed and at this point the whites were beginning to get on top and that old adage you need to score when you are on top was hurting the yellows.

From no where the whites grabbed a foothold in the game. The move was started by Chris Stewart from his new found, much effective midfield position.  He knocked a wide ball out to the right and from there the ball eventually fell to Gary at the far post and calmly slotted it home. The game ebbed and flowed without either side finding that all important tell tale pass.

With fifthteen minutes to go I gave the yellows some encouragement by going in goal and Geoff replaced my up front.

As it turned out this proved to be a shrewd move as the whites added a further two goals to their tally.  A third for Dave to complete his hat trick and then a fine goal by Carl.  He arrived in the box on a late to calmly slot the ball past Ross.  i heard that Carl arrived in the box some two minutes after the ball had been crossed and everybody failed to pick him up.

So the result was 4-1.  i came off the pitch happy but this tie is certainly not over.

My MOM has to go to Dave for a sterling performance up front.  I will however take some credit for that performance due to the positive talk (witnessed by Carl) I had with Dave prior to kickoff.  I told him I was looking for an improvement as he had been shxxte in his previous couple of games.

I learnt the art of encouragement from Alan a member of the club I have always found to be positive and supportive when sharing his views with fellow players.