A good turn out for this one and with 9-a-side it meant the stand-down list was required in only the second league match of the new season. On a decent night for football weather wise, Brian captained the yellows and me the whites in what was a pretty good and competitive game to play in.

The score ended up 2-0 to the yellows although I think most of us whites are still scratching our heads trying to understand how. I might be a little biased in thinking we had the edge with possession and a bit more territory in the yellows goalmouth, but despite that we didn’t manage to score. 

Howard Wilkinson (you younger lads may have to Google that name) was once quoted as saying “I’m a firm believer that if you score one goal the other team have to score two to win” – profound stuff and made even worse for us with the fact that we couldn’t even get the one, let alone two. Ruud Gullit suffered a similar frustration playing for Holland when he made his famous quote “We must have had 99% of the game. It was the other 3% that cost us the match”

Ali and Jonny were a handful all night up front for the yellows and it was Ali who scored the first goal after about twenty minutes. It remained like this until about ten minutes from the end with us whites trying everything we could to find an equaliser without any success. In the words of that other great orator, Ron Atkinson (Google required again for you youngsters) “it's all about the two M's - movement and positioning”

Phil made it two for the yellows with about ten minutes to go following some pretty average defending from a yellows corner. We pressed forward looking for a consolation (or maybe more) and during one spell of frenzied action in the yellows’ box, Mark managed to head-butt one of his own team mates causing himself a nasty looking lip and a bloody nose – hope you’re OK Mark. Cynics may claim it was a time wasting stunt, but in fairness, I think it might have been genuine. 

Try as we did, I suspect if we were still there now, we probably wouldn’t have scored. As Ronaldo said after Brazil’s defeat to France in the 1998 World Cup Final “We lost because we didn’t win.”

MoM – a few candidates here from both sides. As mentioned, Ali and Jonny played well up front for the yellows and Brian was solid at the back for them with a few defensive headers which ended up going in the right direction. For the whites, Andy had a good game in midfield, but this week’s award goes to Ross. I thought he had a cracking game, starting in midfield then dropping back to defence later in the game. Solid, read the game well, and don’t remember him mis-placing any passes. Congratulations Ross and well done to Brian and the yellows for winning the game.