After a long but peculiar season given there was all of the thousands of weeks in lockdown. The first game of the summer fell to Nick and I picking in the Captains Cup. As has been the case lately, the numbers of regulars playing was minimal with only 10 checked in to play. Thankfully some members brought guests along to bump up the numbers to 15.

Onto the picking, which was a difficult task not only because of the amount of guests, nor everyone having the incorrect name on the picking board also (I will look into this), but Hackett letting us know that he had been "on the ale all day" so not to make him first pick…I was flummoxed. Nick was given the choice and opted to go for having the extra man, giving me first pick. As the teams lined up, I felt fairly confident, in that I had both the league champion and runner up on my team, and Nick had foolishly picked Gary…what could go wrong??

The game got underway and it wasn't long before the deadlock was broken. 1-0 up with Andy Eyres guiding it in the net, Ben Mckay assisting. The intent from this point was to keep the focus and shape and hit Nick's team on the counter attack. This tactic paid off once with a direct attack from nicking the ball in defence, I managed to knock a long ball up to Jay who, on the turn, fumbled his way past a defender and then absolutely burned Gary off in a foot-race, putting himself one on one with the keeper, calmly slotting home. 2-0. Fantastic. 

I get a little hazy now with the order of the goals. With about half an hour to go, Nick's team really upped the tempo of their play and were running rings around us. In the end Nicks team were 7-2 up; a hat-trick from Chris (including a top-binner from distance - Bren was not happy about this as he thought he was impeded by Tom, unfortunately we don't have VAR), a couple of sweaty goals which were passed across the box and slotted home. Given his proclamation during picking, Paul did unleash a wonder strike from distance, which thankfully Bren was able to get a hand to and push around the post. We can't have Paul scoring more than 1 within a few weeks! We were under a lot of pressure from crosses coming in from the wings and Nicks mate Matt being on the end of them, I distinctly remember Andy proclaiming "How the fuck do we defend against him?! he's 7-foot tall?!" - I'll put a small trampoline in the kit bag when I can. Andy did also make a clearance off the line after a shot had beaten Bren. Good effort to keep going regardless of score.

So, with a few minutes to go, and having swapped positions with Paul's Guest Chris, it was time for Bren to inspire the team and unleash an absolute worldie of a strike from his own half. Straight from Kick Off and 7-2 down, I could literally hear the "HAVE IT" as he hit it. The long range strike dropping in behind the defence and then bouncing over the keeper, who says keepers can't score?

All in all, a good effort from everyone and a well done to Nick. Good luck in the next round.

MOM I will have to give it to tall Matt, who was causing problems for our team all night.