It was another week of standing down as 5 more legends fell on their swords. I had a sneaky suspicion that Gary and I would be picking and so it was.

The teams were fairly balanced but I thought I had the upper hand. I had picked my Best Man and 2 brothers in law. Gary had picked the 2 geriatrics otherwise known as Little and Large. As the teams were called. Both Laurie and Paul asked how they were both on the same team? It is a testament to them and the quality throughout the club that this match ended a draw.

The opening 10 minutes were scrappy and fairly even. As is what seems to be tradition these days, Gary and I had started in goal. From my view point there didn’t look to be much space. Strange considering both Richie and Bren weren’t playing.

As the game went on, the Yellows established a rhythm with more possession and more shots. However, my feelings of optimism were turning to nervousness. The Whites were blocking almost every shot and from time to time, looked dangerous on the break. We kept with the game plan, playing it out from the back and keeping possession. To try and create the break, I laced a ball up field to Jay. Andy promptly reminded me “You cant fucking do that!”. My bad. The next time, I passed the ball to Joe. Oi “You can’t fucking do that knob ed”. This blew my mind. As one of the longest serving members and club treasurer, I’d been passing the ball out to the full backs for years. I’d like to see this rule in writing please My Chairman.

As we got past the midway point, I was keeping an eye on the opposite captain to see if he would come out and try to influence the game. Should I move first? I looked at all my players and couldnt bring myself to ask any of them to go in goal. Everyone was putting a massive shift in. I couldn’t fault any of them.

With 5 or 10 minutes to go, Jonny received the ball on the right and shot from distance. It was hard, low and successful. 1 nil and deserved. Gary then came out of goal, he was looking for the equalizer but the Yellows held firm. I debated to doing the same but I was still struggling with a hamstring problem and lets face it, if I came out and the Whites scored, it would all be on me!

With 2 minutes to go I thought we had the game wrapped up. It wasn’t to be, a long throw was flicked on and Nick appeared out of nowhere at the back post. He headed the ball goalwards. I didn’t know much about it but it went in off my knee and the elusive 2 points were gone again. Very disappointing for the Yellows but this is the beautiful game

Yet another close fought match

Final Score 1:1

Very very hard to pick MoM for this match but I’m going for Dave Owen for his outstanding work ethic. Close behind was Jonny for the goal and Richie.

P.S I’ve been on the ale in London for the last 3 nights so please forgive my spelling.