Donning a pair of Dimitri Kharine trackie bottoms (for those too young, see 'Premier League Years 93/94' on Sky Sports sometime), Ed made his first Captains appearance versus Joe Smithson in the battle of the relative newcomers and more importantly, a proverbial 'six pointer', with both Captain's uncomfortably towards the bottom of the league table before kick-off.  

Some say games can be won and lost in the changing room beforehand. All I can say to Joe is I'm not bad at poker.

On a chilly and at times, wet evening, the white's made a positive start to the match in their somewhat unusual 2-4-1 fluid formation. After spurning a few golden chances early on, in a routine straight from the training ground, Tom Kophamel's in swinging corner was met magnificently by Gary Parker who rose above the defence bulleting a header past Smithson's near post. The white's got a deserved early lead. 

The white's continued to press forward dominating the midfield and in the blink of an eye, it was 3-0 with the yellow's defence gifting the white's their third goal. At this time, to the yellow's credit, they started to get a foot on the ball and play some nice pass and move football with Andy Eyres getting more control of the midfield battle. This deservedly led to Nick Evans finishing a fine free flowing move down the left-hand side to stick it through Johnson's legs and make it 3-1. Those new boots really are the answer, Nick.

Johnson as Captain started to nervously clock watch with about 15 minutes to play and consider holding out for what he had by pulling some attacking players deep into defence. Fortunately, Harvey Baird and Neil Parker held a commanding line in defence to keep out the yellow surge of attacks with a few fluky saves in goal by Johnson thrown in. 

As time moved on and legs began to tire, the white's managed to cement the result with a couple of late goals to finish with a 5-1 victory. Goal scorers for the victorious white's included Martin Cushing Tom Kophamel, Harry McGuire and Gary Parker getting another to add to his early header. 

On the balance, the score line may have been a little generous for the white's, but Johnson wasn't complaining in his post-match press conference going on to tell reporters, “this result has probably saved my job tonight.”

In the dying embers of the match, confusion broke out on the pitch as handshakes began to take place prematurely. Following FIFA's directive at the World Cup, it was rightly pointed out by Andy Eyres that the game should be played to the final whistle (or beeping alarm clock in this case) so the game resumed for a further couple of minutes. Yet again the subject of time keeping at high profile matches will be in the news.