First game back after Christmas, I hadn't played in almost 3 months and was still injured......of course I was picking! This was a Captains Cup match and a league match. It was 1-1 in the first leg and Gary W had first pick. It took Gary and I a few hours to pick but we got there and the teams looked fairly balanced as the Whites had the extra man. In what is now tradition, both Captains started in goal.

As Jonny (Yellow) said to me (White) when walking back to the changing room......"I really don't know how you lost that game".

The depressing thing is, I knew. In the end it came down to me being a complete helmet. Within 2 minutes of KO, Jonny tried a cheeky long range lob. With it sailing over the bar I decided to leave it. It wasn't sailing over the bar. Helmet example No 1. The ball came back off the cross bar straight to Chris who slotted it in neatly.

It was early doors, the Whites re-grouped well and Jamie thumped in shot from the right. 1:1 The Whites were taking advantage of extra man with lots of shots on goal but it just wasn't happening.

Not long after, Tom appeared from nowhere at the back post and put the Yellows back in front with a bullet of header from the corner. 1:2.

More of the same from the Whites and a great shot from the left by Dave 2:2.

I think a few people noticed but I was using the White attacks to stretch out my glute in preparation for a late run out. One of the stretches involved me lying on my back with both legs in the air, or as I like to call it...my Saturday night position. Suddenly Harry threw the ball back to me. I stood up and caught it. Helmet example No 2. An obvious foul but I'm not really sure what the punishment should be?

Dave slotted in another to make it 3:2 and with 20 ish minutes remaining I decided to give myself a run out. Brian kindly offered to go in goal.

Next up...Nathan. The ball dropped nicely and Brian was beaten by the power 3:3.

The goal was followed by an unsavoury moment, a passion fuelled lunge / slide tackle from Cush. Despite winning the ball, it left Nathan with what looked like a shoulder injury. A clear example of why going to ground is against the Plus 30 rules.

If I'm honest, at this point I was thinking about penalties. There were a few chances at each end but I didn't think the game had another goal. Up stepped Tom again. With 2 minutes to go he hit a sweet volley into the top corner. Brian had no chance.

In general it was a good performance from both sides. Based on the amount of chances, the Whites deserved more from this game. That said, the Yellows troubled the Whites with their crosses and long throws. MoM was Cush for a sterling performance at the heart of the defence.

Considering this was first game back in a while I was thoroughly deflated. Now I had to go and write the match report. Helmet moment No 3.

Written on behalf of Gary Wong who has agreed to give me 1 of his points for the report.

P.S This result meant that James has now equalled the most losses.

Written by Gary WongHaving missed a few matches at the end of last year, there was no better time to come back than the first game of 2023! I did have an inkling I might be called upon as captain this week as Blake also checked in! A picture of someone's shin with some minor scuffs seem to have put a few people off the game and so we had odd numbers for tonight. 

On the 1st leg of this tie, I had 2x OAPs and still managed a draw. So, I knew all I had to do tonight is to avoid James and his 7-match losing streak on my team and I surely can't lose in normal time! We took a while picking the team partly because those name tags were held down by a ton of magnet. Knowing I will be having a man down I picked my attacking players first as we might possibly be defending for most of the game. I thought with almost 30 goals between Nath and Tom the yellows would stand a chance against the extra man.

The game was quite scrappy from both teams to begin with and the first goal was definitely so. Chris grabbed the opener after Jonny's lob pass comes off the crossbar. I don't think I need to say anything else about Blake's goalkeeping here, it was just shite! But I'm definitely no better though because soon after, on whites first attack, I heard Nath shouted "get in goal Gary!" I looked at the gloves on my hands and thought yes, I'm in goal but I might have been standing way out of position! 

The white had most of the attacking play and they soon scored a few goals through my crap positioning and some poor team defending, mainly Nick from his usual high standards - he must have seen James and thought it would be an easy night. With about 20 minutes remaining the whites were 3-2 up and Paul was a good sport for swapping with me but he did warn me he is also shit in goal! 

We switched it to a back 2 and tried to apply more pressure up front and we were rewarded when Nath slotted in the equaliser to make it 3-3 from what might have been a questionable corner - did the ball hover over the line? Definitely no match fixing here because this is not the World Cup!

An exciting game poised at 3-3 with minutes remaining, I was preparing myself for another penalty shoot-out with Blake but Tom came up with the winner, smashing in the volley! Unlucky whites, it was a great effort, a close game as the scores suggested. A few people were up for MOTM, I thought Jamie had a good performance in midfield for the whites, Nath was affecting the game as always and soldiered on with a bad shoulder - you can show pics of your shin this week! But my MOTM goes to the match winner Tom who also scored another goal on the night. The title race and golden boot is going to be another good one this year! 

Good luck in the cup Blake!