A hot summer in June, I picked for the second time consecutively and Paul had choice. 

Before we started we realised we had no balls as Ross had left them in his van from his 10-1 defeat the previous week (had to get that in again). Lucky we had 2 balls and hoped they wouldn’t go over the fence. Turns out we were safe; Richie was not playing this week and Leo Eyres was ball boy from the adjacent pitch. 

The teams were quite evenly matched although Paul’s team was worth more on paper. There were 4 guests as well, making it harder to navigate the selections. 

Both captains started in goal and it was quite even for the first 10 mins, then whites scored with a tap-in which I should have done a lot better with as goal keeper! We quickly equalised with a very well worked team goal, finished off by Jonny. We then went 2-1 up from a Gary Parker own goal. In fairness, George (Guest) would have put it away and was a whisker from tapping it into the bottom corner, so Gary had no choice but to get something on it. 

We lost our shape a little towards the middle of the game as the sun was draining the energy out of our midfield. Unfortunately for us, Paul had selected a youthful attacking force of Jamie, Gary P, Gary W and James H who had the legs on us. We came under several attacks and Gary W came through on a 1:1 with me…unfortunately for Gary, I tackled the wrong ball leaving him on the floor with pain between his legs for some time. He had managed to knock the ball through to goal before the tackle. True dedication from Gary and 2-2. 

There was another quick goal and I decided to come out of goal as I could see we needed fresh legs at 3-2. That was a serious tactical error as A) I’m shit and B) my legs were as knackered as theirs after too many back squats earlier that day, so I added little to no value. I asked Nick Smith to go up top as he was dying to get in on the action after a series of moans. He had the best chance of the game. The ball came from the RHS which required guiding into the net from 6 yards out. It was Nicks birthday (43) so I think he wanted to score a wonder goal to celebrate. He decided to bring it down on his chest and go for a volley on the turn. Needless to say he was promptly tackled and the chance was lost. 

I think we fell apart with 2 mins remaining and Gary scored one final goal to seal the victory for the whites. Final score 4-2. Well done Paul and well played to the guests on the night who all played well. 

MOM goes to Jonny, great first goal and great communication on the pitch, always putting in 100%. 

Good luck Paul in the next round of the CC.