With a cold front sweeping down the country, high winds, temperatures dropping and feeling like shite with a bout of man flu. I knew that Gary would choose this week to inform us that Bren and I would be captains to play our second leg. And right on cue, the dreaded text arrived.

I was 2-1 down from the first leg, with my only saving grace being that I was due to have choice this time round. Fortunately it was even sides with 18 players check in, and Cush had notified us that he needed to play in goal due to injury. This meant I could focus my picking on outfield players. On paper, I was happy that I had a balanced team with some good attacking players. 

On to the game and my Yellow team started strong with shots being rained in towards Bren. Tom up top showboating with some fancy flicks and back-heeled one-twos. Jonny and Nick E making some good runs on either side and Nathan conducting things from a central position. Bren's team were becoming increasingly frustrated with some wayward passes from the defensive line. Brian and Richie apparently had an argument about who can play shittest at RB, it was difficult to tell which Nipple head won the argument! On the attack Jay was putting a shift in trying to hold the ball up and get in on goal behind Nick S, supported by Andy E and Jamie.

The first goal surprisingly came from Jamie, the ball being fed to him in a central position, he hit a low shot through my legs (not difficult) and took a little deflection which wrong-footed Cush in goal and rolled in bottom corner. 

Shortly after, the teams switched ends due to the winds (not like the other week when Richie played some psychological superstitious card!). 

My team shrugged off some early pressure and began to play the ball through the park, and progress as a unit up the pitch. Chance after chance went begging to be put in the net, even striking the post as well as Bren making his usual spectacular saves! The equaliser came from a long range shot from Blake, which initially was put down as a deflection until he spat his dummy out at Stato Gary! 1-1...and all to play for. 

Next came one of the highlights of the season! With the whites' defensive line all at odds with one another, up stepped big Paul Hackett, who showed a moment of sheer class and skill with a perfectly executed nutmegs to absolutely rinse league champion, Nathan. He got a well deserved cheers (and oooohhh shit!) from the lads as all looked on in awe. Top leadership. He followed this by embarrassing poor Nathan more in the pub by saying “I didn't even know I'd done it!” Which just shows how it is second nature to him. Quality. 

We kept pushing for the winner and did get the ball in the net again. Gary W working hard to beat a defender and squaring it across to be finished (I think by Nathan?) Great! 2-1!!! I think at that point there wasn't much time left to play so I started preparing myself for a penalty shootout with Bren. As I set myself for the restart though, I turned and seen that play had been brought back as apparently Gary had used 5 touches before a ricochet off the defender. My personal opinion was that it was only 4 before and 2 after but yet again some arguing ensued between the teams and play was disrupted. (Please see footnote). I told Jay at the other end of the pitch that I didn't agree with the decision but I wasn't going to spend 10 minutes arguing about it....JUST GET ON WITH IT!

So back to 1-1 and a few minutes left to play. The whites had some decent chances towards the end of the match, most notable from a corner being headed goal-wards, striking the post and luckily falling to me so that I could clear it. Yellows again coming close, Bren making another good save with his left leg and then collapsing to the floor in agony...rolling around for the remaining 5 minutes allegedly because his kneecap had crumbled.

Full time 1-1, not enough for the chance of Captains cup, but another point on the board for me following a struggling start to the season. I'm now level with my bro on points, so no doubt he'll come back from hurting his fanny and play again soon.

I'm not dwelling on the disallowed goal too much, in my opinion a wrong decision, but we had enough other chances to get the win that we couldn't take so it was always a possibility that the ruling may prove to be the deciding factor.

M.o.m. - difficult to pick from my side as all had a decent game. Will give it to Bren as he made some very good saves throughout the match. Good luck in the Captains cup, Bren!

Footnote: A little gripe I've got with the current nature of our football. I find that every match is riddled with arguments about fouls/which team gets decisions/4-touch or 5-touch/time wasting/handballs and so on. I'm fed up with arguing during the game and all of the disruption. I'm all for being competitive but when the cost is the integrity of the game it's becoming silly. We don't play with a referee and have always relied on the honesty of players. Do we need to consider a referee? Hopefully not. This isn't Sunday league and equally we are not ‘blessed' with VAR. Let's keep it friendly and be honest about decisions. 

Happy to discuss in the pub with those who attend...or at the next AGM.

Apologies for the rant but it's my report so, yeah...deal with it. Peace out.