A first round Duffers cup fixture between Brian and I was drawn out the hat for this cool evening. After studying the picking board for 5 minutes Brian decided to go for the extra man and the picking got underway. We'd both completely missed Bren's name staring at us on the picking board so I was delighted when I realised he was there and snapped him up as my fourth pick!

The yellows started the game by knocking the ball round well. Some neat passing between Gary W up front and the midfield trio meant the whites had to be on high alert across their whole back line for much of the night. The yellows had a number of decent chances from layoffs, Neil, Ken and Jamie all having a go (or a few!).

Jamie missed his first shot but scored his second. This then reset his internal “one in twenty” counter, so for the rest of the night every shot he hit was enthusiastically smashed over the fence!

The whites did get their equaliser when Jonny received a pass from Nick S and waltzed through the defence and side footed the ball into the far corner.

The controversial moment of the match came about from the same player. Kenny took what appeared to be four touches-or five to some others. Jonny screams for five touches. Some players stop, some carry on, confusion, the yellows go through and score a terrific goal. But it is ruled out because of the confusion.

Kenny didn’t know if he’d had five touches (no surprise as he was on his second nose bleed from venturing so high up the pitch) and neither team could come to the conclusion of how many touches were taken. Which is why, at least in my view, we should all play on and the decision to stop the game should come from the person who has counted themselves as having too many touches. Otherwise it'll just become who can shout the loudest!

But aside from the white's equaliser and a hold your breath moment when last-man Cush's delayed pass rolled under the closing Nick S's foot, the yellows did enough to limit the whites chances to just a few long range efforts.

I felt the two sides were well balanced and it turned out to be a close and competitive game.

Final score 1-1.

MOM - I could pick anyone of the yellows, but I'll give it to Gary W, I thought his link up play was the best I've seen from him and he did actually pass to me once too! :D

Other mentions
- Jay received a score of three perfect 10s from the judges for his diving. Firstly running into my elbow face first and then rolling around on the floor, then colliding with Neil and onto his arse and then bouncing off me once more, diving straight into the turf.
- Neil not playing in defence. Most weeks I have to listen to Neil bemoan the fact that he’s put at centre back, when he is in fact an attacking left winger, so I took him at his word this week and that’s where he went. He’s been on at me to update his position on the website, so be warned!

A rushed penalty shoot out after full time ended in a 2-1 win for me. So Brian moves into the 2nd round and is now surely odds on favourite to take his third consecutive Duffers cup. A feat only achieved by Paul Hackett in 1998. I'm backing you to go all the way Bri, all the best!