Private Taylor On Manoeuvres

Had a few late drop outs: Conrad, Ilyas (at 18:59!) and Private Taylor who was on some deeply undercover manoeuvres related to the war. "Don't tell him, Taylor!" etc.

So we picked up Samir (Ringer A) and recent friend of BoC Malcolm (Ringer B), both who were to have a strong impact on the match.

A long lofted ball from Rich on the right was controlled by Samir, who controlled it and span past his man to finish. Good goal. The lead didn't last too long though - not sure whether their striker just stuck out a boot and got a lucky deflection or intended to direct a glorious fthrough ball into the path of his strike partner. Malcolm thought the former,; I am probably more inclined to the latter. 1-all and the match was shaping up nicely.

Then we had what I can only call a back-4 brain fart and in 5 minutes we had shipped 3 mostly poor goals to be 1-4 at the break.

Half-time called for some decisive action and Michael pulled a master stroke by volunteering to swap with Malcolm and Michael certainly stiffened up the defence.

Malcolm on the other had was now firmly in attacking mode and took a pass from Tom before dribbling past a few opponents and finishing well. 2-4 and game on.

Samir went on a Maradona-esque run, got chopped down. Penalty was given. Some questions about why we don't have a designated penalty taker. Maybe because we hardly get any, but I was expecting Tony, James or Rich to take it. Instead ringer Malcolm stepped up and hit the post.

He perhaps atoned for that a bit later with another decent finsh, this time from a Tony assist.

3-4 in the end. Good game against a decent oppo who seem like a good set of lads. The brain fart lost it for us and not helped by an absent Private Taylor off polishing his bayonet.