Red: James, Richard P, Daniel, Colin
Yellow: Richard N, Oz, Jim N, Tufan
Not quite the showing the number of raised hands two evenings prior led us to believe. But my my, the lack of attendance was more than made up for with sheer grit, determination and puff!
Jeremy even turned up to take photos. Which proved pointless as it discouraged anyone from doing anything noteworthy. However, once he left it all happened. A bit like that KitKat panda advert from 20 years ago.
Lots of chances to open the scoring but various people were guilty of squandering the opportunities. It wasn’t until the 25 minute that some quick one touch pinging around the box led to Richard N scoring the opener for Yellow. This opened the floodgates and they racked up three more goals, the most impressive being Jim N scoring from a tight angle. James got a consolation shortly before the break but the scoreline doesn’t say what was in the tin. Yellow up 4-1 at half time.
Red were the first to score in the second half but Oz replied immediately with a low daisy cutter. Daniel, while waiting for a corner, then spotted Jim N (his opposite number) off his line. He caught the incoming ball, swivelled and hoofed it….everything turned into slow motion as the ball soared up and back down again…on target….it bounced behind the keeper but sadly just too short and curled over the bar. James wasn’t going to take this sitting down and his efforts inspired his team to a fightback. He got a hatrick, Richard P fired a lovely shot in from the left and Daniel poked in the equaliser.
Everyone wanted this and there were some really tired people out there. The final chance came as the ball fell for James, five yards out. He whacked it goalwards but Oz just manged to get a firm foot in the way and the clock beeped as the ball went out for a throw – you can’t get much closer to a winning goal than that! Hard graft by all – A really impressive first game of the season.
Final score: Yellow 5 – 5 Red