Giving the Dragons a 6-1 arse kicking!

It looked like we would have about 7 subs pre match then the curse of the Collins struck, and 5 people pulled out within 1 hour of kickoff. Mikes moaning at Dom convinced him to come and play with a hangover and Humberto, Victor and Simon came injured, but couldn´t run, so Mike Williams was there for a return cameo, and Caj and Dom graced the bench.

Its been a while since this game and i´ve been accused of mismanaging the timing and scorers of previous games so i´ll just keep this one short. James and I were in defence due to injuries and unavailability of Kris and Terry, Walther and La Machina were in CM, and Mike W and Samuel up front. Fritz and Brendan on the right and cedric and Juan on the left. Mike was in goal. We controlled the game from start to finish, scoring freely and easily. Dom got one, la machina 2, samuel 2, and Brendan 1 (if i remember correctly). Their goal was down to Mikes complete lack of work throughout 70minues of football and he just froze to death on an easy catch allowing it to nutmeg him into the goal. Caj came on for 45 minutes and played well down the left getting an assist, and Dom came on for Mike W causing lots of problems up front and scoring.

All in all a good days work, unless your chinese who got all their kit robbed whilst playing. Merry xmas to them indeed.

It means we have 8 points, 1 point off the top half of the table with Metropolitan, flahertys, and west ham still to play. I´m hoping for at least 6 points from those 3 games so lets try to stay less than fat over xmas and see you all in the new year.

Knocked out of the cup AGAIN by the Black horse

Well it was always going to be a tough one playing the unbeaten league leaders, but we were determined to make them fight for it. The game started with us playing strongly and nobody apart from me panicking on the ball. It was pretty obvious that they had 3 or 4 extraordinary players in midfield and up front, but the speed on the left flank was getting the better of Rich pretty regularly. The pitch was very wet after the storm and us heavier people struggled to turn at anything approaching tractor speed. The Black horse scored relatively early on, at about 15-20 minutes in. It was a bit of a shock because there was nothing on for them. Defensively we were doing reasonably well. We were having good posession and keeping the ball for long periods when one of their left wing breaks produced a moment of magic, and a 35 yard peach of a goal that lobbed Magog. Impossible to stop, 1-0.

Did that deter us, it did not, onwards we went and apart from frustratingly playing long ball football up to James to often, we were contending with them. A victor lopez dribble to the touch line, a beautiful cut back, and fritz hammered in his second in 2 weeks. Back in the game!!

Their second came shortly afterwards though. I can´t remember the order, but one of them was a poorly marked header (my fault), and the other was a 4 hit deflection past a stunned Magog. 3-1 and not taking advantage of our possession. We were squandering chances as is our way, and we needed to change things at half time. Richard came off, Fritz dropped back to defence to deal with the speedy winger. Lluis went to right wing and Walther left. Samuel came on for Victor up front. Immediately the changes made a difference. They were not threatening as often, and we were piling forward. The difference was that they expected to win, so the Collins just started to enjoy the football, and it was a joy to behold, a nice through ball, James controlled it, and buried it 3-2.

Their 4th i can´t remember, although i think it was another long range effort that caught us unawares, but we pushed on. Lluis and Samuel were frightening the horses with their pace and fitness, and Cedric was marauding up and down the left wing. The 3rd goal came soon after for the Collins, with cedric, Samuel, and Lluis combining for Lluis to bury goal on his season debut. The Collins then pushed on and on, an only the keeper saved the black horse, 2-3 times. The Doctor came on for Fritz, and then the defining moment happened. A por second yellow card for Humberto who had played so well with Victor in the middle resulted in us being dropped to 10 men. Caj came on up front and James dropped into CB for an injured Terry, but no changes could help then. 2 more quick goals for the Horse sealed it. Closer than they thought, closer than the scoreline suggests. The Collins can hold their heads up high. It was nice to see the WAGS out on the town afterwards too. Man of the Match Cedric, tireless as ever!