Team: Mazza, Morris, Macdonald, Firth, Wright, Lewis, Ledbury, Glover, Taylor, Shiono (Bentham sub), Hoskins

It was a lovely sunny afternoon….but unfortunately it had rained all the previous week and all morning. As a result the pitch was a real mudbath. Some of the players were commenting on the mineral content and the therapeutic and curative properties of the hallowed Everberg soil when the game kicked off. Well, it didn’t actually kick off because the ball got stuck in the mud in the centre circle. Ten minutes later and the ball left the centre circle and found some space out on the wing where it got stuck in a puddle.

We were playing into a strong wind in the first half and most of the play was in the muddle of the park where Glover and Ledbury were trying to control things but struggled to dig the ball out of the mud. A few long balls from the opposition were easily dealt with by the defence of Morris, Macdonald and Firth who looked comfortable, Mazza lit up his pipe and put on his slippers and took it easy. As the first half developed we began to use the left wing more with Glover and Taylor working well feeding the ball up to Hoskins and Shiono. The ball was also switched to Wright on the right who looked more and more threatening but found it difficult to work openings in the thick mud.

The message was, DON’T DRIBBLE we ‘aint playing on Astro. This message gradually began to sink in and a couple of balls forward saw Ledbury emerge like a salmon from the water on the left side of their box. He judged the non-bounce better than their defender and drilled the ball like a torpedo through the water for about 10 yards which put him in sight of goal. The crowd sighed as he swam towards the ball, you could just see the top of his snorkel as he drilled the ball once more, left-footed (must be a typo) into the bottom corner of the net. 1-0. After that we settled into a rhythm and Hoskins had a few half chances, Glover putting in some dangerous crosses with Lewis and Wright trying to get shots away.

HALF TIME (1-0)

Bentham came on for Shiono and played on the right of midfield while Wright pushed forward. In the second half with the wind and with more grass down the wings the British began to dominate the play. St Georges could hardly clear their area from goal and place kicks and we squeezed them in and kept the pressure on using Bentham on the right and Taylor on the left down the wings. Hoskins working the space up front. After 15 minutes the pressure paid off with Wright releasing Hoskins on the left of the box who drilled it left footed past the keeper who didn’t seem to move (his boots had got stuck). More of the same followed with St Georges beginning to crack. A well worked move down the left saw Taylor hit the byline for a drilled ball across the box for Hoskins for a simple side-foot tap in. Any foray forward by St Georges was easily dealt with by the defence with Mazza having to dispose of his pipe and slippers on a couple of occasions to tip the ball around the post. This was all St George offered and it was all British with corner after corner seeing McDonald foraging in the box

Bentham continued the good work and found Ledbury who popped up for his second, swiftly followed by Hoskins’ 3rd following another good cross field ball from Bentham. Soon after Lewis was up-ended in the box as the defender took him out. The referee saw nothing, however his sight soon returned when he saw Glover taking the piss out of him and the yellow card swiftly emerged from the pocket. A further goal for Hoskins made it 6-0 before the final whistle sounded.

FULL TIME (6-0)

A good team performance, everyone did their jobs, although the opposition was pretty weak.