Team: Super keeper Colin, Solid Eriksen, New boy Kelly, Italian Job Massimo, Mad Mike Guarnaccia, Cool Bentham, Leader of the pack Ledbury, Mister creator Lewis, Lone ranger Harbusch, Neil T (where is the restaurant?). Sub:

After, a hard fought game the week before against Forestois SD. We now had to play against Comos Molenbeeck the top of the league with just about 11 players. We were carrying our skipper with sciatic problems. Sami crying off because at the time he thought it was a sprained ankle, the list continued.......Well, we all managed to get through the border passes with Carl sticking to the speed limits of the city of Brussels. Neil T arrived late thinking he was off to the restaurant? Again we were missing key players in certain positions with Neil T fitting in the left back position.

For the first 15 – 20 minutes we were at a loss, not able to pull any passes together, getting upset with each other and Jez kindly telling Carl to calm down, after which, Jez does one of his famous tackles on his left back. We then had Eriksen pulling his calf just after a few minutes, trying to pass the ball to Jez.

Comos Molenbeeck were a well organized team moving the ball around freely from their backs and into the channels creating a few scary moments for Colin in the nets. Their goal came in the first 20 minutes; they came from our right side and their captain managing to cross a ball which fell into the path of Neil T (being pushed at the time) into our net. This was disappointing to say the least. I think we all thought that we were in for a hammering with more goals being let in. But, after the goal we got out act together and managed to play some decent football.

We had a few scrappy incidents with Mike G managing to upset their right back, who had to go off because of broken fingers. Frank was the lone ranger up front, trying to be instrumental in creating chances which he did. Our midfielders were struggling to put passes together and to break down the opposition possession. With the help of our wingers we had several chances in the first half and we had one great chance with Mike G taking the ball from the left wing and coming into the middle on his famous runs, and hitting a beautiful shot into the corner only for their keeper to save it with his finger tips to it, for a corner. Comos changed some players around, this meant they were not as big a threat up front, but now, they used their midfielders pushing into the gaps.

At half time we chatted to see what we could do and brought in the wingers into the middle of midfield and to attack when we could. We decided that we had to be at the ball first and be quicker in moving the passes around.

The 2nd half was a much better performance from all of us, even though Kelly did pump the ball away when it could have gone back to Colin in goals. Anyway, we started to create several openings with our wingers attacking their backs with speed; yes with speed...We had 70% of the game in the 2nd Half and really went at them. Cosmos, tried to attack but we were breaking it down quickly and getting it to our wingers. We came close with Brian L and Brian M, having their headers and shots saved by the Cosmos keeper. In total, we had about 8 chances in the 2nd half with all front players trying to create some form of openings. And the rest of us blocking any chances that they were trying to create.

Throughout the game the referee seemed to be fair but lost the plot when it came to who should be taking the throwing. I think we all would have liked a win, a draw would have been fair but to lose, that really hurt us all!

A mixed performance again, against a well organized team; let’s hope they lose some points over the next few weeks. A win would keep us in the top three. I know that we can do it, so, come on guys keep on playing football on the ground and lets help each other...all for one and one for all.

MOM: Kelly