Following some poor form, in the last few games, we all knew we needed to turn it around and what better chance than against our derby rivals! Starting with the formation and team:

Gavin

Koen Matthias Julian Remy

Oli Christos Seb Francois Jeremy

Flambers Subs: Marco

Firstly, we need to set the scene for the weather, it was as if I was at sea again facing some gale force winds, the memories. So, we knew this would turn out to be a decisive factor, which is why no less then 4 of our team asked Gavin to make sure that the wind was with us for the 1st half. Gavin won the toss with skill and age-old experience and with that we had the wind with us for the 1st half. We also made sure that in this game that we would give as little fouls away to give the opposing team as little chances to use the weather to their advantage as they did have some large individuals.

Right from the kick off we were all at it, pressing hard, in the tackles, passing the ball around as well as we could with weather permitting. Oli was storming up and down the right wing for the majority of the 1st half. Seamlessly passing their left back with ease multiple times and this is how the 1st goal came about a wonderful move beforehand passing through the midfield and Oli passing his man again and scoring a typical "oli goal” into the far left corner from the right side.

Moving through the rest of the half we were creating chances galore and Remy may have to practice shooting with his left foot in further training sessions after he missed a great chance after again great movement from the whole team. No exaggeration to say we could have been 3-0 up by 25 mins in but 1-0 it remained, FC Irlande came back into the match again, creating little.

Pavis did receive a yellow after "sacrificing” himself for the team to stop a break. Moving into the last 5 mins, we gained back the momentum and through our pressing and determination we forced a mistake from the keeper whereby the ball landed at Oli’s feet and put in a great cross to Seb who rose like a salmon to sneak a header into the goal, and with that we were 2-0 up. This fully justified our performance for that half but as stated already we could have been further ahead but overall, we dominated and played some great football!

Going into the 2nd half we knew that the wind would be a larger factor against us this half. They brought on a large forward to use the wind to their advantage in this half. However, after a great kick from our stand in keeper Gavin the ball bounced to Seb who rounded the keeper with ease and made it 3-0! FC Irlande came back into the game over time as they used the wind to their advantage to pressure our defence but we held strong for the majority of the half. The referee out of the blue penalised Gavin for directing his team from goal because he supposedly held onto the ball longer then 6 seconds while he was imparting his wisdom and the 4ZA ethos on the whole team! However, in another situation after the ball over the top their small forward was going in on goal, Matthias made a tackle in the box and Gavin may or may not have hindered that player after the initial tackle, Gavin made a valiant effort to save the penalty which just trickled in 3-1 was the score.

For the rest of the half the team kept the spirit, pressing hard and winning tackles in every area of the pitch! Less football was played in this half due to the weather being against us but we had some nice moves throughout the half. We may have also forgotten the no fouls instructions for some of this half with Gavin, Flambers, Koen and Oli all gaining yellow cards in this half. Marco came on and replaced Remy for the final 10 minutes and the 4ZA grinded out a 3-1 win with some good football and some good gamesmanship. Overall, a solid performance, dominated large portions of the game with some excellent football played by the midfield. 4ZA are back to winning ways, we faced down some adversity including the weather. Should be no problem getting only wins till the winter break now right?

Your reporter and man of the match for the week Julian Pavis