Saturday 31st August

report by Anthony Spencer

W 5-1

MOM Haimish Patel

A comfortable win in a game where we were always in control (we overheard one of their players at half-time complaining that we were treating it like a league game- an inadvertent compliment). Despite starting with ten players due to an apparently very good party the night before, we were already 2-0 up before reaching our full complement, and with no subs available the plan was to control through passing rather than dribbling, which on the whole we executed well. Many thanks to Haimish Patel and Veysel Demir for joining the team with short notice; Veysel wasn’t too troubled apart from their late consolation goal from a powerful straight strike from a PC, but Haimish troubled their defence throughout and was rewarded with a hat-trick and MOM. Also in the goals were James Findlay and Nayan Bhundia, the latter forcing an own-goal after a good baseline drive. Alex Hyer and Daniel Spencer were a youthful midfield pairing who regularly beat their opposite numbers, and Chris Rouse controlled their younger player with ease. The second half showed better composure and a resistance to over-dribbling, and our latest signing from ice-hockey, Phil Holbrook, established himself well with eager running. A very satisfactory result and a genuinely friendly fixture, with two father-son pairings, and many thanks to Will Hargrove for umpiring (and his wife for kicking him out of bed on time)

Antony Spencer