The 4th team emerged victorious in a hard-fought win against a 'determined' Winnington side on Saturday morning. This fixture is always one to be wary of, and in truth conceding an early goal wasn’t a bad thing. We got back on the front foot, and Jack W, Matt C and Del scored three goals in quick succession to take control of the game. Matt C’s first goal—our second—was a beauty that rifled past the keeper’s head, though he was immediately sin-binned for an over-exuberant celebration.

Our defence, missing Nick L, who is on pilgrimage to Australia to discover the ancestry of his moustache, was initially troubled by Winnington’s aerial threat but soon had a handle on the situation. When I say “handle,” Winnington’s centre-back who was throwing the aerials got himself yellow-carded for dissent, so they stopped for a bit. Kirky then joined him in the sin bin for a feisty tackle. It was all a bit of a mess really, though we went in at half-time 3–1 to the good.

The second half was played in much the same vein as the first. Cocksy continued to have seven bells knocked out of him but quietened down his detractors on the opposing side by dribbling from the halfway line and slotting it past their keeper for 4–1. Winnington did respond for 4–2, but we controlled the game well from thereon. Seb had an absolute rocket of a tomahawk harshly disallowed but made up for it with a deflected finish on a penalty corner right at the death to leave us with a highly satisfactory 5–2 victory.

This concludes the first half of the season. We are 2nd in the table, two points off top, having scored 80 goals and conceded 18.

MOTM: Seb – great play throughout, and a first goal!
DOTD: Matt C – GC for celebrating a goal and being told, as a grown adult, to tie his shoelaces by the umpire.

Next up: Xmas party on the 6th