Man of the Match: Jonah
Match Report (again!): Ian Thompson

Firstly a nod to last week, as DoD Ben West hasn't produced a report for the game against Royston 3's. The skipper was bundled into the boot of Ian's Volvo and driven against his will to Royston / Cambridge for the first time. We won 1-0 vs Royston 3 but made heavy weather of it. Joe fed Ash in the D early doors who calmly slotted home. Thereafter we dominated possession, set up Ben W with numerous chances where he strived to score the goal of season with a succession of massive wind ups only to pepper the side netting, blast over the bar, hit a lady walking a dog etc etc.

So to this week...

We started well and dominated the first quarter, playing crisp passing hockey.
A short was won, a defenders foot was struck near the goal line depriving him of the goal, so who else but El Capitano Cormac to put the resulting P-flick in the roof of the net, via the keeper's pad and helmet!!

Another highlight was a glorious aerial from Ian to Sandi, which almost led to a goal, but for a good save from the Letch keeper.

The second quarter was, to be frank, pants. We gave the ball away cheaply, got in a mess at the back, gave away unnecessary shorts, mainly defended well, although they struck a post, which Forsh maintains he had covered, and Tom was called upon for couple of good saves.

Into the 2nd half Letch were still fired up, their young quick and skillful 103, was becoming increasing influential, but Ian's tactic of 'stop at all costs' was keeping him just about under control, until Forsh decided to pass the ball to Letch in our 25, a bit of a goal line scramble ensued, Russ saved one effort only for 103 to pop it home for 1-1.

This spurred Letch, 103 again broke though which needed an Ian tactical "tackle" outside the 25 to stop the danger and whilst umpire Jon T saw no more than a free hit, Quentin, probably correctly, saw green card and an easy shoe in for DoD for Ian.

103 delivered a tirade of abuse at Ian (what do they teach them at school in Letch) which was every repeated combination of "old" , the C word, the W word, and curiously "old slag".

Cormac managed to get Jon T to have 103 subbed off for a while for a blood injury to his elbow (probably validating that green card, frankly!) a top result whilst Ian was sitting out his 2 mins.

103 getting himself all mardy-bum took the sting out of his play and we finally got a grip back on the game.

Jonah delivered a great ball straight into the D to Sandi from a free hit outside the 25, which confused Sandi who left it alone rather than scoring.

Fortunately, from a subsequent attack, the ball fell to the ever reliable Liam, cutting into the left of the D, who buried it to ease the nerves at 2-1.

We asserted a bit more control thereafter, 103 had one more dangerous break, but Ian managed to execute a perfect "non contact" tackle from the wrong side and snuff out the danger.

Cormac launched a Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb to Jonah from a 16, who flipped it on into the oppo D, and Sandi flicked it over the head of the keeper - but it had obviously endangered a low flying Red Kite en route, so the goal was disallowed.

Jonah tried again from a free hit outside the D - and delivered another great ball straight into the D. This time Sandi tidily deflected it past the keeper to bring us to the final score of 3-1.

Jonah shaded MoM from Liam. Sandi and Ash both got confused as to the score, but cheap DoD votes went to Ian T from those not appreciating the artistry of a well judged foul outside the 25, rather than let their best player have a free run into the D (where Cormac was waiting with his fly swat...)

Barring losing the last two games and giving away a 25+ goal difference to PBar, who have two tough games themselves, promotion was all but assured today, and we are all looking forward to master tactician Captain Cormac leading us into SW4 next season it's with a heavy heart that we begin the executive search for a new leader as Cormac steps down as Captain at the end of the season.