D'OH! 3 Dr Martens 7

A sound thrashing this and the end of our campaign and the end of our winning run of 10 matches. Talk about coming down to earth with a bump! Half way through the second half we had fallen 6-0 behind and their forward was taunting us saying that perhaps they should let us score a charity goal. Spurred on by such talk we did belatedly start scoring but it was not our night and we were outplayed in all departments bar one.

They opened with a goal so fast that as a kid you would have claimed that we hadn't started at all and we weren't ready and beg for a restart. Miraculously, for all their dominance and our failure to find a route to goal, they added only one more goal before halftime so we were still in it on the scoreboard at the break. Mentally I am not so sure we were still with it. We failed to handle the pace of the game where their one-touch passing put them clear time and again with us floundering in their wake.

In the second half they started to get the rewards for their dominance and it began to look very ominous for anyone game enough to glance up at the scoreboard. When we attacked we either fluffed our chance or hit the frame of the goal and it seemed that we were destined not to score. In one memorable attack, Tom's firmly hit shot landed somewhat painfully in the skipper's lap and Lobby's rebound cannoned back for a third chance which we could not convert. Thankfully we finally broke through as Mark worked into space and drilled it under their 'keeper. Then Giles scored from a layoff at a corner and Steve added our best goal of the night from a tight angle. Three goals in a row but clearly too little too late. We flattered ourselves that with 3 minutes left we could still catch them, but they scored again and in reality it was stretching it a bit to suggest we were going to get close to them.

Unbelievably given the scoreline, things could have been a hell of lot worse. Were it not for an exhibition of goalkeeping of the absolute highest order, we would have conceded at least twice as many goals. Eugene was fairly quiet during the first half but made some good saves in 'keeping with his normal practice. In the second half and especially in the latter stages, he put on a masterclass. It was the high point of the match and appreciated by both sides and the small crowd. (Not sure if Eugene's daughter Marisa saw all her Dad's heroics as she succombed to an attack of the munchies in the second half and led her Mum downstairs to the vending machine.) Time and again they seemed set for certain goals only to be thwarted by hand or foot from Euge. At the post match presentations, it was good to see their skipper congratulate Euge on his performance and agree with me that Euge was a better candidate for the man of the match award than their obnoxious attacker with the good left foot who took the prize away.

So that's that. We kept at it but there wasn't a lot to be positive about from this performance. Of course we will never know if things would have turned out differently if Trev had not been on holiday. In the meantime, he looks like a perfect scapegoat.

Fitness as always is a bit of an issue and I would urge all players to put in a good pre-season of fitness training before the next season starts. You've only got a couple of days left as the new season starts on Monday. Details to follow.

Thanks for everyone's efforts over the past season and let's saddle up for another tilt at the elusive silverware.

D'OH! 6 Sleava 4

By the end of the first half we were 3-0 down with no idea what we were there for and fading prospects of playing in the Grand Final. At half time we tried to regroup and work out what we should change. Steve suggested we work harder. This didn't go down all that well with those who were gasping for air after running around chasing our tails for 18 minutes. The skipper suggested that we had won from this sort of position before, when a cursory glance at the stats suggests that there was no basis on which to make such a claim. Of course there is now after a superb reversal of form!

In the second half it all clicked, we were a different side and in the end we ran all over them as they hardly troubled us. We scored the goals that we deserved and one from Trev at the near post from an unlikely angle which the 'keeper put in for us which was a bit fortunate. When others tried to score past this 'keeper he quite often pulled off excellent saves. Fortunately for the nervous amongst us we did not leave it to the last 5 seconds to score the winner as was the case last week, instead there was a steady stream of goals as everything we tried suddenly worked and they lost the plot. As they tired we became more and more dominant and it was interesting how their morale seemed to decline from the moment we scored our first, even though they were still 3-1 up and then went to 4-1.

5 unanswered goals after that wrapped it up and kept our phenomenal winning streak going. Of course it won't be as easy as that next week against Dr Martens in the big one. Not least because it seems that Trev our goal scoring machine, will follow through with his threat to go on holiday rather than help us win a premiership. After his 6th hattrick in the last 10 games, he will be sorely missed and we are looking for someone to fill the void.

Other scorers on the night were Lobby with a well taken chance, Steve after some dogged approach work by Trevor and the skipper finally finding the back of the net after raining shots on goal all night. Tom didn't get on the scoresheet but produced a memorable moment when he brought out the bulldozer. They were on the attack with their captain on the ball and heading out of the attacking zone to find support. Tom was coming back to aid the defence with the sole intention of winning the ball for his team (or so he would claim). Suddenly their attacker was flat on his back seeing stars and Tom was standing with an innocent expression on his face and you almost believed it had been an accident.

Last week 6-5, this week 6-4 and if you take off the goal they got in the first encounter for us being late, then you have identical results in successive weeks against the same opposition. Another statistical curiosity.

The Grand Final is at 8.40pm. Please come and support us, or if you are very keen, come and play!