Alas! Another defeat by a single goal margin. Well, at least, gone are the days (at least since November 2009) of 4 or 5 goal thrashings. And as this defeat was against a Pharma SC team that still harbours hopes of clinching the Division 6D championship, we can hold our heads up high.

The pre-match preparations started nervously with Mike Gutierrez informing Fred Dehombreux that he would be late due to some road closures close to Waterloo, and a 'no-show by Ken Francey (still don't know why Ken didn't turn up as I was looking forward to playing again with my Vet's 1 team mate from 2001!!)

Hence the starting lineup was as follows: Steve Mazurkiewicz in goal, Alex Knott and Reynold Pereira on left back and right back respectively, Scott Macdonald and Darran James in central defence, Dermot Gallagher and Fred Dehombreux in the middle of the park, Patrick Roosen and Chris Riley on left half and right half respectively, and Chris Ffinch and George Boyadjiev assuming the attacking roles.

The match was played on an exceptionally hot April day so this time the cap that Steve wore was more to keep the sun from shining into his eyes rather than keeping his head warm!! We started the first half on a positive note and our defence, with Darran in particular cutting out most of their attacks rather easily. They did breach our defensive line once but Steve was on hand to make a well-timed save.

We did have a couple of chances ourselves with Chris Ffinch making some penetrating runs and having a couple of shots at goal. Pharma should have had a man sent off for blatant handball as he was the last man in defence. Fortunately for them, the referee took a lenient view of things and only gave him a yellow card.

The half time pep talk was brisk with Scott rallying us to hold our guns and to keep our defence as water tight as possible. Mike Gutierrez came on for George Boyadjiev and Kevin Hyde replaced Chris Riley.

We somehow went to sleep during the first part of the second half and gaps started appearing in the middle of our half. Their only goal came from a cross from the left and our defence was unfortunately guilty of ball watching and didn't pick up their centre forward who had all the time in the world to direct his header beyond Steve.

One goal down and we suddenly woke up from our slumber. Dermot and Fred started to impose themselves more in the middle and Mike used his speed to launch attacks from both the right and left sides. Chris Ffinch had a shot parried away by their keeper. Despite one wave of attack after another, we were not able to get that elusive equaliser.

One nil it finished. The big consolation was the after-match drinks under the bright sunshine (with a bare-bodied Chris Riley bathing in the sun) and with Chris Ffinch getting his 150th match certificate, Scott getting his bottle of champagne for his captains's role during the season and Darran James being deservedly voted as the Man of the Match.

One more match remaining and hoping that the season will end on a high note after a rather disastrous start to the season with nine defeats on the trot.

MOM: Darran James

Reporter: Reynold Pereira