After last weeks 6-1 thumping which had many players planning future holidays or injuries for when the return fixture takes we were quite happy to be playing a Pharma team only 1 point and 1 place ahead of us in the table. Of course the doom merchants pointed out that Pharma won 5-0 last week against fourth placed LTC and that we have never won on this synthetic pitch, in fact we got beat 3-0 here earlier in the season.

Holidays and other team shortages meant that we were at the bare 12 players, eleven players in Wezem in the changing room and Dermott in Krainem, the first easy choice for Mike was Dermott to be sub. Optimism was high in the changing room and Hughie had us laughing in disbelief claiming that once on this ground Kenny had compared Hughie to Kenny Dalglish in his prime.. (how the mighty have fallen)

The line up was Colin in goal, a back four of Adrian, Peter, Kevin and Alex; a midfield of Chris F, Freddy, Patrick, Hughie and Mike with Kenny up front.

As we came off at half time 1-0 down the most common phrase shouted during the half was “who is marking yellow boots?” A white haired gentleman in his late 50’s with obvious BO was proving the age old adage to be a vet and wear yellow boots you have to be a good player. We were under the cosh for most of the first half, Kevin was excellently marshalling his defence, Colin made a couple of outstanding diving saves, they hit the post, Adrian and Alex made last ditch challenges to stop certain goals, Hughie & Chris cleared off the line and Adrian got in front of his man one more time only for the result of his challenge to the see ball flying to the goal but was saved by a fine reflex save from Colin (the best of many saves). During this period no one could doubt the collective work effort, Hughie man marked their captain and Freddy and Patrick worked very hard to get the ball but yellow boots did seem to pull most of the strings. Unfortunately we did concede towards the end of the first half, from one of many corners we cleared to outside the box to their left back who had time and was able to pick his spot through the crowded area and score a good goal.

Although we were on the back foot for most of the first half we did look dangerous on the break. Unfortunately the ref was following another adage “if in doubt blow for offside” so many counter attacks came to premature ends. There were time were we played good football. The moves nearly always started from Patrick or Freddy, involved Kenny going wide to Mike or Chris and on a number of occasions we nearly created good chances. The best chance coming just on half time when a flick on at the near post had Hughie at the back post on the line but unfortunately the header went wide and his manhood got wrapped around the post.

More of the same effort and a bit of luck was the cry at half time. Unfortunately we conceded three more goals. Their second was a break down our right, the ref followed the adage “if in doubt and against British do not blow for offside” the winger ran on goal to set up a simple tap in; their third was a free kick in which the defence moved out leaving two of their players unmarked and off side but the ref in perfect position followed the adage “if in NO doubt and it is offside but it is against the British play on”. The fourth was a shot going for a throw in that hit Kevin and flew in the net.

Dermot had replaced Hughie in the second half, they made four changes yet despite the three second half goals that they scored they were not as dangerous as in the first half. We had a lot of ball in their half; Mike, Kenny and Chris F continually running at their defence but other than a clever shot from Kenny that hit the post we did not look like we would score.

Post match discussion ranged from Dermot “we were lucky not to be beat 8-0” to Alex “with a bit of luck we could have a draw”, it is a funny old game! MOM was between Colin and Peter, with Colin deservedly winning because of the 5 or 6 excellent saves