Colin Reynolds Steve Mazurkiewicz

Paul Wrigley; Darren James; Tony Williamson; Alex Knott

Chris Ffinch; Peter Brown; Patrizio Antonicoli; George Boyadjiev

Kenny Francey; Tony White

Subs; Kevin Hyde; Adrian Cunningham

Three months on since that fateful first game of the season and Patrick’s last game we returned to Woluwe-Saint-Lambert to replay the abandoned game. The weather was some 30 degrees cooler and the green pitch was now mud, sand and puddles but the Chiefs were friendly, shaking our hands before the game and joining us for a minutes silence before the game. Kenny’s message in the dressing room was if ever there was a game to play good football as Patrick would want; this was it, be good, play the ball on the ground, look for the pass and run off the ball, unfortunately this was one of the games were we did none of the good points.

Things didn’t go very well in the warm up, Colin selected to play in what would be his last match before returning to UK, when practicing picking up the ball out of the back of the net, pulled his back muscle so Maza was kitted out in the goalie shirt and Colin reminisced on the side line.

So to the game; we lost the toss and played downhill into the bright sun and towards the puddles. We did not start well and a miss hit back pass by one of our defenders let them in and we were 1-0 down almost before we started.

We did respond and Chris who continually caused problems to their defence on our right wing, after one mazey run to the by line he pulled the ball back to Pete who shot just wide of the post. Kenny got through one on one to the keeper, rounded the keeper only to run out of space. Patrizio took a direct free kick that just went wide of the post, Tony Wh had two shots that both dipped over the bar, and a vicious goal bound volley by George hit Kenny and deflected away.

The defence were looking strong Alex and Paul were making runs down their wings and Tony Wh and Darren were managing their attackers. Having said all this they had a couple of ‘Messi’esk players who continually caused us problems and while the midfield were the guiltiest we continued as a team to unnecessarily give the ball away.

Half time action had to be taken; Kevin and Adrian coming on for Alex and Patrizio; Tony Wi being pushed up to midfield and almost immediately we equalised, a long free kick from Darren by passed everyone and there was George standing in front of the goalkeeper to head the bouncing ball in the goal. 1-1 game on.

The second half then became an open game, they had the hill advantage and created more chances than in the first half and we continually chased their little guys and this resulted in us conceding too many free kicks around the box, one of these free kicks resulted in a fine flying save from Mazza pushing the ball wide of the post.

Eventually a bear hug cuddle by a defender on his man resulted in another free kick which again Maza saved but they reacted quicker to the rebound than our players and made 2-1 to them.

We then pushed for an equaliser and spurred on by the large crowd (five old farts and Alex) we had them on the back foot, now tempers were a little frayed, George had his little spat with referee, their captain received a yellow card for a foul on Pete, a left foot volley from Kenny went wide, and then in the last minute their captain tripped Kenny as he was getting into position for a header off the corner unfortunately the referee did not see the trip and we lost.

Another man of the match to Tony Williamson who covered a lot of ground supporting attack and defence and having at least three defender type sliced shots in the 2nd half. Darren and Chris were contenders and in the bar as we plotted next week’s rematch Colin reminded us of his double save against the Irish. Good luck Colin in the UK but why Manchester?, what were you thinking of? BTW, they only had 10 players