Sitting in the changing room, we knew this was a big one. The week before we had had suffered our first loss of the season, a big one, we had been smashed 3 nil by our nearest rivals, the result meant we had lost top spot and slipped to second place. We knew we had to bounce back immediately.

To make matters worse, Kris Mercelis had called on Friday morning and declared, "my knee is really swollen, I can't play". Normally Marc Puig would step in, but when we got him on the phone he announced, "cant do it - I'm suspended". Shoot. What do we do now? Vets 1 were top of the league and had a massive game vs 2nd place, we didn't want to do it, but we no choice.

We took Tommy Sejersen from them at dusk. When he walked into the changing room on the morning of the game, he shook everybody's hand as usual and sat down to get changed. "Damn it!" he said, "I've forgotten my goal keeping bottoms, I never forget them, I dont know whats wrong with me". Oh dear. Tommy Gun Kellerman stepped in and provided him with a pair of tracksuit bottoms, they would do, but the situation was far from ideal. Was it going to be one of those days?

We were also down 3 center backs, Sammy Lambrecht, Jonny5 and Dex Bernardo all out, so the lineup had to be shifted around, Nils slotted in at the back next to Michael Wight-Elliot who had slept with his Players Card on his pillow following last weeks debacle. The pitch was wet and sticky, and it was cold. The subs: Lolo and Jacob wrapped themselves up in several warmup tracksuits to keep themselves from freezing.

The ref's shrill whistle sounded and we were off. It quickly became apparent that the opposition had a game plan that didn't involve playing any football in their own half. Every chance they got they pumped it high and long in the hope that their nippy striker would do the business for them.

About 10 minutes in, we were still doing our best to knock the ball around at the back, but the ball kept sticking and suddenly their striker was on us, on one occasion he nicked the ball 30 yards from goal and sped at us, Stevey Lamarra try to knock him down missed him, then he was past Rich McGeehan, and we thought Nils had him but he was just too quick, he'd breached our defense and shot.... the ball was travelling towards the far post when it was stopped sharp by Tommy's left hand, great save. We had been warned.

We were sluggish but were steadily gaining ground and beginning to make chances. From a corner, they cleared and the ball dropped to Lamarra, he took it down with a nice touch, Nils asked him to clip it over their outgoing defense, a perfect little chip and Nils trapped it and was one on one with their keeper, he shaped to shoot, but saw and heard Tommy K bouncing up and down and waving his arms just to his left, so he slid the ball to him and Tommy fired it into an empty net. 1-Up.

We should have then gone to score and dominate this game. But we didn't. We did make a few chances though, Hodgson was linking the play particularly well and Richard's engine was roaring in midfield with some great movement and distribution.

Then a nothing ball out of the sky fell to their main man again, he hit a cross from the touch line that floated, and faded towards our far post, it was sneaking in, Tommy lept and got a hand to it but he couldn't keep it out, it was in the angle of the cross bar and post. Ronaldinho-esque. God damn it. Our hearts sank, a draw would be a terrible result, we needed all 3 points.

We roared back. But the clock was counting down too quickly, there were just 5 minutes remaining when Hodgson scampered after a ball near their corner flag and managed to keep it in play, Nils signalled to cut it back, Hodgson played the ball blind straight into his path. Nils took the shot on and it was heading for the far post, but was blocked by one of their heavier defenders and the ball bounced towards Rich, who controlled the ball with his first touch and volleyed an arrow into the far corner with his second. Glorious. What a relief. (Not bad for a rugby player: Ed)

Team

Tommy Sejersen

Amundesen / Wright / McGrath / Lebbink

Lamarra / McGeehan/ Vadora

Hodgson / Kellerman (Legere) / Billiet (Petersen)

MOM: Richard McGeehan.

Reporter: Nils McGrath