A very good performance after a nervous start and some excellent combination play for both goals.

Team: Marzio Magistrelli, Bas Ten Holter, Jean-Luc Laffineur, Brian Morris, Paul Wrigley, Chris Riley, Leonardo Sardaro, Mike Gutierrez, Chris Ffinch, Pete Brown, George Boyadjiev, Mark Newbould.Subs: Ali Currie, Alex Knott.

Good comeback performance and only denied a win by some strong goalkeeping….

We started with Marzio in goal, Bas, Brian and Jean-Luc at the back, Pete, Chris, Paul, Leonardo and George in midfield with Mark and Mike up front. Alex and Ali on the bench, and Hughie sitting out due to injury.

They started better and were moving the ball around well and we were having a nervous start on our side, with passes going astray and overhit.

They took the lead from a shot outside the box with the attacker being given a bit too much space to shoot.

However this seemed to galvanize us and we started to string some passes together and be more aggressive in our approach.We got our reward from a fine movement on the left which was a combination of some very nice interchange play with George, Mike, and Chris F, which ended with Chris setting up Paul in the penalty box to slam home into the roof of the net. A very well worked goal and a good finish.

Half time 1-1.

Alex came on for Pete at the start of the second half and Jean-Luc moved into midfield.

The second half started badly when they took the lead from close in as a loose ball fell kindly to one of their forwards lurking near the goal.

However again we started to take the game to them and put together some nice passing attacking moves.We were finding their goalkeeper in fine form as he blocked a nice shot from Chris F and also from Paul.

We were pushing them hard and got our just equalizer from some excellent play. Paul made an outstanding tackle to win back the ball from an advancing defender, and getting to his feet took one touch and then sent a delicious cross with the outside of his boot into the box, where George rose superbly to send a bullet header into the far corner of the net.A superb goal from the build-up and the execution !

From then on there was really only one team pushing to win as we made successive attacks on their goal, but which were denied by some fine goalkeeping. Watermael contented themselves with attacking on the break but we managed to defend reasonably well.

Leo gave way to Ali who used his strength to muscle through their defence but only to be frustrated by their keeper.

The final whistle came with us looking more fitter than our opponents and competing to the last but not having too much luck in front of goal against a good keeper.

So a very good performance after a nervous start and some excellent combination play for both goals.

MoM: Paul Wrigley