Where to start?

One version of the truth is tactical brilliance. We beat this team in the home game, 2-1 with a late sneaky leftfooter from Riley.

Our captain decided to keep a lot of players behind the ball, sit deep but fill midfield with a 4-5-1 so their fullbacks would be rendered useless or push up and then get exposed by explosive runs from Timme, Jeppe, Chris and Mike.

Patrizio and George completed midfield, Bas Alex Jake and Chris Riley formed the unpenetrable back row. Mazza in goal as regular, we love a dependable goalie.

Another explanation is that because we missed Mark and Ady, we decided to try to keep the ball in midfield and see what happens.

10 minutes in and it bodes well. Lots of chances over the wings, good play from the back with few long balls. If only we could pay a bit more attention to our passing....solid defending, some brilliance from Jake clearing off the line.

Alex neutralising their fast winger and Riley trailing his man there was little danger and we repossessed the lost balls quickly. What a beautiful game when you have a lot of the ball. Our opponents got more and more lippy to the ref about futilities and frustrated because they could pass the ball among their defenders, 4 against Timme, but as soon as they crossed the half way line they had no options and kept getting suckered by our offside trap.

Soon enough, a nice pickup in the middle from Timme, a pass to deep right where Mike ran all the way and crossed to George who could pick a corner and therefor just rammed it down the middle! One-touch, 0-1 to the good guys and halftime.

Elan already pissed off the ref with their talking and complaints about the perfectly fair however clumsy looking challenges from Riley.

Halftime talk and Mike showed he was missing some match rhythm by completely ignoring the team talk. To be fair, it was mostly about doing more of the same and we would be OK. Maybe Mike was still disappointed about crushing an effort from a freekick onto the crossbar. Which incidentally was an indirect freekick for complaining !

In the second half we kept getting good chances and not giving Elan any shots, until the 50th minute...an innocent looking side-pass to their captain who decided to place a high shot which disappeared over Mazza and unfortunately into the goal. 1-1 but no panic as we clearly had the best of the game.

Another few attacks and Elan was getting tired. They had their substitutions and then miraculously managed to get one of their own players sent off for repeated verbal complaints to the ref who seemed to be quite fair. At least to us haha.

The best decision, rarely given, was handball against their keeper who stepped out of the area with the ball in his hands. 17 meters from goal on the left corner. This is where Timme puts the ball when he is practicing in his backyard. He lifted it over the wall and deep in the right corner, 1-2.

More annoyed opponents who see the writing on the wall. No footy since Christmas and getting beat at home by those pesky British. Close to the end Riley decided to make his mark and pick up a card for a rash challenge.

Jeppe then decided on a backheel that left three of their players exposed, why does he hide those moves until the end ! Phil on for Jeppe and Hugh for Jake to close the game down, another nice run, on the left this time, with a good pass across and strong goal from Mike.

1-3.

Other chances from Chris and Timme were saved or went just wide, amazing to get over 10 chances with only one forward on paper. Dare I say it, have we found our ideal setup ?

Game over and still complaints from Elan, these guys take the prize for talking themselves out of a quite even game.

Fun was had by all afterwards especially on the back of the Spurs result and the final minutes of the Madrid derby. Which Timme enjoyed later and no doubt finished by wrecking his smartTV.

Man of match Mike cleared out to limit the number of lashes back home but well deserved with 6 votes even though he admitted himself this was not his A-game.

Up the table we go with a new goal of 29 points so we get a winetasting at Hughie's.

Apologies to Paul Wrigley for actually playing while he is away but it felt good to start the year with a win.

We're unbeaten since the freak last second loss away at LTC on November 15. Let's all turn up at training and get ready for the Valentine match !

Man of the match: Mike