It was a freezing cold morning, at pitches no one can ever find, covered in goose shit and bumpy as hell. 

A rousing team talk from Chud gave us all a kick in the backside before the game and we got right at it from the kick off. 

We were pressing high and pushing forward well, the lads in the midfield were all over their men and pressured them to give us the ball at every opportunity, this led to us breaking on them constantly. 

With the pace of Theo and the hold up play from Mark the only thing that was missing was the final shot on goal. 

Then it looked like all our hard work was going to be undone, the Meads lads had a rare and fortuitous break. Ball down the right then slid pass Jase to what we all thought was out for a goal kick, (which it definitely was by about a metre), the ball got put across the box and found their striker, free in the centre of the box, he took a touch and fired the ball low and hard, an almost unstoppable shot into the bottom right corner of the goal. 

Almost unstoppable because Fish pulled off the save of the game, got down quickly and turned the ball away for a corner. After that the game started to become more open and buoyed by their first chance the oppo started to play down the wings more putting crosses into the box time after time that were dealt with relatively easily by the 2 CB’s and the GK, Colin, Dan and Fish respectively. 

0-0 Half time

Second half started the same as the first half. The boys all had the bit between their teeth and got after the oppo straight away. 

An inspirational bit of managerial prowess (from Charlie) kept the lads in the same formation as we were playing in the first half. 

Then the subs were brought on and all made an instant Impact. Chud stooped down with his head so low to get the ball, that it looked like he was trying to actually bite the grass, and got a boot to the head for his troubles and a penalty to boot. 

After earning the peno Chud steps up and himself and slots it past the keeper. 

Finally the breakthrough 1-0 Onions. Almost with the next attack it could have been 2 but Manu managed to get the ball stuck under his feet and after a great team move couldn’t get the shot away. 

The oppo broke on us and had a shot on goal well saved again by Fish in net and turned away for another corner. The resulting corner was put in and the oldest player on the pitch decided to bundle the keeper into the net and the goal was disallowed. Not only did he get the goal chalked off he got sent for a little beak on the touch line too for decent. Tit! 

With 10 minutes to go another brilliantly worked move sees a ball put into the box that Nick meets and puts it into the corner to make it 2-0 Onions. A few late scares from free kicks in the dying moments but we held on for the W and the first clean sheet that the 5’s have had in the league for 3 seasons. Great effort from the lads!

Andy Emmerson