As soon as we began “warming up” (that’s firing shots at Matt Boymon, in case you don’t watch us), we realised the wind was going to be an issue. The pitches on the park are not exactly Wembley standard anyway, so this just added to the problem.

We won the toss and stand-in skipper Steve Hayes decided we should battle against the direction of the wind for the first half. A decision we thought was the correct one, particularly when Steve himself crossed into the Poly area for Chris Clarke to finish mid-way through the half. 1-0.

The wind was becoming very unpredictable, particularly on Mark’s goal-kicks, which seemed to stay in the air forever. After a succession of corners for Poly, they soon caught us napping and grabbed a goal just a minute before half time. 1-1. It was time for one of Rick’s inspirational team talks.

After a silent half time break we kicked off the 2nd half with most of the possession. Sadly this possession was regularly squandered when anyone went past “nose bleed territory” (that’s the half way line). To our surprise, Poly then snuck in and grabbed their 2nd goal, putting us under a lot of pressure which was quite unnecessary. The wind had also slowed up quite a bit, meaning Poly had a far easier time going against it than we did! It looked to be one of those days where nothing was going right. Jay Breen had missed a couple of golden chances, whilst Jay himself had floated in a cross for Richard Clark to nod in, which he sadly did not. The goalkeeper looked on as the ball sailed wide.

We eventually got the equaliser we deserved, Steve Hayes tapping in a scrappy move in the penalty area. We had plenty of chances to grab a 3rd  too, but we simply had to settle for a point on the day.  More results like this would make winning the league unrealistic, although not impossible.

Man of the Match – Tony Barrett. Whilst no-one stood out as amazing in this game, his two goal line clearances were very important.

Richard Clark