Well a most satisfying afternoon.  A good performance on a lovely pitch and a great scoreline - splendid.

In fact the scoreline flattered us somewhat.  We played well and deserved to win, but at 3-1 down they had to push forward as it was a cup game and on a big pitch and with youth on our side, we defended well and picked them off.  The pitch helped us from the beginning.  With the ref struggling to keep up with the pace of the game it wasn't going to be long before someone use a sentence that included the words “ref”, “B#"%$$%#”,  “glasses”, and “W###££%” and having warned my players that, if booked this ref had a reputation for frog marching players to the nearest ATM machine to draw out their club fine before continuing play, it wasn't going to be one of ours.  So when it came, we took a quick free kick, dropping the ball over the defence for Tom Thoroughgood to run on to and score at the second attempt.  With Martin Shew hitting the post with a well struck shot from the edge of the box and Harrison's half volley just curling wide, a well contested first half came to a close with us 1-0 up but satisfied with our performance.

At the start of the second half a second goal was always going to be a welcome relief, and that relief came after some good football found Harrison on the edge of the box and he made no mistake firing home his first of the season.  Norsemen still playing their part in a good game clawed one back after I misjudged a very long throw that landed right in front of our goal and was finished with a genuine bicycle kick.

Following that we had a few nervous minutes due to our reputation of throwing away leads, before goals from Mark Edmonds 2, Andy Bitmead Jnr and another from MotM Harrison who also had a great header struck off for offside a decision that could have led to another “ref”,  “f~~&&&”, “glasses”, “W$$^^&&” outburst, but we knew better, so that's how we ended up winning 6-1 and into the next round against Winchmore Hill 7s who beat our 7s in this round - so that will be interesting.

Thanks to Buzz who gave up a game to ref for us.

Dave Thoroughgood