The game started on a sad note, with a 1 minutes silence to honour Mike Donnelly who sadly passed away. Mike was a long-serving and popular member of the club & will be missed by his many friends at the club.

Carshalton dominated the play in the early stages &, encouraged by Pepe the clown in the Poly goal, looked like scoring on a number of occasions. Peter Street eventually broke the deadlock with a low shot into the bottom corner after a goalmouth melee and began the usual Poly Italian recriminations of the defence - apparently "tosser" means "poor defending" in Italian!  Though the lead did not last long, with Poly equalising with a back post header with their first real chance of the game. Carshalton continued to have the better of the chances, though our forwards were encouraged by the supporting words from Chris.

A stirring half-time talk from Captain Jim spurred us on for the first 30 seconds of the second half until Poly scored with a well struck volley. Some resolute defending prevented Poly from adding to their tally over the next 15 minutes. Tactical substitutions then had immediate effect with a good equaliser from Tony, sneaking the ball under the goalie's beer belly, or so it was alleged in the changing room afterwards. Not that I really saw it as I was preparing for my customary injury exit. Chances fell at both ends until Carshalton produced the goal of the game. A good break down the left & an excellent cross from John Gilligan was met by a diving header from Pete Culham. Carshalton then held firm, with some novel time-wasting antics from Dave Aldridge looking for the maybe not so imaginary metal ring he found with his knee. So it was well-played Carshalton & apparently that is what "plonker" means in Italian!

The best teamwork of the day was saved till later with no wasted chances to finish the beer, some fine washing up & some clinical finishing with a tea-towel.

 Mr "Oh to play a Full Game"