Venue: Ahmad Ibrahim Sec Sch
Scorers: Ayyub x 2, Faiz, Wan Jr.

AISS has always been a good hunting ground for the Spiders. However, this was not to be one of those days. It was a nightmare start for the Spiders, conceding two quick goals in the first 10 minutes. Everyone seemed to be affected by the early kick-off. I swear I saw some players sleeping as they were calling for the ball and running around the field!

Even so, we were confident in our ability to score goals. We always score. Ayyub pulled one back for the Spiders. Receiving the ball in midfield, Faiz spotted the run of Ayyub before lofting the ball into the striker's path. Our top scorer did not disappoint, stroking the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

As we went in search for the equalizer, we inevitably left gaps at the back. Kai narrowly scored from a corner and was unfortunate to see his effort cannon off Ayyub. From the ensuing counter attack, the GG doubled their lead, leaving the Spiders with a mountain to climb.

Still, we were not disheartened. Ayyub received the ball near the byline and his cutback was met with a fierce low drive from Faiz. Having seen an earlier shot stopped by the keeper's feet, he was not to be disappointed this time. The keeper tried the same trick but completely missed his kick. 3-2! "Not every Sunday!" shouted Faiz.

Before starting the second half, the team huddled and dedicated the next period of play to Aki's mum, who is reportedly undergoing a steady recovery. Hooray! We started full of fervor and made a few threatening attacks. Then, a defender's clearance ricocheted off Ming's knee and the rebound fell kindly to Ayyub who broke clear. He showed more of his clinical finishing and pulled the team level. 

Just when we thought the match was ours for the taking, GG struck again through another well-worked counter attack. We should really learn how to defend better as a team. Jaz (who decided to play for them when they were short of players) broke free on the right after escaping the attention of Bob. He played the ball across for a GG striker to score from an easy tap in. 

The Spiders were then awarded a penalty after Azhar was brought down in the box. Our captain decided to go for something cute. His plan was to play a one-two with Kai before scoring. That was the plan until Kai had other plans. Instead of passing back to Azhar, he shot. To his horror, the rotund goalkeeper saved it with his feet! GG, apparently puzzled by the legality of the kick, hesitated and in all the confusion, Wan Jr. popped out of nowhere to knock the ball into the net. Kai breathed easy and that's was how the game ended.

VPS 0 MyPa 0

FC Inter 2 TamU 2

FC Haka 1 IFK Mariehamn 0

KuPs 1 FC Honka 2

HJK 3 RoPs 2

Follw the link in the HJK-RoPs score for highlights of that game, the others should be in the field below the film when they are ready.

Haka got lucky in a game of many missed chances in Valkeakoski. David Carlsson should really have put IFK one nil up when he got the ball a yard off the line and contrived to let Dovbnya save it as he scrambled across goal. IFK looked big, strong and organised, but didn't have much going forward. Haka were also a bit weak, with Popovitch substituted in the second half. Apparently TPS had man-marked him out of the game in Turku last week and got a 2-0 win. I am surprised that more teams are apparently unable to do that.

Inter dropped points after dominating against TamU, but they were completely flummoxed when big Henri Myntti was sent on as a striker. It's a bit sad that TamU are now lumping long balls forward to their man-mountain of a centre back, after playing some lovely football last year, but they've tried the tippy-tappy stuff andit has been a total disaster this season. I dread to think what kind of vile anti-football we'll see when Viikingit come to town on Wednesday for a cup game.

KTP are still awful, Honka got a decent away win, and Juho Mäkelä got a couple of goals against RoPS. JI spoke to Mäkelä after the TamU game a few weeks ago, and he was a thoroughly likeable chap. Far too nice to say anything nasty about Hearts (that was my mission, as set by a Scottish paper), we ended up just talking about how nice it was that he was actually playing again. He hinted at the turmoil at Hearts, laughing a bit when I said he might go back because they did not have a coach. And still don't.

Since then he has been quoted in the Daily Record wondering if Hearts will come and watch him, because if nothing is agreed with HJK by the 21st of July he will have to go back to Hearts. His goals were well taken against RoPS, but it seems as though the spectacular HJK strikes are all reserved for Jarno Parikka, a 21 year old from Vantaa who would be playing a dominant role if HJK didn't have so many strikers.

"How to dominate against 11 but collapse against 9" bonus marks awarded for references to famous Spurs comebacks with nine men and England RU victories against the All Blacks with two people in the sin bin.

It happens boys.

Venue: Bishan Park Sec Sch

Scorers: Kai, Ayyub

Once again, the Spiders let victory slip from our hands, allowing our opponents to equalize twice in the game. Credit to our opponents though, they thoroughly deserved it with an intense display of desire and discipline. We welcome Mok back into the team after a long absence due to paternity leave. :-)

In the first half, both team tried hard to make headway into the game. Chances were few and far in between. Fauzi Lehmann was called into action a few times and stood tall. Our offense lacked a cutting edge and we were unable to trouble the goalkeeper. A half-time team talk sorted that out as we headed out for the second half.

The first goal was scored when Azhar Ballack had his shot blocked by a KB defender. The ball bounced towards Kai Klose. Even though the build-up was messy, there was no such nature in the finish. Kai took his time to whip the ball into the bottom corner of the net through a sea of players. Manic celebrations ensued with Kai mimicking a celebration made popular by ex-Indonesian striker Rocky Phutiray.

KB got their equalizer when Fauzi palmed away an effort into the path of an opposing player. We have to admit that KB had been knocking on our door before they made the breakthrough. We should really stop gifting goals to our opponents. Haha.

We would score what many would believe to be the winner. Once again, Azhar was involved, playing a through ball to Ayyub Podolski. Our top scorer kept his cool and applied a superb finish. We were confident that our defense would be able to keep KB out.

But it was not meant to be. KB laid siege on the Spiders' goal and duly got their equalizer when one of their players flicked the ball into the net after some confusion at the back. The game almost took an ugly turn when Faiz got involved in a minor scuffle with one of their players. Thankfully no player saw red and the referee brought a competitive game to an ultimately fair conclusion.

Azhar commended the team, saying that we are beginning to see our "true colours". "We must continue pitting ourselves against stronger opponents. That way, we will be able to improve our game and become better as players." Touche captain...

It was an early start for North Sydney Council, for it was declared that 7am was pitch inspection time. As the Rangers white 4x4 pulled up at the ground, a couple of Lorikeets circled overhead, the ching ching of the bells, a reminder of the boats gently rocking in the harbour, could be heard in the distance, the sound quickly carried away on the breeze. As the ranger approached pitch no. 2 his thoughts turned to the strange remark his wife made as they were getting into bed last night, what did she mean by it, did she know, never mind that would have to wait, he had another job in hand. He strode confidently to the centre of the field, 100 lives were affected by the decision he was about to make, Oh the power of it. He dialed the number pre-set into his phone, a gruff voice answered, the ranger only uttered two words before hanging up.

GAME ON

The ressies were straight off the back of humiliating West Pymble 2-0 at their own Manor, inflicting their first defeat in 45 outings, confidence was high, as well it might be, for Murray was back.

In the first real attack of the game Scud came very close forcing a great save from their keeper tipping his roundhouse kick from a crossed ball over the bar, Scud’s effort much better than the crap he was attempting before the game, Oh well, bad dress rehearsal and all that…. Iain was confident in net and shouting orders at his defence when they displeased him, it was obviously a mistake to let them know we had a Scottish keeper so early in the game. Not even midway through the first half and player manager Armstrong tried to demonstrate the skill and flair that has not made us famous this season or any other, he backheeled it to Adam midway in his own half, the opposing striker latched onto it like a greyhound chasing a 3 legged rabbit and hit a speculative 30 yarder that was never going to go in. Or was it. Iain showing the goalkeeping form that has made his countrymen famous realized half a second later he was in a lot of trouble, froze to the spot except for his head that tilted back to watch the bail sail over his head and into the net. 1-0 down.

In a game that pleased the crowd that had stayed at home, North Sydney eventually got back into the game after an impressive run down the right, Murray crossed with pin-point perfection for Neil Gross to slide in with perfect timing and force the ball into the back of the net with his RIGHT foot. 1-1 Heady stuff indeed.

Later in the game Iain and Tad managed to emulate Basil Fawlty and Manuel whilst trying to deal with a harmless ball in the area, the end result being Iain pushing the ball to the oncoming striker who said ‘thank you very much gentlemen, very generous, don’t mind if I do’ & smashed the ball into the net 2-1 down.

With 20 minutes to go Manager Armstrong abdicated responsibility to Chalky by asking me to do the subs for the last 20 minutes if we needed any more changes. I promptly called a press conference to announce my new position as ‘caretaker manager’ The press asked the obvious questions, ‘Did I think Manager Armstrong had done a good job’ naturally I said he performed to the best of his ability but mistakes had been made. ‘Did I think Armstrong had suffered from his dual role as player manager’ I replied that after seeing him play for the past five minutes I realized it wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t on the sidelines that was the issue, it was the fact that he was on the pitch that was of greater concern! Then the strange looking journalist from Sydney Uni with the hair line receding faster than an Italian front line in a World War asked what changes I would make and where I could make a difference. I replied that I thought it would be wrong to meddle too much with the team that he had already put out however I would be working intensively with the 1^st team over the next and final 15 minutes of my reign to change some things and make them a more cohesive unit that scored more and conceded less. I’d let history be the judge of my achievements.

Anyway back to the game, we produced some good work especially down the right hand side, Murray and (I think) Neil providing quality crosses from the right, Scud managed to miss a sitter from a yard out, we should have put more pressure on their keeper from our long throws to restrict the keepers movement but at the end of the day it’s all academic as the ref called time and the game was lost. Graeme was vocal of his condemnation of the performance but had every right to be as it was pretty poor especially after last weeks ‘Lord Mayor’s show’ Disappointing as we could have beat this side but as Coxy might say ‘the season starts again next weekend’

Sorry for all the bullsh!t but to be honest I watched 4 games at Primrose this weekend and can’t really remember many of the details now! On the positive side I’m confusing this match with 3 others where we scored 14 goals and conceded 1, on the negative side 2 of the games were girls, go figure.

MAN & MUGS

No MAN today as crap performance in most respects

Dual MUGS go to the aforementioned Iain and Tad, well deserved boys, well done!!

At the eighth attempt and to the great relief of the coach and players, North Sydney’s O35 Division 1 first team finally recorded their first win of the season!  Now watch us go!

During the week I received the news that four of my first team squad were still out injured and would be missing this game. I also received the good news that Mitch had decided to quit the All Age Premiers and would be joining us for the remainder of the season. He went straight into the starting line up alongside Jules Glass Jaw Garness in attack. In midfield we had Micky the Greek Goat Shagger Mick, Salmon,Jurassic and Gary ‘pinky’ Clark. In front of Paul ‘Pick me’ Hughsie in goal we had a back four of Kieran ‘I’ll fight anyone’ Ryan, Pat yiddo Acheampong,Gary Tummy Wummy Skipper Fallowfield and Mike ‘red card’ Stephenson.

The Kissing Point team did not know what hit them as Norths started the game at a terrific pace. We dominated possession in the early stages of the game with some great passing and movement off the ball. When we did lose the ball then the tackles went flying in to regain it.

We took a deserved lead after 15 minutes after a great move up the left. Tummy Wummy won the ball in defence and went charging up the field, he played a great one-two with Mitch ran into the box and hit a blinding shot past the Keeper at his near post. He celebrated his goal as if his beloved Hammers had just won the League title……!

Gary had been finding scoring a bit difficult this season……1 to be exact ; )   Coach Armstrong had moved him back to centre midfield to give him a chance to work his magic there…….no luck. This week he got moved back to centre half and bingo he scores!  What insight!

The remainder of the first half was even with a couple of chances missed by both teams. It was also a very physical game with crunching tackles flying in all over the place from both teams. The ref was handing out yellow cards as if he were Arsne Wenger handing out sweeties to kids…(the yids will know what I mean). Sean the superstar from the Div 3 O35 team had arrived to watch because their game had been called off. I had a spare spot on the bench so he went on the card. He came on with 15 minutes of the first half remaining in an unfamiliar left wing position. With 10 minutes remaining he had gone right through the back of a hapless KP player and received a yellow. Fearing this experiment was about to leave me red faced and Sean red carded I am afraid Sean’s 15 minutes of fame ended at half time……sorry mate but I needed 11 men out there for the second half.

1-0  at half time.

In the second half Norths really stepped up a gear. We were 2-0 up after a couple of minutes through Mitch. Although this reporter has to admit I missed it as I was taking a pi$$ !!

Chris ‘The other Preston supporter in the club’ Hanley had come on at half time at right back and so had Iain ‘The mad Pole Vaulting Professor’ Black at right midfield. We completely outplayed KP during the 2^nd half and our cause was helped by the ref who sent off a KP player after he had tried to snap Mike the Salmon in half with an outrageous tackle that In my heyday I would have been proud of !

With 15 minutes left Jules was taken off and the Old Scottish warhorse that is Iain ‘Muirton’ McLean came off the bench to show the ‘young’ pups exactly how to play this game he calls Fitba. I thought he had killed himself after watching the silly old bugger try an acrobatic bicycle kick….LOL. But then somehow he found himself free and bearing down on goal, only to see his weak right footed effort saved and cleared straight to Mitch. Rather than put the ball into a gaping goal Mitch decided to take the piss out of the KP defence and keeper by dragging the ball back and sideways before tapping it in.

There was still time left for the Coach to sub Mitch so he could receive the plaudits of the watching throng after a great debut. The real reason was I did not want him scoring a hat-trick on debut as we would never hear the end of it!

Well done team, a great effort by all. Now all we have to do is win our next 6 games and we will be in the top 4 and end of season finals!

MOM…..Mitch for a great display up front scoring 2 goals on debut.

MUG……none of the players are deserving of mug so it goes to the injured Andy Norton who for some strange reason keeps on turning up to watch dressed as a cross between a Gay Ski instructor and an even Gayer Ballerina in black tights.

Very busy at work so no time for the normal analytical Monday email you’ll all be glad to hear!

Kissing Point…Reserves. Poor finishing, too much f*cking around on the ball (me being the biggest culprit), stupid error between GK and Left Back did us in.

We were beaten by a sh*t team and we only have ourselves to blame. But we are still only 1 point below 4^th spot on the table!

First…..Excellent win and performance. Without getting carried away but you looked like a team and played like a team for the first time this season. The shape looked good and without pi**ing in his pocket too much, the arrival of Mitch up front has given us movement, pace and aggression. But football is a team game, you all played a part. Play with the confidence that win has brought you and put together a few more wins and we will soon be moving up the table.

Sunny weather forecast all week so training will be at Cammeray this Thursday, 7.00pm start.

Please let me know if you cannot play this coming weekend. I would have picked the exact same first team however Pat and Chris Hanley are away.

Also Iain McLean is away…..Gary Fallowfield will play GK for the reserves this weekend.

Maca and Alen Rogina are still away……but Coxy is back. Anyone else?

Can the injured players also let me know if they expect to be fit this week?

Finally…….We have a KDSA O35 cup game this Sunday…..12.00 noon KO v West Pymble Firsts !  at Auluba Rd, Sth Turramurra.

Please let me know if you want to be considered for this cup squad. I will not be in charge as I am handing over the cup team management duties to Coxy. He will pick the team on his return to Oz at the end of this week. There will be some All Age O35 players included in this cup team.

Cheers

Mark

More of the same please.

Venue: Orchid Park Secondary School

Scorers: Azhar, Zaini, Ayyub

The Spiders let victory slip from their hands thanks to some defensive blunders and bad refereeing.

We could not get into the game quick enough, adapting to the artificial turf provided a new challenge for us. Our opponents settled quicker and opened the scoring when Bob was adjudged to have fouled their striker in the box. He received a yellow card for his troubles and Venz converted the penalty. Ming had a few excellent chances to equalize and Ayyub saw his looping header cleared off the line. We went into half-time a goal down.

Improvement was showed in the second half and we managed to equalize. Ayyub looked set to shoot before he was closed down by the defenders. He found Azhar to his left and our captain's shot found the bottom corner of the net.

Boosted by the goal, we went for the kill. After receiving a pass from Kai, Fauzi relayed the ball to Zaini. From about 25 metres out, the defender hit a dipping shot that the keeper failed to keep out. A beautiful goal that marked manic celebrations among the players.

The Spiders thought they pulled further ahead soon after. After the keeper's clearance was intercepted by Wan Jr, the ball found its way to Kai. Spotting the keeper out of position, he hit a shot from 35 metres out. His attempt hit the crossbar and went into the goal and bounced out. However, the referee felt that the ball did not cross the goal-line and therefore disallowed the goal. Weird considering how he managed to award a goal kick to the opponents when we kept the ball in play in the first half. He was standing even further away.

Then, an unexpected turn of events. A speculative through-ball found its way past the Redbacks' backline. Azam, who tried to catch a striker offside, was unaware of his fellow defenders positioning. From the resulting mix-up, their striker made no mistake to draw level.

Once again, we successfully took the lead again. Azhar found Ayyub with a pass. Ayyub did brilliantly to make space for himself before hitting a low shot past the keeper. We failed to hold on to the lead and our opponents scored from a looping shot via a throw-in. We tried hard to grab the win but in the end, we had to be happy with a draw.

When asked about the disallowed goal, Kai said, "That man is not fit to referee a game. He needs to lose weight and start running more. We pay him good money man! The least he could do is show some dedication and professionalism. At the end of it all, his poor standards cost us the game."

Venue: Sengkang Sec Sch
Scorers: Ming (p), Aki (2), Kai, Bai

Like the heading? It's a combination of the names of those who contributed to the goals as scorers or assist provider. It is also happens to be a pun on a name of a local footballer. Know who he is? Not that he's any good. However, do not be deceived. Everyone played an immense part in this victory. At kick-off, we only had 9 players. Thankfully, Bob, Irwando and Wan Jr made belated but much appreciated appearances. With Fauzi between the sticks, a makeshift defense of Bob, Bai, Abang Sani and Raizal was formed. Kai partnered Faiz in the middle with Jaz and Ming operating on the wings as usual. Irwando got his chance to play upfront with Aki.

The first half was scrappy. Neither team got a chance to play any form of decent football. Ming showed his continued maturing with a piece of brilliance at the end of the half. He bamboozled his way past defenders and in sheer desperation, a defender hacked him down and we were awarded a penalty. Urged on by fellow players, Ming dusted himself off and hit a firm penalty to put us ahead at half-time. From now onwards, players who earn the penalty will be given the privilege to take the penalty. If they wish, they can choose to give it to someone else.

Things got really interesting in the second half. Wan Jr went on a marauding run down the right wing and found Aki with a good pass. Spotting the goalkeeper slightly out of position, Aki curled the ball into the bottom corner of the net. The keeper got a hand to it but could not keep it out.

He got another goal midway through the second half. Receiving the ball from midfield, he made space for himself, riding a few tackles along the way. He hit a firm shot which took a deflection before finding the back of the goal. It was at that moment that the floodgates started to open.

We got our fourth goal through some excellent interplay between Jaz and the returning Bai. Bai held off pressure from a defender before teeing the ball for Kai outside the penalty area. The striker hit a scorcher with his left foot and the ball found the roof of the net.

Bai got into the scoring act himself. Beating the offside trap superbly, he latched onto a through ball from Jaz. With the keeper to beat, he showed great awareness and intelligence to lift the ball over the onrushing keeper for the team's final goal in a memorable rout. Dear Bai, you have been missed.

Special mention goes to the defenders for repelling wave after wave of attack. Abang Sani marshaled the defense superbly and Raizal's cool style brought calm to the backline. Bob was imposing as always and Bai showed great adaptability in his left back role. Wan Jr was solid and hard-to-beat. Irwando was commanding and robust, proving he is still a force to be reckoned with, at the back that is.

Faiz virtually carried the midfield with his tireless running and selfless plays. His enthusiasm was contagious and it radiated to his fellow midfielders. Jaz showed great intelligence and experience, making the ball do the work for him. Ming is a first-class pest, to his opponents that is. Bai excelled when reintroduced as a defensive midfielder. It's great to see Aki regain his scoring touch, may it continue.

Fauzi, congratulations on the clean sheet. When called into action, you pulled off some magnificent saves. Just stop staring at the ball when it bounces off the post next time. Heh.

I salute all of you, I'm glad that you guys are on my team. Wouldn't want to come up against you guys that's for sure!

Go Redbacks!

The day after that, I went to Tammela to get drunk and watch Ilves. It was a lot of fun, but the weather was grey and miserable so the crowd was quite poor, with just 444 people turning out. It was clearly a 'big match' though, and Ilves are definitely, incontrivertibly a big club. They out rank HIFK on the merchandise-ometer, for starters, with two full tables filled with Ilves jalkapallo goodies at very reasonable prices.

The game was, as expected, very even. Janne Salli held the Ilves defence together, and TPV created very little. Asked to pick the Ykkönen team out of these two, I would have picked Ilves. It was no surprise when Majamaa put them 1-0 up early in extra time. Here he is celebrating, photo courtesy of Petteri:

You can see many more of his excellent Finnish football photos at his website.

In Veikkausliiga, TPS continued their remarkable start to the season with a 4-1 defeat at Lahti. Sadik was in storming form, scoring one and creating two, and he will surely be off to a bigger league soon. You can see highlights (complete with loan-sharking adverts - you stay classy in this global credit crunch, Iltalehti) here.

So what the hell is going on at TPS? It's something I've been wondering, watching the erudite Martti Kuusela and the tanned and feminine Simo Valakari (the highest paid player at TPS, injured for the season) performing their punditry duties for Euro 2008 matches on YLE. You have to wonder what exactly Finland's Newcastle are going to achieve this year - they're comfortably mid-table, but look unlikely to trouble the European placings.

That's not a good return on Seppo Sairanen's investment, and a crucial next two matches could put Kuusela under pressure - if they lose to Atlantis in the cup and go out of the Intertoto to Lisburn Distillery, both entirely possible results given their current form, it might be hard to justify keeping him in post. I don't expect them to sack Kuusela, he's a massive name in Finland and admitting a mistake at this stage would not reflect well on the club hierarchy, but something is going wrong at TPS and they need to sort it out fast.

A sad lament for Helsingin Sanomat's Pressikatsomo, which has published its last post. Hopefully the writers involved already have new projects, especially Kristian Sundqvist, whose stuff about Jaro, attendances and Finnish football in general is very good indeed. HS's football coverage does not have a good reputation among fans here, and as we get both HBL and HS I can see where that view finds support. Still, there are other good Finnish bloggers about, notably Ari Virtanen at Nelonen, Mikko Knuutila at Ilta Sanomat, and Elias's project Kulmapotku.

The Special One shuffled his pack at half time and it paid dividends as Gazza suprised their keeper from 40 yards. 1-1. Hornsby were rocking and Norths were on top - the spectators could surely only seen one winner now. Yes, you guessed it, we did our usual trick of conceding a couple of soft goals within a few minutes of each other. Game over. 3 points lost to a very average team.

Venue: Canberra Sec Sch

Scorers: Kai, Ayyub (2), Jaz, Azhar

A resounding win for the Spiders. We attacked with enthusiasm and purpose and we could have replicated the mighty Uzbeks in their match against the Lions if our finishing had been more precise. After 2 weeks of rain off, it's good to finally get onto the pitch and let off some steam. Only 12 Spiders turned up, with no goalkeeper. Aki gamely volunteered to be the custodian of the day and surprised many with his solid performance. Versatility is after all a Redback trait.

Thankfully we somehow had players who were made for every position in our 4-4-2 formation. Wan Jr, Abang Sani, Izat and Bob formed the backline. Azhar and Faiz were in the engine room with Jaz and Ming roaming down the flanks and Azam's desire to see Ayyub and Kai up front was realized. Unfortunately, our gaffer was not there to witness it. One of the many Spiders unable to make the game.

Kai opened the scoring early in the first half. Jaz's through ball was chased by Kai and the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper intended to catch the ball but when he realized he was too far out of the penalty area, he made a complete mess of it. Kai capitalized by kicking the ball through the keeper's legs and into the goal.

Red Knights equalized after some persistent forays on our left side. Their winger managed to break away from the attention on our defenders and finished past Aki at his near post. We had a game on our hands.

We managed to go into the break with a lead. Kai peeled away on the left side of the pitch after receiving the ball from Azhar. He hit a low ball across the penalty area and the chance was grabbed by Ayyub. Reacting the quickest, he smashed the ball into the roof of the net, giving the Redbacks a precious lead.

A third goal was obtained early in the second half. A classic counter attack involving Ayyub, Kai and Jaz. Holding the ball up in attack, Ayyub fed the ball to Kai. Spotting Jaz's run, Kai hit a defense-splitting pass down the middle of the field. Despite the attention of defenders and with the goalkeeper coming out to tighten the angle, Jaz kept his cool and lifted the ball over the keeper to put us further ahead. A classy finish and definitely the goal of the match as observed by Captain Azhar.

After squandering numerous chances where we hit the woodwork twice, we pulled further ahead to put the game beyond doubt. Faiz found Ayyub with an intelligent diagonal ball. After twisting and turning to escape the attention of his marker, Ayyub hit a fantastic shot that beat the goalkeeper at his near post. With that goal, he is now officially the top scorer of the Redbacks, the first player to reach 10 goals this year.

The Redbacks were not done yet. This time, our captain weighed in with a goal of his own. Ayyub's cross found Azhar in the box. After riding a defender's tackle, it seemed that the moment was lost. Ultimately, our captain unleashed a powerful shot of his own, beating the goalkeeper at his near post.. again. The captain, obviously pleased, treated the players to his "aeroplane-flying" celebration. "Jack, I'm flying..."

Azhar had this to say of the victory, "Our movement was better today, giving us space to find each other with our short passes. A few of our players should have scored hat-tricks today but overall I think we did well. On the flip side, I do hope that Spiders who have been absent recently tell us of their status, whether they're interested to turn up for our matches. We can't continue having such attendance for future matches."

amy 1-2 2 BB, 2 RBI, catch
jack 1-4 RUN
heather 1-3 catch
simon 2-3 RBI, RUN, 2 catch
nicole 1-3
lance 2-3 RBI, RUN
maria 0-1 2 BB, RUN
isaac 2-3 RBI, RUN, 2 catch
karen 1-3
rob 1-2 BB, RBI, 2 RUNS
jen 1-3
tim 2-3 2 RBI, RUN

Swingers..... 1 2 1 0 7 0 14 - 25
Dazzlers..... 0 4 2 2 0 0 0 - 8
[Finsbury Park: 2-6-08]

Thats no good, second game of the season and no skipper , was Rickiiiieeee resigning after 1 game and leaving with a one hundred percent record ? No 'The Boy Rickiiie' had double booked himself with a manicure, and wanting to keep himself in accordance with " Captains Rules " he had a sun spray and manicure instead of playing ! Anyway after a bit of persuassion Stacy agreed to step in as make shift commander .

Oh dear 1st mistake the sun came out and i mean came out ! 400 degrees and not a cloud in the sky ( you'd think this was'nt a mistake but wait ....)

2nd mistake Cudham did'nt have an umpire ! ( therefore we win the toss automatically )

3rd mistake Stupid Stace sticks Cudham into bat

4th mistake Stacy Captain der

Ok its 4 hundred degrees and out stroll 11 legionaires across the sands of the Sahara until they reach the 22 yards of destiny, by now Stacy feels as if a sniper has a crosshair firmly etched on his back, " bowl first" is muttered from the back .

The games underway and Stewie Stu strikes early , its a great start but Cudham stood firm and rattled their way to 78 before New boy Lister comes up trumps with a perfect ball, trapping the batsmen LBW , the sun kept beating, " bowl first! why would you do that cried Graham Kingpin ", the sun was relentless, 20 overs had arrived and out of the oasis came a belly dancer bearing jugs of juice, ok slight exaggeration it was one of the oppo with refreshments. Cudhams' score kept climbing but wickets kept falling at regular intervals, by the end of 40 overs 217-9 had been posted, a daunting score to say the least. As the weary troops crawled back to the pavillion for much needed ' jugs of juice ' Stacy relised a batting order was required and that his legion was in need of encouragement, not being the best at this he asked who would like to bat 

   a deadly silence fell as a tumble weed rolled by . Prompting Nasty Nick to join him at the top of the order they strode to the crease with intent of chasing down the score, Ward and Buss struggled with the pace of their enemies , Ward fell ' shaking his head and muttering i did'nt see it ' Wrotham were up against the wall already, being short in the batting department Buss wielded his bat like a light sabre and took the fight to the dark side, wickets kept tumbling but Buss stood strong, finally departing for 48, a brief glimmer of joy was given, Butler of the J kind played sensible for a while scoring 22 and Klondike scoring his first runs for the club ... 2 . It was all over out for 117. 

Moment of the Match

Kingpins " 2 catches ... well he caught the second , the batsmen unleased a shot that sent the ball tracer like at Graham in which he could'nt get out of the way of, so instinctively he used his cat like agility to let the ball hit him in the ribs Ouch!!! About an hour later another batsmen did the same , but this time his cat like relexes aloud him to catch the ball between his arm and stomach after the ball struck him in exactly the same place double Ouch !!

Man of the Match

It has to be the team for not stringing Stacy up for bowling first

A call early on Saturday morning from our groundsman ended this weeks game. Anyhow, as a tribute to the weather gods, here's a haiku about rain:

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