Great win against Phoenix

M6 3 : 2 Phoenix

This report is going to be painful. Not content with trying to umpire the game I now have seven of the opposition looking over my shoulder.
"You missed a capital letter"
"That should have been a new paragraph"
"Is that an Oxford comma?"

Oh for God's sake SHUT THE F...

Phew. They've gone to argue with themselves for a bit (yes, orange *does* make you look large etc), leaving me to enjoy the warm glow of a hard fought but ultimately deserved victory.

It could have been different. The first 10 minutes were terrifying. They were coming at us really fast and could have walked the ball into the back of the net. But they didn't, and something changed. Not a tactical change, more psychological. We had the belief. We had a couple of fast breaks and they started to worry a little bit. And sure enough the goal came. Steve's industry in the centre earned him some space for a cracking ball up the pitch and Paddy smashed (and I mean smashed) it home.

The second and third quarters were ours. We had so many good chances but didn't manage to take them. Finally we won a short. Josh's 'dummy' strike bobbled the ball towards the P spot and Ian was there to finish smartly.

My word Phoenix were annoyed. They'd been annoyed all game - claiming for everything - moaning at everything. But now the irritation had gone up several notches. It seemed to help them in the short term and they converted their own short corner within a couple of minutes. But I do think negativity can exhaust you and sure enough we soaked up the high whinge and replied with a super goal from Ian. It's shame the balcony wasn't packed - even if they missed the goal they could've enjoyed the celebration.

Right at the death they scored another short but everyone on the pitch knew it was all over. Well played lads.

Not entirely sure about man of the match. But from the gist of the conversations afterwards I would say : Alex (with a strong mention for Steve)

Special mention must go to Hugh : Happy 70th birthday