Proper Sunday football. Rain from all angles. Mud in abundance. A two minute warm up. Comedy defending (us), comedy shooting in front of goal (them). Hoofing. Squelching. And praying for the final whistle with still ten minutes left on the clock. However, amongst all this, a pretty decent game of football was played out against a team that wiped the floor with us last week.
Today it was a different matter, back on home soil, putting up more or a fight, we definitely made more of a game of it. If it wasn't for a very dubious decision to award Rio a penalty late on for 'handball', we could of easily taken a point. However, the ref, the mud, the final 15 minutes of sheer fatigue on an awfully cold and wet day, coalesced into an unmovable object that we simply could not get through despite 100% effort from all involved. Mud soaked, absolutely shattered and frozen to the bone, yet having taken part in a full blown game of football, it was a relief when referee Neville put the whistle to his lips and we could all head home.
Team: Radu Atlas, Mario Pisano, Kelvin Brown, Joe Dunthorne, Gregg Morgan, Sam Ahiadevor, Tom Perret, Tom Winter, Dave Perret, Aaron Gayle, Joe Haley. Subs: Rob Paddon, Dan Davis.