Flashing blue lights, an ambulance in the car park, or is it cops? The council geezer behind the front desk has his head in his hands and is refusing to give out the keys to the dressing rooms. Our allocated changing room is occupied by a gaggle of rude boys in no mood to rush, so we share a muddied corner by the fire exit with a group of Jamaican lads, kit, nets, clothes and kitbags strewn all over the place - everyone fighting for a few inches of space to get undressed. Livingstone, no doubt used to the the smoothly organised and relatively calm surrounds of Regents Park, are squeezed into the room next door. With the noise, the chaos, the abbatoir-like shower block in the middle, this place feels like a bloody cattle market at times! Outside the car park is chocka like usual. A slow crawl of souped up Boy Racers exit the driveway, making way for the afternoon cavalcade as another few hundred working-class boys make their way in, ready to do battle and play out their football dreams on this hallowed muddy place. The burger van does a brisk trade,
hungry mouths greedily scoff down the very un-Jamie Oliver swill that we tend to swallow when we're at our most vulnerable...worn out and starving hungry! (Has anyone checked out if they sell Chunky Kit Kats yet?) It's a busy afternoon at Hackney Marshes, matches stretching as far as the eye can see. The hollering and screams, the delight and horror of goals scored and conceeded, are carried by the wind across the open spaces. Recreativo voices are no doubt carried by the breeze across the south Marsh and heard the other side of the River Lea, as another goalkeeping blunder of Hurhelio Gomes proportions lets forth a communal terrifying team scream! The 26th goal scored against us in our last five games leaves most of us to look down at the mud in the vain hope that the pitch would open up and swallow 
us whole. We lose 6-1 and cannot face the walk back to the dressing room. The light begins to fade. Only the slow drone of traffic along the Eastway breaks the silence. Grey clouds. Shell shock. Football death.Team : Steve Jones, Mario Pisano, Marcus du Sautoy, Jimmie Gregory, John Megaughin, Chris Read (James Humphreys), Nick Candy, Adam Bradbury, Alex, Bilal Talib Ali, Dario Costa.