Lyric Celtic 4-3 RECREATIVO 10.10.10

Another away day. Great, let someone else worry about nets and refs and dressing rooms and all that. We've been on a roll and headed down to Clapham with nothing but three points on our minds, confident and a little cocky after last week's mauling of Barking. Maybe a little too cocky infact, as we struggled in the first half. With the wind against us it became apparent that Lyric were playing long balls to the big fella up front, strong physical football, big players, long throws a la Stoke...not pretty, but it certainly worked for them. We were second to every ball with free-kicks, throws and passes all going long in and around our box.
Our passing game paid early dividends with Ben taking on a nice through ball, skipping past two defenders and rolling the ball into the net. 1-0. But Lyric stepped up the pressure, aided and abetted by a nervous referee. The stiffening breeze carried the ball high into our box for two goals back. It's been a while since we were losing so maybe it was the shock that got to us as we first froze while a corner dropped into our box and we failed to clear and then a very dubious penalty was awarded against us.
4-1 down at half time. Not so long ago we would have given up. But a new spirit within the club has emerged since the end of last season. We went out in the second half determined that we could grab this game back in our favour. Goals from Connor and Adam brought it back to 4-3, but every effort in the last 20 minutes seemed to miss by inches. Joe had a goal disallowed for offside, but we kept pressing hard until the end. And so the first defeat of the season. It felt horrible, but it was close and in truth brought us down to earth. We will have to work a little harder, but our title challenge will soon be back on track.

We packed up and headed home, the banter in the car revolving around guessing who may be gay in professional football circles. "Chamakh....lots of hair gel".

"Graham Le Saux....reads the Guardian".

"Frank Lampard....going out with Christine Bleakley, who could be a man".

"Gareth Bale....boyish looks, smiles a lot. Is Welsh".

"Ronaldo. Definately bi-sexual".
Back home to bacon and lentil pie, a bottle of Campo Viejo and the soothing sunday evening patter of John Craven on Countryfile, before X Factor results and bed.

Team: Russell Smith, Mario Pisano (Tino), Jimmy Lloyd, Joao Spinola, Chris Read, Aaron Gayle (Liam Greenaway), Joe Haley, Umar Ba (Adam Bradbury), Ben Chambers, Max Bland.