For the first hour, everything went to plan.
Debut-boy Joel hit a brilliant opener, Jordan scored from
the spot, Zaga Supermarket's half-time refreshments went down a treat and
Recreativo started the second term looking dangerous.
So far, so good.
And then.
Faz's dodgy hamstrings flared up - impressively, he has now
injured BOTH in just a handful of games - and, with no subs, we were down to 10
men.
And all hell broke loose.
Suddenly, it felt as if we had four men on the pitch, not
10.
The same Barking Mad players who looked 2ft tall in the
first half felt like giants in the second.
Even Rich, at 6ft 10ins, was quaking under their might.
Reccy held firm for 20 brave minutes but things looked
terminal when they Barking hit two goals in quick succession.
At 2-2 with 10 minutes to go, it felt like we could have
lost 5-2, 6-2 or 7-2.
Some backs-to-the-wall defending took the clock past 90
minutes.
Job done? Er, not quite.
A shot was deflected from the edge of the box and looped
towards goal - only for the ball to slip past Radu and for their striker to
poke home.
Gutted. Heads fell into hands and the pointless trudge back
to the half-way line began.
And yet.
With Radu lying on the ground, and after minutes of
will-he-won't-he-what's-going-on?-surely-notting, the ref... gave a free-kick.
Was it a foul? Well, the ref gave a free-kick. End of.
We'd been let out of jail.
But in the next attack we breached our bail terms and were
sent straight back to the cells.
A handball given in the box.
Their striker steps up. Last kick of the game. Optimistic
shouts of "ENCROACHMENT!" from Jamie.
And... over the bar.
Madness.
Team: Radu, Ben, Jimmy, Rich, Mario, Jordan, Jamie, Joe H,
Joel, Dan D, Faz.