TWFC

Milo         £5
Nathan £4
Niyi £7
Scott £3

Players
Orange Bibs
--------------------
Anthony, Arik, JonF, Luteusmaximus, Niyi,

Mufti
---------
Ben, Danny, Milo, Nathan, Scott

In the pre match build up players were both tantalised and taken by surprise in equal measure. We were tantalised at the prospect of the return of the player who ended the previous year with the title of 'Goal Machine' for his unerring accuracy in front of goal. Players were taken aback to learn that none of the three club match balls would be brought to the fixture. One ball had apparently been taken on a day trip to Wales? Before anyone could say Diolch yn fawr the next email announced with deep sorrow that the other two balls would not be available due to the player concerned attending a corporate banquet.

Not to be defeated two teams of five eventually kicked off with a ball provided by Luteus. Now game on. Anthony has been fast making a reputation as a young Tony Pulis for his ability to lead a side out that would concede very few goals and more often than not deliver a decent result. He was paired with JonF whose Wenger like unshakeable confidence had seen his teams pick off off various opponents week in week out. They were facing Nathan who captains attacking teams coupled with Scott who brings a Ferguson like discipline to proceedings. On paper a formidable match up between four captains, but you guessed it the essential question was whose ideology would win the day?

The game kicked off with the Bibs playing a very high line of defence for large parts of the match. We do not play offside in our matches so any player with striking tendencies can dwell up pitch and pick off the opposition at will if their defence is suspect. With this in mind the Muftis after being put ahead by Nathan then sat back to let the Bibs attack them and would play the ball up to Danny who then had copious amounts of time to run the ball to the edge of the area, sucker the hapless keeper into diving, skip with the ball a few feet to the side, then plot the angles of ball trajectory before deliciously floating it into the empty net. After he had done this a few times and even stopped to check if anyone wanted to tackle him players cottoned on to the fact that defending from inside the opponent's half is tantamount to declaring that attack is the best form of defence.  With this in mind it is fair to note that the Bibs did score goals but for every one they scored the Muftis seemed to score three back. The high line played into the hands of Danny, Ben and Nathan who one suspected could not believe their luck; it was in essence St Patrick's day, Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving all rolled into one. In response the game was lit up by a perfectly executed Arik skills manoeuvre and a fleeting glimpse of a Maximus. However, it was 10 - 4 to the Muftis before it was finally accepted that at least one player should sit back in defence for the Bibs.

Ben joined the fixture in mid August 2014 and from that day players have enjoyed the fact that he used a pair of boots that were probably broken in when Henrik Larsson was playing for Celtic and Michael Owen was at Liverpool. The lack of grip on these meant that opposing defenders knew they had a fraction of a second while Ben got his balance on receiving the ball and a fair chance that as he accelerated the smooth soles of his boots would work against him getting proper traction to push off on runs. The long and short of it was the treacherous boots played against Ben but were loved by his opponents. Tonight the boots were finally upgraded to a neat new pair of Adidas. Suddenly Ben was half a meter ahead of his opponents, leathered a strike at goal from 25 yards out and eventually with new found traction ran at the burgeoning Bibs' defence, executed a step over which must have been coupled with a deft shift of posture as players went to his left and right while he ran through to score one of the goals of the night. Any aspiring young player reading this please note, yes the Adidas stripes may make you go faster but we are duty bound to say other brands exist.

By about 16 - 5 to the Muftis they began to turn on the style, Scott had scored, Milo was feeding the attack and to add insult to injury a ball was passed in to Nathan from the left to which he seemed to perform a mid air step over culminating in what appeared to be a back heel into the net before landing. If this gravity defying air step move is successfully executed two more times then it may go into club folklore.

The Bibs were able to bring the score back to 17 -7 meaning that the night might be retrieved if they could score ten goals in 20 minutes. JonF combined with Niyi to chip away at the deficit. The Muftis were having none of this revival talk and soon Danny ensured it was down to the Bibs needing to score 11 goals in 10 minutes. The other team did not arrive so there seemed to be scope for the Bibs to perform a get out of jail spectacular as Arik kept goal and Jon, Luteus and Anthony helped carve out opportunities but when the score was 24 - 11 Nathan had to gently advise the Bibs that whilst 13 goals in two minutes was theoretically possible the likelihood was very improbable. The Bibs eventually ran out of time and the match ended at 9.20pm.

Finishing the night with a tally of 24 goals the Muftis had performed

the closest thing to a beautiful dissection that had been seen in ages. The only consolation for the Bibs was that they had at least reached double figures.

Match awarded to the Muftis 24 - 11.