Knackered 8 d DotWS 5 - Indoor Soccer Grand Final

Last night we won our first championship for a couple of years, with a very good performance against Defenders of the Wooden Spoon, who were missing a couple of good players. We were up 5-2 at half time, and running along nicely. One of our first-half goals was a lovely bit of patient passing. It was something like Brett to Paul to Cam to me to Paul to me to Cam to me, and into the net.

DotWS kicked off in the second half and scored inside 10 seconds. Their gun player Andrew was just too slippery for any of us to track him. Unfortunately he couldn't do it all himself. From 5-3 we went goal for goal for ten minutes - we just couldn't shake them off. After scoring a few in the first half, I was just muffing every opportunity in the second half - taking one touch too many and getting too close to the keeper. The other guys stepped up though, and Ed, Paul and Brett kept the scoreboard ticking. With 90 seconds left we were still only two in front, when I finally found my touch again and scooped one into the net, for 8-5, and we had it in the bag.

All wives and kids were there, so we won in front of a large crowd of supporters, which made it even better.

We really like the DotWs guys, and they always give us a good game. They have stronger and weaker players, but everyone gets equal time, no matter how important the game. They enjoy playing together and that's more important to them than results, in the end. Having said that, they beat us only a few weeks ago, and they weren't far away last night.

Clarence Mafia 14 d Knackered 13

Last week we played the 2nd bottom team and notched our second win. (We are last). Last night we were up against the top side, a slick and super-fit bunch of youngsters, who beat us 22-7 last time. Paul and I did a bit of tactical planning earlier in the day.

Paul, Bowen and Eleanor came over for a visit during the morning, and we had another game of 3 v 3 soccer with Cameron and Adrian from next door. We had a chat about how to try to beat the Clarence Mafia, and we agreed that their goalkeeper was a bit of a weak link, and that we should try to surprise him with a few early long shots.

We took a 1-0 lead through exactly that tactic. I had a swing with my left without really looking and the keeper didn't know anything about it. However four minutes later we were down 1-5. We fought very hard, and made it as physical as we could without giving away too many frees. At half time we were down about 6-10.

Paul, Brett and I were all tiring fast and I was having trouble keeping my feet. Every time I hit the ground I lost skin, and hauling myself up again cost energy. But we were staying with them on the scoreboard and in the last five minutes we outplayed them. I never really though we were a chance to win, but they didn't really look like scoring either. I ended up in goals as I was completely spent - Paul and Brett threw everything at them but we just fell short.

I felt like we had got pretty close to our best possible effort. Cam was excellent in defence and our running off the ball was very good - this is why we had trouble running out the game. It gives us a lot of hope for the next few weeks.