Match Report

Loads of injuries, some decent performances and an early exit!

For some reason we found ourselves up at 9.15am on Saturday registering to play in an 11-a-side tournament in Eltham. Every team in the tournament was at least 2 divisions above us and I\'m pretty sure the first team had been entered, not us! We played 30-minute games in a group stage. I honestly have no idea what the names of any of the teams were, so I\'ve sort of made them up. The added bonus of a 45-minute break between games meant we had time to eat quarter pounders, smoke too much and give our muscles adequate time to stiffen up completely.

Game 1
Ressies 2-1 Atletico Madrid
They wore an Atletico type kit, don\'t know who they were. Al Baynes scored our first, Alex Barnes brought him along. Nice lad actually. Bill Webb played a lovely through ball and Baynesy skipped round the keeper and netted. They equalised with their only attack of the game. Bill then raced thru into the box and was taken out by two defenders and we got a penalty. Matt Ellis stepped up and dispatched a perfect penalty. He didn\'t mention it much, but that left him as our joint top scorer, if goals in friendlies counted (Ed.). We totally outplayed Atletico and were deserved winners.

2nd Game
Ressies 0-2 The Team in White
How we lost this I do not know. Whoever this team are, they will struggle this season. We just couldn\'t force a goal and were stung with two very offside goals.

3rd Game
Ressies 0-2 Erith 147
They were a lot better than us. We had Louis, Bill, Lloyd and Russ all injured. I spent a lot of the first half upfront. It was definitely home time. No complaints with the score.

Apparently we made it through to the semi finals. By this point we had had enough of football and decided to forfeit our place, due to numerous injuries. I can\'t wait to just play a game, one game, on a Saturday afternoon. Sundays and tournaments are not what I signed up for.

Injury of the week this week was a tough one. Bill\'s neck, Louis\' toe, Lloyd\'s ankle, Russ\' liver?? Most disgusting was my knee. It\'s truly horrific.

Our skipper, talisman, current player of the year and all round hero, Ad Ellson, was genuinely devastated that I didn\'t mention him in last week\'s report. So this bit is all about Ad. Pulling off some of the best slide tackles I\'ve seen in years, he somehow managed to get muddy, when there was no mud on the pitch, anywhere. He also supplied the Haribo & Sovereign, so thanks skip, we all love you.

Squad -
Lee Gibbs, Rich Tapsfield, Lee Cross, Chris Francis, Dave Martin, Rich Piles, Matt Ellis, Ad Ellson, Billy Webb, Lloyd Miller, Alex Barnes, Stu Lenton, Louis Hussey, Luke Johnson, Russell Nethercot, Al Baynes

Player of the tournament - Al Baynes