Simons stricken by striking Scotsman

Another large turn-out at Coram Fields this week, although we were shorn of our spiritual leader and Chef de Mission, Monsieur Gaz, as he continued his recovery from Liam’s Nat Lofthouse-esque challenge last week. 

With the main man banjaxed with sore ribs, all of the usual football duties fell to his namesake, me. Here are the teams I eventually settled on:

Oranges and Yellows: Tony, Bristol Paul, James, Dan, Simon Ink, me, Charlie, Nick and Mick

Blues: Steve, Will, Danny, Paul, Ian Cortina, David, Liam, Patrick, Mark and Alan

Play got underway relatively promptly and the game soon fell into a consistent pattern, with the Blues looking the more dangerous once they broke, with Liam and Patrick terrorising the Yellows’ thin line of defence. The team in citrus coloured bibs were seeing plenty of the ball, largely courtesy of some decent passing between Tony, James and Nick, but lacked penetration and repeatedly found the Blues defence well organised and difficult to break down. That said, the game was stuck at 1-0 to the Blues for around the first twenty minutes; I forget who opened the scoring.

Tony equalised for the Blues, but soon after Danny surged forward down the left and spotted Mick off his near post and passed the ball home to restore the Blues lead; thereafter the Yellow and Oranges never looked seriously like getting back in the game. Charlie had to leave the field having been felled by a trademark reducer from Steve, at which juncture we took man-of-the-moment Mark to make the teams even at nine apiece. 

The Blues went on to score four more goals however, with Patrick and Liam getting in on the act, Liam’s goal coming after spinning his marker and firing home. Speaking of Liam he managed to crash his elbow into my eye socket, the principle effect of which was to permanently dislodge my contact lens, which made for a slightly trippy rest of the evening, as I had a kind of fuzzy split vision. Tony got one back for the Yellows just before we were ushered off by the man with the whistle. Given Simon's injury last week, I'd suggest that Simon Ink wears body armour next time out.

Final score: Yellows 2 – Blues 6

Less excitement at the Skinners this week, as there was no online auction to be distracted by. Conversation oscillated between the upcoming general election and the relative merits (or otherwise) of the main protagonists, girls at Ian’s school, Liverpool’s prospects between now and the end of the season and the fact that according to most people there’d be very few people playing next week. Or at least that’s what they said when I asked them if they could wash the bibs. 

Hopefully this will prove to be untrue, but one thing I can say for sure is that I’ll definitely be away next Friday, so see you all in two weeks.