TWFC

The fixture welcomed Richard, a work colleague of Mark's, henceforth known as Richshep, to his first match. It was not an evening for the faint hearted, it was so cold that running around was preferable to freezing in goal and for a keeper the sting of blocking a shot gave a warm glow which offset the bitter chill.

It started with the Bibs playing with a man short and thus rush keeper and the promise to be allowed to take a player from the opposition at half time. Milo, having quietly accepted his lot the previous week, was this week allowed to don an orange bib again.

With their numerical superiority the Muftis made short work of blasting the Bibs off of the park. Within a short period it was 4 - 0 and it looked as if it would be one of those nights when a great score would be amassed by half time which could not be retrieved in the second period.

Richshep took the game to the Bibs and was seen to routinely take the ball away from JonF, Johnny and Milo with calm efficiency and then set up opportunities for himself, Scott, Mark and Avvon to feast upon.

Players' hearts went out to Johnny as he wasn't scoring and it appeared as if he was to experience a hammering worse than the end of the first match of the year. With this in mind he was gently encouraged to shout whenever he felt it was half time. Cut to the quick at this ignominious prospect Johnny altered his game and brought the ball in from the left lashing it across the goal to reduce the deficit to 4 - 1.

At 5 - 1 to the Muftis it seemed as if each outfield Mufti player had scored and were then on to genteely deciding how many they would share. In amongst all of this it was noticed that Steve had turned on his after burners and was starting to rush back to make unbelievable clearances before helping shore up the middle of the pitch to feed the Bib's attack.

And attack they did, somehow absorbing the Mufti's onslaughts the Bibs were beginning to hit the Muftis on the break. It was a case of three to four Muftis being caught short leaving JonF and Johnny to rush off and punish the Mufti's high line. Working in unison the Bibs treated the Muftis to what might be termed the Night of the Two Men Named John. The break away moves from Milo and Steve were gradually bearing fruit and the Johnny and JonF duo began to capitalise on their boundless energy. Soon, quite incredibly, the match was level and at nominal half time goals from JonF, Johnny and Steve had brought the score to 8 - 7 to the Bibs.

At nominal half time the Bibs nobly declined the extra man, some may say this was foolhardy. However, a post match reviewer later on reminisced that the Bibs had four of the best runners around and this proved difficult to counter as the Bibs went to 9-7, then 10-8, then 11 - 8. During this period Johnny exorcised his earlier demons by scoring from angles and twice deftly dinking the ball over the diving keeper. I t appeared that JonF was everywhere, more often than not goal side of the opposition, and aiding and abetting Johnny in the wanton destruction of the Muftis. During this period a speculative shot was tipped over into the garden. The ball was seen to roll back towards the fence but upon seeking it in the undergrowth it was nowhere to be found. After some searching Richshep eventually spotted the ball nestled in some brush on the far side of the garden. N ew to the fixture and untarnished by previous goings on Richshep speculated that the ball had probably hit a brick and rolled back on itself away from the fence. Rational, yes, but some players suspect different. Even though the devilish canine tormentor seems to have departed there is still something not quite right about that garden on a dark night!

As the match drew to a close the Muftis managed to at least stem the assault on them and reached double figures. When the next team arrived the game came to a respectable end. In the week of FA cup giant slaying somehow in our fixture from 4 - 0 down four men had inflicted a bruising defeat on five.

Match awarded to the Bibs 12 - 10

Things to Note

Richshep joins that well respected brethren of players who have scored a hat trick on their debut. He also joins AlMaher in ending his debut match on the losing side despite scoring and creating many goals.

Milo continues his run of victories and finishes January with a 100% winning record for 2015. On a less fortunate note Scott revealed the trauma of having not tasted victory this calendar year. February is a new month, the fixture awaits with bated breath to see if Scott and Milo will play on the same side.

Scott is thanked for setting in train a series of checks that culminated in noticing that the emailed match report of 7 January 2015 had players under the wrong teams. This typo has been corrected.

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