Masonians (A): 02 February 2008

A kennelful of 'Dogs weaved their winsome way (enough with the alliteration already: Ed) to Wimbledon (...final warning: Ed) to confront Masonians, full of optimism. And why not? Our 2nd away game of 2008 with just one away defeat so far this calendar year, buoyed by our stunning one match unbeaten run: what could go wrong?

So confident were we that we took the field with 9 players, plus a home team guest - a ringer called Phil. So far, so good. Then Avni went and blew the whistle for the start of the game and, well, things began to go a bit off plot. Masonians are really very good. At everything except maths. Stay with me here - they attack with about 9 players, right? Then they defend with about 7, and they still have left over about 4 or 5 really skilful midfield players who link it all up. Somehow - and I've checked this several times - that still doesn't add up to more than 11. Fortunately, it being a sunny afternoon, there were shadows for us to chase and, boy, did we spend the 1st half doing so. Truth be told, we're all still carrying a wee bit of surplus midriff after Christmas/New Year so we were, at least, able to defend ...stoutly (ok, you win - go back to the alliteration if you must, but spare us the contrived puns: Ed). Nonetheless, Masonians breached us twice: first with a neat 'skip round the keeper and ...dink!' job, then with a rising piledriver that would have entered the net with body parts attached had GBB been unwise enough to get in the way. HALF TIME: Masonians 2 Bulldogs 0

We knew the next goal would be crucial, but it came from an unlikely source. GBB looked favourite to cut out a killing through ball but, somehow, he succeeded only in trapping it neatly and most obligingly for an oncoming Masonian. And before you could say 'where have all our visitors gone all of a sudden?' said opposition forward had rolled it gently into an unguarded net. Surely things couldn't get worse? Come off it, we're talking Bulldogs here - we love a challenge. So they did get worse. While we defended heroically to keep their score - most improbably - to 3, we blew a couple of gilt edged chances the other end. No names, of course, but I'm guessing someone whose name might be an anagram of Maul Pangat would like to forget his saved p flick, while someone else, whose name might be an anagram of xaM, will want to forget his airshot in front of an open goal. Did I mention they kept attacking but we managed to keep it down to 3? Well they did, and we did (if you get me) and that was that. FINAL SCORE: Masonians 3 Bulldogs 0

Harrumph. Any positives? Well, James kept running as only he can; Mike, Nigel and our gallant injured captain performed heroics at the back; Paul M - great to have you with us - showed glimpses of what might have been; Jimmy, Max and Barry fought tigerishly in defeat. We never gave up and, despite a collective off day, were far more competitive than we had been at our place earlier this season when, embarrassingly, they all but declared when already 5-0 up some time before half time. And again, we socialised hard and fair afterwards in the name of NPL, enhancing our reputation as the complete hockey team in all but the bit on the pitch. Huge thanks to our guest 'Dog, Phil the Masonian, who took a perverse delight in playing a blinder against his own club. Finally, we had a bad day - but at least we didn't blow a 19-6 lead with less than 30 minutes to go. Ha!

Winston of the Week: the captain's choice was GBB, presumably for cheering us all up with their ludicrous 3rd goal, and then for one or two better moments once all was already lost.