Following a bit of homily from our GMB at the back, the 'Dogs held firm in those all important first few minutes, even showing a bit of promise up front. But any thoughts of an early surprise were rudely shattered by a well-taken Purley goal, at the 2nd (or was it 3rd?) attempt, following a short corner. Heigh Ho. Still, we battled, with Peter and Satbir devilling away in midfield and, oh - Richard S got that close to an equaliser - and his 1st ever 'Dog goal (it will surely come, my boy, it will surely come). But then we hit whatever the opposite is of a purple patch and conceded 3 quickfire goals of increasing softness. Peter then got a bit antsy and showed what it takes to be captain, swiftly identifying that the loss of 3 quick goals meant it was time to rollick the defence. So he did, and the freshly-rollicked defence responded by holding firm till half time.
HALF TIME: 'PURLEY 4 'DOGS 0
Reasoning that we might not win this one from such a challenging half way scoreline, we 'Dogs decided instead to play the best we could and see what happened. And what happened wasn't half bad. We tightened up at the back, conceding just one "what about all those ****** stick tackles in the build up, umpire?!" more goal, and threatening to open our own 2009 account on more than one occasion. The 2 Richards showed ridiculous cool and skill beyond their years, the equally youthful David R kept them keen down our right, the not quite so youthful Curt battled away on the left. Meanwhile, at the sharp end of things, Mike T, Nigel and Martin repelled most invaders and, behind them, the GMB produced a couple of smart pointblank stops - and emerged unscathed from a couple of interesting challenges (one in either half) that might have ended up in A+E. But, for all our endeavour, we couldn't get back at them so, after a lively and evenly matched 2nd half, we had to hold our hands up to a ...
FINAL SCORE: PURLEY 5 'DOGS 0
Bit of an odd one, this. the score suggests a thrashing, but it didn't feel like it. This is a strong Purley team (they're giving Wallington a run for their money, dammit) and, apart from a wobbly 10 minutes, we all but matched them. With the prospect of Ian G, Maxie, Barry S and Jimmy to come back and boost our ranks between now and Easter, we might lose more games than we win, but another win or 2 might yet be on the cards. And while most of us are just getting older, our youngsters are just getting better. Woof! Woof!
WINSTON(S) OF THE WEEK: A shared award this week, between the 2 Richards. Special mention also to David R - a very close runner up. Big thanks to our guest players from Purley, and to Curt for helping us out in what was his 2nd game of the day. Finally - but my no means least - a big woof woof to Dave C for his excellent, low key (in all the right ways) umpiring.
So to next week, where we begin with a promising looking scoreline of 0-0. But can we keep it up once the whistle goes for the start of the match? All will be revealed, in due time!
