Steam Lokomotiv vs NLJ Rovers

Graham had a 50mph crash on his scooter two weeks ago. This loss was infinitely more painful.

Only last week we had just cruised to a 6-2 win over the league leaders, Detica FC, and we had already beaten last night’s opponents NLJ Rovers in the first game of the season, 8-7. We were fielding an even stronger team, we had a formation, we had publicly humiliated them on our blog (avid readers). We had high hopes with a nod to Neville Southall’s maxim “If you don’t believe you can win, there is no point in getting out of bed at the end of the day.”

The first ten minutes suggested an even game. With both teams playing fluid football. They scored first we answered minutes later. Chris and Mike both got on the scoresheet. Adil had a fearsome clash with their centre forward which left him with a gash on his forehead. NLJ Rovers then scored a couple of goals in quick succession. They were fit, aggressive and knew what the inside of a gym looked like. We thought we had an answer to them, but it was not enough. As the game was slipping away (5-2) Chris managed to get himself sent off. Reducing our five-a-side team to four. Graham came on for the now slightly dazed Adil. Neal Ladd, defiant and against the run of play scored. Still at the other end nothing could stem the deluge of goals. 10-3 was the final score, begrudgingly, a fair representation of the game.

“Winning doesn’t really matter as long as you win!” (Vinnie Jones) but we didn’t.