Five-a-side

A narrow 7-6 (or was it 8-7?) win for our boys last night. I say "boys", but owing to the fact all the youngsters turned up in red, and the bulk of adults turned up in white, it was a men versus boys match (the boys helped out by Steve and Andy). We expected to start strongly, and then fade away, but in the event something like the opposite happened. From 2-0 to 5-3 we were playing catch-up for the first half (although we did hit the woodwork an unbelievable number of times) - our third goal coming from a defender turning my low cross into the net. I actually got on the scoresheet to equalise - the ball came at me at chest height, and a I managed to chest and volley it into the roof of the net. Admittedly I was about half a yard out, but there were bodies everywhere and besides, any further away and it would probably have gone flying over the bar!

The youngsters all have excellent technique, but tend to over-elaborate or resort to trying to play too many long balls over the top. Our lot have experience, but are decidedly mixed when it comes to skill, although once again I improved as the game went on, with more of my passes finding their targets. I had a reasonable spell in goal too - safe hands, but thankfully no nasty shots to save.

All of this came after a pleasant day was spent in the company of mum, dad and my aunt Chris in Rickinghall, between Diss and Bury St Edmunds. I was interviewing Chris for my compost commission for BBC Countryfile magazine, and I think it went well.