Mighty 4's back on the winning trail

This Saturday saw the Wars away to Reed. Reed have always given us a good game so we knew we had some work to do, it was a beautiful day for football and we were raring to go. We had 13, including our keeper Mash who had given us a scare on the Friday as he had had some work done on a tattoo which threatened to make him wear a summer dress for the afternoon. Luckily we managed to talk him round.

So we kicked off at 2.30 and immediately took the game to Reed. We were playing confidently and moving the ball around nicely but didn't have any clear chances until the ball came across quickly to Kev Badcock who put it over the Reed crossbar. We were unlucky but got straight back into the game, the Reed defence were finding it tough dealing with our wide men and we were commanding the midfield. After 35 minutes Gav pulled up with a hamstring so we reworked the midfield and brought on young Tom Kember. Tom got stuck in straight away but we couldn't make a breakthrough and went in at half time 0-0.

We started the second half with exactly the same attitude and commitment as the first and were soon in control. We were battling hard and not giving Reed any time on the ball. 15 minutes in we still weren't getting the opportunities so I changed it around a bit by bringing on James Wheel up front. It was a hot day so I was hoping a fresh pair of legs would make a difference and get us a breakthrough. Defensively we were very sound and Reed weren't getting any chances which was frustrating them. On 70 minutes the ball broke out of the Reed penalty area and fell to young Tom who hit a scorcher with his left to give us a deserved lead. We needed a solid 10 minutes now and I felt we could build on our lead but on 75 minutes James took a very strong challenge from behind and was then kicked for his troubles as well. Unfortunately James flicked out at his attacker who went down like a squealing little girl whose mascara had run on a first date. The ref spoke to me as linesman and I expected him to send both players off, wrong! James was sent off but squealing Sally just got booked. We knew we had a tough 15 minutes to face but we had battled brilliantly so far so I knew we could do it. Reed grew in confidence now but we were still managing to keep them at bay. Luke Jones was left back for us and hit a couple of absolute belters, one of which cannoned off the post as the keeper flapped. The commitment from the Wars was fantastic, great work rate and some tough tackling saw us through to the final whistle and gave us a well deserved hard fought victory.

Man of the match. Has to be shared between Jack Griffiths and Jim Tallon.