Myers-Allen sails to the rescue of M3 in wild and windy penultimate fixture

Hat trick helps see off bottom of the table Newmarket at Henley Road

A sensational hat trick from Lewis Myers-Allen, in only his second league game, saw off the limited threat from Newmarket in the penultimate league game of the season which was moved to Henley Road after flash floods at Tuddenham. With 5th place seemingly secured Ipswich faced the bottom team determined not to become their first scalp of the year with the skipper managing to persuade Dan G to play up front in the absence of Greg, Tommy and Baz as otherwise it wasn't entirely clear what the goal threat would be from a squad made up entirely of elderly defenders or mature midfielders.
Lewis, Stretch and Taylor completed the matchday squad with the former grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck early on by converting a long diagonal from the skipper to give the mighty blue tractor an early lead. By this point Smudge had already limped off which was probably karma after his overly competitive and enthusiastic approach to the warm up - luckily Taylor had turned up by then as he hadn't seen the skipper's other decision to bring push back forward so England's capitulation to Scotland (to Dan's delight no doubt) could be watched.
Newmarket then equalised in farcial manner as a harmless ball was drilled into the area with the skipper leaving it for the onrushing Stretch who left it for the skipper out of deference; The Newmarket striker almost missed the ball out of shock at such a blunder but managed to get a little tickle on it before it crossed the line. The game then disintegrated as a spectacle with the Newmarket right back having a very public row with Pete G (who was umpiring) over a long corner decision (which had gone in his favour) and the quality of the hockey reflected the stormy weather being cold and windy (and not of Windy Miller standard either). Eventually Ipswich won a PC which Lewis hit like an exocet into the corner before anyone could react -the ball left his stick 30cm above the ground and never dropped at all.
Half time allowed for the team to regroup with a focus on keeping the team shape as well as trying to pass the little white round thing in the middle to someone we recognised and wearing a blue shirt. This worked to a certain extent with first Lewis completing his hat trick from the edge of the circle before Dan got on the act after some lovely interplay down the right from Neil and Taylor. Ipswich remained in control bar a slight misunderstanding between the skipper and the excellent Alan where the CF was left unmarked to sweep a shot past Stretch after a quick counter attack. In truth Ipswich never looked like losing control with Steve Hart, Andy C, Sampo and Ant using their wisdom and inordinate skills to control the middle of the park.
As the final whistle went the debate over the long corner continued but Ipswich took the spoils and now face the auld enemy IES on Saturday to finish a season that has produced some big wins and some big defeats. It has been fun (although December in Kings Lynn was not exactly St Tropez) and my thanks to all the players who have me and Andy us on our search for mid-table mediocrity. In that respect is has also been a great success!