Game 28

Always allow plenty of time in case of anything going wrong ... long tale this to reflect the pre-match distractions!!!

I got my kit and associated paraphernalia together last night so only had to bathe, shave, iron my shirt, dress, bag my kit and leave. Sounds straight forward until I found that all my "football" white shirts were in the washing basket ... no problem, I can operate a washing machine EXCEPT when they all came out of the washing machine, there had been some sort of malfunction leaving all three shirts streaked with mud.

Still not a problem, I had a back up shirt I wore last week, so I slapped that on the ironing board only to notice a mark on it in the middle of the back. So I scrubbed it clean and started to iron the wet patch dry, this created a stain and every time I tried to wash it out it got bigger! That left an old short sleeved shirt that I wore last season. It's "whiteness" had faded but it still was acceptable for today so it was ironed and quickly put on.

I punched in the details of the ground into the satnav and set off to get some diesel. I arrived outside the petrol station I have been using for the last 6 years since moving into the area only to find it was flattened and had turned into a building site! A quick detour saw me pull in at another local station but there was the longest queue of people, none of whom seemed to be buying fuel! I grabbed some new anti-freeze (temperatures are expected to hit -3C tonight), filled my reserve and got back in the road. I was still on track to arrive a good 45 minutes before kick off.

Now not having been to this ground before I was using a combination of satnav and handbook instructions to get there. Never did I think that the two would try to contradict each other and having driven up to a level crossing for the second time (and this time getting stopped for a passing train) I gave up and took the next turning. On arriving at the stated location of the club car park I could see nothing that looked like a football field or changing rooms. On consulting I saw I had to double back over the railway track, this time on a foot crossing, eventually arriving with only 15 minutes to kick off.

After changing into my kit (Superman himself couldn't have worked faster), worked through a slightly shortened version of my my warm up, I still had a minute or two to kick off. The away team had disappeared so I ran back to the changing rooms (200m) and called them out. We kicked off 8 minutes late by the time they dragged themselves to the field. Just before kick off I realised that one of the fiery little wingers from Wednesday's game earlier in the week was playing in goals for the home team. We exchanged insults in a friendly way and I got the game going.

And so to the game ... I had little trouble from either side with the away team conceding a kick from the penalty mark after 10 minutes. They were from the Premier Division of the league and the home team from the division below. An over eager away team coach stopped the ball from going out of play and from the resultant dropped ball, the home team won a throw in on the opposite touchline on the half way line. A quick throw, a cutting run finished by a rasping shot on goal saw the home team double their lead.

The away coach then complained about an offside decision against his team and we had a brief discussion about his complaining. Half time came and went without the bitterly cold wind relenting, but the warming sunshine disappeared behind a cloud. This was a place where even hell could freeze over!

Another early attack from the home team saw their hard working midfielder collect the ball on the edge of the away team's penalty area. He stepped forward and hit a left footed, rising, curling drive into the top right hand corner of the goal to take the score to 3-0. The away team then attacked almost without a break for the next 35 minutes with only a shot deflecting off the crossbar to show for their efforts.

The scorer of the second goal launched himself into a tackle and I decided that he had behaved recklessly so issued the game's only caution. The game limped on to its conclusion without any let up in the freezing wind. The teams and most of their support staff thanked me for looking after the game and then it was into the welcome warmth of the shower.

Calories burned 1398 (low!) max hr 91% average 74% (low, low, low).