Game 39

With my legs still aching from yesterday's exertions I made my way to this morning's game.

On arriving there was no one in the changing rooms, on the field or in the car park. As I entered the sports centre, a young girl ran past me and started opening the doors closest to the field. Soon afterwards the away team started arriving but no home team. I got changed and made my way out to the track and warmed up by running a fast paced lap before putting my boots on and making my way to the field.

The home team weren't ready to play and we had a delayed kick off of ten minutes while they sorted themselves out. The game was effectively over by the 29th minute as the away team scored their second goal a few minutes earlier, which came from a kick from the penalty mark. Their first was from an own goal as the ball was played into his own goal by a defender from a throw in.

By that time the home team's centre half had collected the game's first caution. His team conceded a third goal from a rasping shot from the edge of the penalty area on 29 minutes. A fourth was added a few minutes later amid claims of offside. The last one came as I was readying myself to kick off again and it was too loud and to strong to be ignored, so we had another caution.

We reached half time without much more action and I expected a rout in the second half but it never materialised. The only thing that happened was both teams contrived to take the caution count to seven. A reckless challenge by an away player was followed by a home player delaying the restart of play. A team mate received a caution for the same offence a few minutes later and a sarcastic handclap by another tram mate, saw his name taken as well. Another incident of dissent from an away player completed the tally.

This was very disappointing from a personal point of view as I had been speaking to players on both sides all through the game, explaining decisions, providing encouragement and words of warning where required. The game finished at 0-4, 1199 (yes less than 1200!) calories burned off, max hr 83%, average 69%. This low work rate reflects the fact that play was compressed into one half for virtually all of the game. As I entered the changing rooms my phone was ringing ...