Old Challoners v Old Tenisonians

Team: Raithatha, Dias (Weisz), Redpath (Rogers), Gardner, Walsh, Croucher, Allen (Powell), Lowes, Fallon, Baker, Fuzz

Score: 2:1
Scorers: Gardner, Fuzz
Att: minimum of 1 at all times, peaking at 6

Back to the bread and butter of the league this week and Challoners needed three points to maintain their push for the league title.

The game started brightly with Challoners dominating possession and forcing some early chances. However, it was Tenisonians that broke the deadlock with a quick break down the left by their number 9 who broke free of the Challoners back line and calmly slotted the ball away for a 1-0 lead.

This seemed to spur Challoners on, and wave after wave of attacks followed. After a strong claim for a penalty, when Fallon seemed to be pushed in the back, and an acrobatic over head attempt from Baker, Challoners spent the rest of the half camped at the Tenisonians end.

However, frustrations grew as a series of misses followed. Most people would have gambled their children that Baker would score at least one of his two close range headers, and far worse was to follow.

Following good work down the left, the ball was squared across the goal mouth and with the keeper stranded, an easy tap in looked certain. After what might generously be called a Baker dummy on the line, the ball fell to the unmarked Croucher for a simple finish at the back post. Astonishingly for a player famous for one yard poaching, he succeeded in the incredibly difficult skill of hitting the ball over the bar, at power, from no more than inches off the line.

Reasons proposed for the howler included far eastern betting syndicates, an Act of God from the Tenisonian's midfield Jesus look a like, and also the fact that Croucher's boots used to belong to Rogers.

The pattern of the game continued with Walsh, Fallon and Fuzz terrorizing the Tenisonians defence down the left and Challoners gained their reward with a much needed goal on the stroke of half time. Fuzz was brought down in the area and Gardner slotted home the resulting penalty with the last kick of the half.

The second half was more of the same and Challoners corner count must have reached at least 20, but it seemed that it was not going to be Challoners day as the ball just wouldn't go in. With goals needed, Weisz turned to his subs bench and saw the attacking prowess of two defenders and a defensive midfielder. Still he sent them all on anyway, and the chances continued with Powell and Fuzz both having good late headed chances.

Finally in the last minutes of the game a long ball from Croucher was flicked on by Baker and, showing good pace, Fuzz reached the ball just before the keeper and poked the ball home.

Tenisonian's then had a good chance late on as their number 9 again found himself in on goal, but an excellent save from Sunil meant that the game finished 2-1. Challoners deserved the win although Tenisonians will have been disappointed to hang on for so long only to lose it at the end.

With a general feeling of relief at full time, the mood inevitably turned to hounding Croucher about his miss. Staggeringly, when asked to comment, Croucher replied: "It was probably the worst miss of my career." Those who witnessed it were hopeful that there hadn't been any worse, as this was up there in the all time list of misses, reminiscent of Kanu's horror finish last season.

Overall though, it was an excellent display of football from Challoners, only really lacking a killer instinct in front of goal.

Man of the match: Ben Fallon