Saturday night, 25 of us made merry at the sponsor’s place for the league party.  Captain Chaos returned once again to bless us with his presence and be blamed for multiple rug burns the following morning (along with various other injuries and hangovers).  A great time was had by almost all, from what I remember!

However, despite the previous evenings exertions at the training ground (and on the pitch at Shi Pai; only the one police incident this weekend) we managed to arrive with a full squad for the match on Sunday.  The team bus surely helped as 17 people took advantage of the ride. Ricky decided not to take the bus but did redeem himself by bringing a cool box and a dozen beers.  Star man!  I hope there was one left for you at the end of the match!

Twenty players showed up; as did numerous supporters and club officials for the start of the new season.  We played the Celts in the late game feature match.  And it was quite the match.

Right from the first we controlled possession well and were put ahead by Mike OG with a lovely shot that beat the keeper high to the right.  This helped to calm some of the nerves and set us up for a more relaxed day than last year when we were often left wondering where the goals would come from (and in many cases when).   Davo made it 2-0 with a lovely volley before a Celts defender hit a superb shot to make it… 3 – 0 (by my count that makes it two goals for OG).

Then it was the turn of our newest player to show his class as Bryan hit 4 straight goals, easily running past the Celts defenders and slotting the ball home from every angle you can think of.  7 – 0 at the half and Gren was already drinking his second beer.

And we weren’t finished there.  The second half started slowly but we settled after 15 minutes and saw Dan find his striking boots as he hit a brace of goals with two superb runs.  This opened the flood gates again as Gren (cheeky toe-poke into the top corner), Shawn (penalty), Alberto (20 yard curler) and Carl (close range screamer) rounded out the scoring.

13 - 0.  A record win for the club and a positive start to the new season.  Luke kept a clean sheet and did what he needed to when called upon (“Luke, could you pass us a beer?”).  New boys Roberto, Charlie and Aiden slotted in well to the midfield adding much needed class, depth and speed.  The back four was by far the most hung-over part of the team but held things together throughout with Shawn a particular menace in the second half.  Honorable mention for a stellar performance to Ricky, Jean-Marc, Frederic, Spike, Smith, Warren and Alex Hart.