Pretty pictures are here

The owls wise words

With one player for the Reds still in bed, the teams took to the pitch in near perfect weather conditions .

The Blacks looked to capitalise early on their one man advantage. Indeed, straight from the kick off Kevo seemed to freeze Rotherham style , allowing Gert to slot home a simple chance.

Kevos’ excuse was that he was still bedazzled by Keiths attire. Not satisfied with his shiny footwear , Keith has now matched his silver boots with a spectacular Thai National Team footy shirt , apparently costing all of 3 Thai Baht !

The referee had earlier called for VAR to check the multi-coloured shirt , but in keeping with inconsistent and poor decision-making calls from VAR , Keith was fortunate not to be sent off to change.

Reds O-1 down and a man down 😩.

The game began to flow nicely , with some neat link up play from both sides and Reds trying hard to grab an equaliser. After 10 minutes , Dave 🐇 made the break through for the Reds drilling home from well outside the box. 1-1 .

Ken ( Blacks ) was nicely positioned in front of goal twice in the space of 2 minutes, but his usual goal poaching talents seemed to desert him for once.

Daz was starting to find space up front for the Reds as the game moved end to end with some excellent passing and movement off the ball. And finally Daz turned provider to find Dave 🐇 , who slotted home for his second , giving Reds a 2-1 advantage.

Kev then threaded a beautiful ball through to Daz , who failed to connect and increase their lead after 22 minutes.
Keith then hit a “Barry Bannon style” pass through to Fish , who nearly got vertigo as he found himself through on goal. What a finish 🤩 . 2-2.

Drinks breaks were few and far between , as the weather conditions were sunny but temperatures cool. And immediately following a water break , Bambi put one wide for the Reds.

Gert , eager to add to his opening salvo , repeated his goal scoring trick to put the blacks in front again – a feat made easier because Toni had now come out of goal ( mainly to shout obscenities at Bambi ) . Blacks 3-2.

Brian then showed everyone how Exeter usually try to defend by passing straight to the opposition in front of goal (cheeky sod! -Ed) – Daz buried it , 3-3.

Blacks retake the lead 4-3 , as Steve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 passes the ball into the corner of the net with some aplomb. And the Blacks hold on to their lead , seeing the game out with some neat ball possession – game management Arsenal style ( boring 😝 ).

Overall, it was a good game with two well-balanced teams once Rip Van Winkle finally got out of bed 😴. If we ignore Daz’s inclination to “move very quickly’ , there was very little running, very little tackling, and a desire to play in the spirit of the game. Well done guys – it was a pleasure to referee this one .

Colins Corner

Game 2 was an 8 aside affair with Blacks looking stronger.

Ref 🦊 mumbled something about “No drop backs” we had no idea what that meant, we’d find out later!

With Kevin returning for reds, he and Colin were still finding their feet in defence when Fez made space and got the scoring underway 1-0 Blacks

Mick 🐁 is back for a few games and drifts around the right wing looking uninterested until all of a sudden he tip toes his way in front of goal and the scores are even.

Colin feeling he has some freedom goes for the same ball as John where it kindly falls for Colin who pokes it home for 2-1 reds

Garry, not used to these cold climates in his tracky bottoms scores a 3rd for reds but ref 🦊 allows the blacks to convince him he’d entered the box, no goal😱

An inoculous ball dribbles back towards Steve in goal who steps out of his area to collect the ball. Penalty! What, why? Oh No drop backs means No rush keeper, of course!!!!!

Fez stalls, Steve goes to ground 2-2, in the blink of an eye a deserved 3-1 reds is 2-2

Part time ref Steve in goal is constantly marshalling his troops, well he’s shouting but are they listening??

An exchange of goals with Mick scoring his second, 🚖 responding with a well drilled goal from distance precedes 3 goals of calamity.

Martin shoots, Steve parries and goes to ground, up the ball goes, down it comes, bounces on Steve and stumbles over the line. 4-3 Blacks

Due to the “No drop back” rule Eddie is unable to collect the loose ball a metre in front of him allowing 🐁 to nip in and poke the ball past him 4-4

Now it’s just a question of seeing out the game. Kaj is all over the pitch and Colin is tracking him as best he can, Fez, 🚖, Martin and Tommy are pressing for blacks. John, 🐁, Garry, Dave 👑 and Trevor are probing for reds.

Blacks have it, Martin shoots, Steve parries… We’ve been here before, surely not again…… The ball goes straight up, comes straight down behind Steve and trickles over the line

5-4 blacks and deja vu for 2 of them. 🚖 goes down with a hamstring issue, limps off but the game finally ends.

It wasn’t pretty at times, but it was a good game