Ah, a freshly cut pitch, pretentious 1st years on the opposite side and a referee who wouldn't give a decision our way if one of there centre backs rugby tackled one of our lads in the box. It had to be our first game against the University 3rd team (oh, sorry, Reserves).

The bitterness from my opening speaks far more about how I felt the game went than the rest of this report probably will. The opening exchanges were very even, with both sides having intervals of pressure. We managed to open them up a couple of times early on. I shot into the side netting and Adam Bell tested them a couple of time from distance. But while we kept the pressure on they did look dangerous on the counter attack and got behind us a couple of times.

They hit the bar and then Rob Thorpe put his balls on the line, literally, to make a last ditch sliding tackle to stop them from scoring. We looked decidedly uneasy from corners and it remains a surprise to me that having conceded three in the game none came from this source. However it was one of our own corners that gave us the best chance of the half. It was taken short and Tom Perry swung in an excellent delivery from the left, Dave Ward snuck in at the back post only to head wide. He looked more bemused than most, over how he'd managed this.

The first half was less controversial than the second would be; only one offside decision went against us that perhaps shouldn't. An excellent through ball from Tom Hodgson to myself looked to have put me 1 on 1 with the keeper only for a late whistle to halt our progress. Admittedly it was our linesman who flagged. Not the best way for a substitute to get in his managers good books. Then just when it looked like we'd go in level at half time a through ball skidded under Fryer's boot, straight to their centre forward and after a solidly hit shot it was 1-0.

Now we get to the bit where steam flows from my ears as I write. We started the second half brightly and put them under some good pressure, only for them to knock it up the pitch and score what can only be described as a dubious goal at best. No flag appeared from the linesman when the defence clearly believed he was a good 6 yards offside. The same was to occur about 10 minutes later and that's all I really want to say about what became a disappointing second half, especially after Graeme Duncan got himself sent off for reacting to a bad tackle by grabbing the player by the head and throwing him to the floor.

A well fought first half, but a frustrating second is how I'd sum it up.

Team: J.Zengler, D.Ward, R.Thorpe, M.Fryer, C.Nelson, T.Hodgson, T.Perry, G.Duncan, Adam.Bell, J.Pike, A.Hindle
Sub: S.Moore