With player/manager Jambo sidelined and performing only his managerial duties, his focus was obtaining just one thing...Christmas Number 1.

A win would ensure this and against a side who were second from bottom and a squad which was possibly the strongest its been all season, Garnett fancied it.

Nevertheless, the management team were not taking it lightly, with insistence on a strong warm-up before kick off, focused mentalities on the game and a ban on laughing at the Celta Nemo Kit.

4-4-2 once again was favoured, with the versatile Lavery up front with the in form Bradley. The game kicked off, Garnett piling on the pressure, with Atkinson and Lavery in particular with high work rates. Nemo never looked like scoring and with 20 minutes gone and the fact that Garnett were not ahead, lead to a similar amount of questions being asked by the manager, Jambo than Magnus Magnusson back in his hey day (two great Masterminds). However the break through came soon after when Atkinson latched onto a high ball and expertly hooked it into the net. The next came when Jambo slotted home delightfully from a through ball, followed by another from Normington to make it 3:0. The manger was of course pleased by the way things were going, however was also irritated by the fact he was going to take off Bradley and Normington at half time and both had just scored….almost as if they knew!

When half time came it was hard to have to break up a team which had played so well, however two men had not kicked a ball as of yet, so on came top scorer Appleby and Barker. The whistle was blown and the second half commenced. The game continued exactly how it was left with Garnett dominating the chances and possession. It was 10 minutes in when the opposition were truly humiliated, a Garnett corner was swung in from the left and who slotted home, Captain Steve Simms. As the manager stood on the touchline clapping his hands, in his head he was thinking of his sarcastic joke a few weeks ago about Simms obtaining the golden boot, surely not, right?

From this point onwards the work rate declined considerably from Garnett, almost reaching a point where the job was done too early. Celta Nemo started for the first time to really get into the game, winning the battles in midfield and giving the defence a bit of a bashing. In particular Haines and Atkinson were furious with the sudden lapse and drop in work rate, with Simms and Nunn soon shouting their opinions out. Towards the end Garnett once again picked it up, with strikers Bradley and Appleby having shots parried away. The referee blew the whistle with Garnett getting a seemingly comfortable victory and the team maintaining the top spot for the Christmas break.

Author: Jambo

Team: R.Kroon, R.Swigg, C.Nunn, D.Haines, S.Simms 1, B.Brown (MoM), C.Normington 1, A.Hindle, L.Lavery, J.Bradley 1, J.Atkinson 1
Subs: L.Appleby, G.Barker

NB: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the
views of the Gosforth Garnett Bohemian Football Club as a whole.