Saturdays friendly was against local team "Old Strets" who were unbeaten all season..... With a full squad to choose from, we were quickly down to 2 subs as the opposition only had 6 players. It was to to Ethan and Dylan's credit that they volunteered to play for the other team and benefited from playing almost all of the game.

Hamilton also volunteered to play in goal for the whole game and did really well against a very good team. James, Louis and Max started in defence, Ellis and Pat in midfield and Rob upfront. Strets went 1-0 up with a good breakaway goal and Rob soon equalised. What was disappointing was we then conceded very quickly after scoring - our concentration must have stopped!

At this point we were also going forward too much and not staying disciplined - that is keeping to our positions - which allowed Old Strets some chances. We'll work on this in Tuesdays training!

The game was extremely enjoyable though with end to end play. A good run from Ellis ended up with Patrick sliding in the goal past the keeper. A further good strong breakaway goal from Rob meant that the Romans were starting to get on top. Alex and Tom came on in the second period and Max continued his runs from wing back creating some good opportunities.

The general play was encouraging with more passing between the forwards and midfield resulting in Pat scoring more goals - eventually getting his hat trick!

We took more control of the game and were 5-3 up with not long left of the final period. Unfortunately there was a comeback from Old Strets where we again lost a bit of shape and they knocked in 3 quick goals. The result in the end was a defeat - but for me it was a victory. How could we lose when we had 2 Romans on the oppositions team !

A major plus was this was their A team who play in a higher league than us - in the end we more than matched them and it was an unlucky result. So a big positive and something all the team should think about - it doesn't matter how good the other team are supposed to be, we can match anyone on our day.

Well played to all the Romans - with a special mention to Ethan and Dylan who also did us proud playing on the other team.

Man of the match today was James - for his excellent reading of the game, all round effort and discipline in his position.