For what seems like an age we managed to play a game, even with some last minute pitch changes on Flixton fields.

With some absences for this week with James and Tom away and Dylan injured - fractured elbow & get well soon - there were only 8 players available.

By agreement with Old Strets we played all the players in this friendly which was a good test of the fitness.

The coaches wanted to carry on trying players in different positions to help them understand different roles in the team.

Rob had volunteered to be in goal - and I believe had been practising hard in his back garden and this certainly showed - with a 3-2-2 formation in front of him.

It was intriguing to see what the reaction would be after the defeat at Wythenshawe but the team started well - getting the passing going early on.

The defence with Alex and Ham in was solid and the players kept in the right positions, well organised by Max in the centre. The pass and movement of the team soon created a chance and it was well finished by Louis up front. Not content with this, he slotted another home from a good move to make it 2-0 at the end of the period.

In the second period players moved positions with Ellis, Louis and Ethan in defence, Ham and Max in midfield and Pat & Alex up front. The passing and movement was again good and the pleasing thing was the players keeping to positions. As Old Strets got more into the game, there was always our last ditch defending and really good goalkeeping that helped keep the goals out.  In this period Ellis scored a really good goal running from his own defence and slotting it in. There were great runs again by Patrick who with his pace and dribbling caused the opposition problems and added to his tally with another goal.

More changes were made for the final period with Louis put up front to see if he could get his hat trick.

We did make alot of chances and with good saves from their keeper and the post getting in the way(!) only Ham managed to add to the tally. By the end, the Old Strets pressure finally told with our defence having the only lapse of concentration all game and conceding a goal. With all the players on the pitch for the full 45 mins it was evident that we tired towards the end and that was to be expected due to our squad size and the players usually only getting 2 periods a game.

In the end it was a good 5-1 victory especially as we had not played for a while.
The positives were many - good passing, scoring goals from 4 different players, the effort put in - all this made me award the whole team, men of the match! Keep up the hard work !