Hilltop 8 - 7 Green Man

Pre-match organising ended up being a bit of a shambles for this game. Deano let us down and we didn't find out till 30mins before kickoff. Our poor kitty is now empty for the first time in many a season! ;(

With no Deano and Craig playing in goal (due to being knackered), we would need the whole team to step in with the goals and that they did! I think a few of us were expecting a rough game against Green Man but it was without incident really. Green Man like many of the younger teams, just tried to play quick attacking football and they dominated most of the game, with us trailing by 2-3 goals.

Come half-time, we were 3-5 behind (this is what the ref told me anyway!), although I was genuinely surprised to hear they lead by just 2 goals. There had been a few simple defensive lapses with people not tracking and pulling other men from their marker to cover, happened to me a lot in the first half! Anyway, apparently with only 2 goals behind, our team picked up spirits and we started knocking a few more in. Craig swopped positions with Burke who went in goal, he made some classy saves to basically keep us in the game the second half. Stimo's hattrick was made up of some quality play as well, they had a decent keeper but the shots kept flying in the corner.

Unfortunately Kev was injured about 10mins into the second half, putting us down to just 1 sub. However, our general fitness levels do seem to have improved, I can feel my own fitness getting better each week and David seems to be back to his marathon man self. The team eventually got to just 1 goal behind and we could sense more goals to come. Unfortunately the ref decided to add an extra goal onto Green Man, so we were behind by 2 again. I've no complaints about this as they did net a lot of goals, it's just a bit shit when the ref f#cks up like that, as it could have killed our morale.

Thankfully we scored near enough from the off, after the ball rebounded into the air and with two defenders around him, Ken managed to volley the ball into the back of the net.

Just 1 goal behind again and about 2 mins left.

Up steps David and we are level, their team must have been gutted. Everyone's a bit edgy at this point but their team had more to loose and although it was counter-attacking football for both teams, i would say we had them on the back foot at this point. With about 40 seconds left Craig scored the winner and after the celebrations we just tried our best to hold onto the ball until full time.

Full time came and we won! Another 3 points and our best start to the season since we finished 2nd. Each game has been tight without Graeme but it does feel like we are getting better and hopefully we can keep up the fight.

Goals: Burke (1), Craig (1), David (1), Ken (1), Ste (1), Stimo (3)
Team: Burke, Craig, David, Ken, Kev, Ste, Stimo

Hilltop 11 - 7 Wades

We had an actual goalkeeper between the sticks this week, Ste a friend of Rods who has played in goal for us a few times in the past, helped out in Graemes abscence. So Burke could finally give his legs a decent workout.

First time we've played Wades, they seemed an ok team, bit dirty at times and it could be they are a Sunday team using Wed for training. They also didn't have any subs which usually gives us a bit of a boost. As i'm writing this summary a week late, the details are a bit fuzzy but I can remember Burke doing some vital "last line of defence tackles" and David scored some quality goals to help win the game.

Goals: Craig (6), David (3), Steven (1), Stimo (1)
Team: Burke, Craig, David, Ken, Kev, Steven, Ste (GK), Stimo

Hilltop 10 - 9 CSKA Moscow

First game of Season 12 against the team we last played in Season 11. That game was our first game without Graeme since his injury, they beat us then and with Graeme still out and Rob on holiday, it would be a tough game.

Had a few players with hangovers and players like myself who were tired and just played crap! Deano the new lad had a blinder of a debut, only small but he's lightning quick and constantly skinned their team pulling off some brilliant goals.

Defensively we had a few lapses, usually somebody not tracking their man goalside but that's going to happen with 2 new boys and others being off the pace. There were some good tackles though, Stimo saved the day preventing 3 players to 1 against the keeper! (Yeah it did get that bad sometimes;P) Deano was good at pressuring their backline and Craig had a few elastic man tackles. We didn't really do our halfway tactic, seemed a bit more fluid then usual, with us putting pressure on them higher up and a few of these interceptions got us goals. Likewise it cost us some when players werent sprinting back to cover.

Good win overall though and considering Burke had to step in goal again (having an even better game than last time too!), the team did well.

Goals: Craig (2), Deano (5), Ste (1)
Team: Burke, Craig, David, Deano, Ken, Kev, Stimo, Ste