Birthday Honours

Away at Westoning (near Flitwick) today, in need of a good result after a very poor run. The pitch was in good condition - looking very fresh in fact as it was repainted in front of our very eyes during pre-match warm-up!

Fred was back post ski-ing injuries, albeit with his knee strapped up. We were however missing Cameron and David.

We were off to the best possible start, in any case. Dominic made a strong run into the box and took it all the way, and over the line, for a goal after just 56 seconds !

It was a much better effort all round in fact as Greg added a second after 7 minutes after picking the ball up just into their half and eventually beating the keeper at close range. It was all-action, with everyone getting stuck in, and plenty of shots.

There was no Derek to shout "SHOOT!" but all the boys were doing it anyway.

Just over half-way through the first period, Brickhill increased their lead to 3 - 0 from an Elijah corner. There is some debate over the scorer. Before the ball finally came to rest in the back of the net, Greg got a head on it. However, after taking witness statements and considering my first impression of it, I have concluded that it was already over the line before Greg's contribution.

There is some case for it being an own-goal as the Westoning keeper certainly had a touch, but I will award it to Elijah.

Despite our lead, Westoning remained committed themselves, and they pulled back a goal shortly afterwards and a 2nd a few minutes later. For our part, we had many near-misses but the half-time score remained 3 - 2 in our favour.

As soon as the 2nd half resumed, however, this changed as Greg got on the end of a good passing sequence and made it 4 - 2 from the first move of the period.

Fred now came on for Dominic. He clearly was excited to be back in action, and eager to put his name on the scoresheet. However, it was Westoning who found the next goal - lobbed in, possibly with some assistance from the wind.

Nevertheless, it looked as though we had plenty of goalscoring potential - Luke, Elijah and Fred all going close before Niall slammed one into the roof of the net to give us a 2-goal cushion with a few minutes remaining.

This was certainly a bonus as Westoning were also creating opportunities and forced a great save from Harry - tipped over. The home side did appear frustrated at times, and they kicked the ball away on more than one occasion prompting the referee to speak to the players.

Now, Luke was brought down in the box and Ewan decided he (Luke)should take the resulting penalty. The shot was nearly placed in the bottom left. 6 - 3.

Wait ! The ref has not blown his whistle, and the ball had to be replaced on the spot. A nerve-wracking moment, but Luke coolly fired the second attempt in the top right corner. 6 - 3 again.

This was the final score. A good result and a much better performance, which was a nice present for Sandra's birthday (yesterday) and a nice lead-in to our victory over Shefford Saints in the cup next Sunday.

WESTONING RECREATION 3 - 6 BRICKHILL WANDERERS
Dominic (1min), Greg (7, [18], 31), Elijah (18), Niall (56), Luke (pen, 59)