St Michael's (York) 15.09.07

The season kicked off with a trip North on the 15th September to play St Michael's.
There seemed to be a different and slightly unfamiliar feeling about our approach to this season, something like confidence. It may have had something to do with purely an opportunity to start afresh; it may have been having had a slight shift in personel over the summer; it could have been that at the end of the summer a very cobbled together version of us played and beat a team of 13 players (though they were mostly around the age of 16) in a very unorthodox friendly, or it could just have been that we were excited about playing again.

We arrive and warm up and realise that our first game is St Michael's third. The other thing to mention at this point is that our goalkeeper, Mark 'The Cat' Robinson is out due to an ackilies injury which will keep him at bay for a while yet, so in goal we have a rather brave but green outfield player, Richard 'I hope I can catch' Thornton. Kick off - and we cannot get to the ball let alone hang on to it, they win possesion of everything and then simply pass it, seemingly, through us. When half-time comes around we seem to have begun to have found a little something, we are 1-0 down and we see the potential to alter that (in our favour). We were right: our first goal of the season and it's a new boy, a defender no less, 'Dan Metcalf centre half'. He scored a very convicing header off a corner and we're level; 1-1.

The score doesn't stay this way for long though, and indeed, not long after that either, we found ourselves on the wrong end of 3-1. Not only this, but with twenty minutes remaining (by which time some of our lads who are a little bit shy of match fit are virtually stationary) two of our twelve players have to leave for a prior commitment. Mathematically that takes us from 11 on the field and one sub, to 10 men on the field.

This game is now, if it wasn't before, an uphill battle. Having been with this club from the start there's one strange thing i've noticed about it, that is that it seems to play better football when it is down to ten men. This was no less true on this occassion. With ten minutes remaining we took the scoreline on a wild ride to 3-2. Andy Amoss was able to capatilise, with a perfectly pitched lob, on a hard fought through-ball from skipper Danny Hayton.

Despite further wranglings and wishing, this was where the score remained. No points and a combination of frustration (that we could have done better) and satisfaction (that for a first game, against better opposition and with a replacement keeper and (almost) 10 men for a chunk of the game).

St Michael's 3-2 Wakefield Baptist Church.