Champagne for everyone!

Ah, the ups and downs of being an Accie. Paxton landlord Stuart's offer of complimentary champagne if we beat Grafton Strollers was gleefully accepted following this evening's well earned 3-1 win. Coach Robertshaw called for total commitment and promised that if we gave that, the rest would take care of itself, and by and large he was right, albeit against probably our poorest quality oppo.

The evening got off to a shambolic start thanks to more Palace incompetence - the so-called move to the excitingly named pitch "P3" was a non-starter as it was seemingly lit by the neon light from a couple of mobile phones, rather than the more traditional floodlights. A bit of exasperated teeth gnashing in the direction of the staff followed, and they rightly agreed to let us play the game on the perfectly playable stadium pitch. Hooray.

We looked up for it from the off, with Shaky picking up where he left off last week, but getting better service and enjoying better interplay with fellow forwards. The only setback was Skipper Thorny going off with a calf injury, but by that point we were 1-0 up, Shaky grabbing a neat goal from close range when the less faithful among us thought the chance had gone. Token then Strolled past the Grafton defence and scored a fine goal for 2-0. The only blip was a rare lapse of concentration from Ant in goal, a soft concession just before the break for 2-1.

In the second half it seemed to be 2-1 for an age, while plenty of players continued to give good accounts of themselves - Mickael on the wing, Tremayne and Luis in the middle and Barry at the back, to name but four. To fail to win this game would have required throwing it away in some style, but after last week no one was feeling complacent. In the event, Token danced through the defence and a last-ditch tackle on him only sent the ball towards Elbows on the left wing (subbed on seconds earlier, impeccable timing by Miami), and our Crouchy smacked the ball into the net for 3-1 and a safe cushion.

Mickael got Man Of The Match for what was rightly described as his best performance in his time with the Accies, and was duly presented with a bottle of champagne by Paxton Stuart. This led to a very simple exchange between myself and Mickael, after I saw that he had cracked his prize bottle open and shared it among his team mates:
Me: "Mickael, I thought you'd have taken that home to share with the missus?"
Mickael: "No."

Team (more nicknames needed, I want a full set): Ant, Gobby, Bazza, TBALT (sub: Marathon Man), Elbows (sub: Werewolf), Champers, Coach09, Tremayne, Thorny (sub: Luis), Token, Shaky. Sub not used: Miami
Scorers: Shaky, Token, Elbows

Goodnight!