Sparkshop inaugural game - full report

It was with a sense of occasion and purpose that the proud members of the newly formed Sparkshop ambled aimlessly into the warm up area last Monday evening. Showing a turn of speed not to be seen again that evening, we determined to save ourselves for the match and avoided any pre-match preparation as we settled to working out if we had enough players for the big occasion.

Dougie is currently touring Eurodisney and was unavailable for selection as were Adam and his mystery hamstrings and Mike, Adam's friend who had played well in the last game as Iscape. We were down to the bare bones once again with Matt (new one) taking the keeper's jersey, myself, Matt C and Dom at the back, Darren, Chris and Kev taking the middle and up front positions. Encouragingly we had Darren back and the rain was falling which captured the conditions prevailing when we'd last won a game several weeks or months ago.

It was a close contest to begin with and we turned round level at nil nil but the signs were not encouraging from some respects as we had not registered much threat on goal while being attacked pretty relentlessly ourselves. Despite this, Matt did well in goal turning a great shot onto the bar with a fingertip save, modestly acknowledged. Best wishes to Nick who is recovering from quite serious illness and is unavailable for some months.

Dom went in goal for the second half and the trouble really began although nothing to do with Dom being in goal. He, like Matt, made several crucial saves, but was helpless with a penalty awarded almost from the kick off. Darren handled on the line and was sent off for preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity. Down a man, the team struggled manfully but were unable to prevent a 4 - 1 defeat. We did score a good goal with Matt (new) scoring from the left with a neat finish low to the keeper's left.

We have a week off now in which to regain our fitness levels back to pre-Easter peaks when perhaps the sun will shine and we'll blossom in the spring.