Ouchee

Sparkshop played a league game on Monday with a much altered line up once again, this time lacking both Matt and Dougie as well as 3 pint Pete which left us welcoming, back Kev after his back/toe injuries. There was Lacey from Witchampton, our feeder club when short and Rich's brother, Mark? in addition to myself, Dom and Rich himself.

The sad thing was we ended playing one short anyway following a pretty horrific cut to Lacey's headafter an assualt from an aggrieved opposition player. We were two down by that stage after Richard pulled off a fantastic double save. The follow up shot beat him at the near post which was hard to swallow coming after such great saves at full stretch and then smothering the ball. It could have gone anywhere but fell at an angle from which it was driven home. A second goal came immediately from the kick off and we looked in trouble but the incident which put Lacey out of the game seemed to get us back into things.

He'd fouled the defender but the ref played advantage quite rightly. It wasn't a malicious tackle but it was taken that way and revenge was in the air. As Lacey took the ball out of defence he was scythed at twice without going down leaving the angry defender to steam in to him and another opposition player. The collision actually put both players down and there was a clash of heads. Lacey ended up with a bright red scalp as blood flowed and ended up with 8 stitches as he went off to casualty.

He'd won us another penalty by that stage, one in each of our last three games and it was debatable again. This time Kev slotted home but it was after the injury we played our best football. The guilty defender was sent off quite rightly despite his protestations and initial refusal to give his name. We created a number of chances but the goal was reluctant to come and indeed we ended up conceding a third in the second half which left us as 3 - 1 losers. It was hard work against a good side but we battled well and can be encouraged by the number of chances created.

Sport hurts.