Sparkshop defunct - Wereder Beermen arise

I think we are now called Wereder Beermen as we begin life in the championship following relegation from the top flight. In fact we are struggling at the moment with barely any games over the past 7 or so weeks and nothing like a settled side.

We lined up last night with 7 players including Dave C in goal, Dougie and Dom at the back, Spanish Dave, Matt C and Vern in the middle and me up front. We were disrupted by an injury to Vern who pulled a calf muscle and had to switch to goal at half time by when we were already behind.

This followed last week's game when we lost 3 - 2 despite scoring 4 of the goals!!

I managed to get a brace, including a penalty resulting from a Dom foray up front where he was pushed competing for a header. Sadly my two were matched by two splendid strikes from the big fella at the back who would dearly like to be the big fella up front one day. In fairness to Dougie they weren't his fault, especially the first when the ball was pinging around with shot after shot raining in until one hit him and deflected back on target and in.

The second was more classy with an attempted clearance proving beyond the actual physics Dougie's body was capable of at that time. The net bulged to a rampant finish which merely encouraged our opposition to go about actually scoring one themselves. The goal came from a very tight angle and just evaded the despairing Rich.

The 3-2 loss was a fair result and we arrived last night with 0 points to our name but hardly a game played. Sadly 3 pint Pete has had the call up from the brewers of Wimborne and is putting in sterling work on their behalf meaning he is no longer part of the squad and he'll be sorely missed.

We ended up 4 - 1 losers but played better than the score suggests. The first half was an even one but we didn't help ourselves. Hilariously we managed to lose the ball from the kick off due to a poor start off but that was nothing compared to putting the next one out for a corner following the opening goal! I'm not sure how Dom was expected to reach the back pass which was to one side and speeding past him before he could move.

We lost the first goal to a mazy run and the second to a missed header and punch from a long throw which gave a free header into an empty net. I was brought down in the box but a clear penalty was waved away before several close efforts were shot in before half time. We were unlucky to be behind but the second half was disjointed. The switch of keepers didn't help and there was a lengthy delay as Dave C slid in and finished the night early for one of the opposition. Despite this there was a fourth goal on the break with a fierce shot powered past Vern.

That goal came the other side of another mazy run and finish for them and a cute side foot from Matt C which went through the legs of two players, the keeper and defender who anticipated a fiercely struck piledriver.

Disappointing but perhaps with a settled side and more regular games we can turn things round next week.