Total collapse

It started off well, all the expected Valley players were there and then the unexpected bonus of Justine who walked towards us with a big smile. Our warm welcome soon melted as it became apparent that, without the courtesy of forewarning us, he would be playing for Sunbury.

The return of Bacon provided some extra meat to the defence along with Bomber, Smithy and new recruit Joe. Wing wizard Ross, Mikey J, Bidds and Sumit made up an unfamiliar middle line while Jimmy M and Trev provided the striking power up front. Kit and JC waited at the side, ready for action should they be needed.

A rare Valley attack breaks down

Within five minutes of the off Trev had been summoned to the side of the pitch to take the distressing call about an accident that had befallen his brother Del in the 1s game. This allowed Kit to get on and charge up and up the touch line, sometimes with the ball.

Valley were like a team that had just been brought together via speed dating and they didn't fancy theirs much either. There were few cohesive breaks from the Sunbury pressure and again Valley seemed unable to cope with marking duties.

The introduction of JC in the middle didn't improve the overall poor performance, although there was a lot of enthusiastic running by Jimmy and Ross with Bomber, Bacon and Sumit putting in their usual solid performances. Trev was good on his brief return, Joe did well in his first game and hopefully can be persuaded to come back. It would be good to get a more settled team and play people in the same position week in, week out.

Trev shows off his ball skills

Valley should have scored a consolation goal in the second half after good work by Ross found Jimmy in the D who slipped it to JC. The shot was saved on the line at full stretch by the keeper, but should have been finished. This was the best opening that Valley carved out.

What had been a good spirited game flared up with 30 seconds to go. With confusion abound concerning a foul outside the D/short corner the Valley defensive unit were walking back to the line when one of the Sunbury players appeared to try and undercut the ball towards the goal. Fortunately, he displayed some of the Valley prowess and it trundled towards the players rather than flew.

Sunbury on another attack

Chipfat was incandescent and remonstrated with the Sunbury no 7 for attempting such a dangerous, unnecessary action. His response included a few choice words, resulting in a green card and the corner continued. The no 7 struck the ball goalwards and Bacon safely steered it out before passing comment on the accuracy of the shot and deservedly received a talking to from the umpire.

From the resulting short corner Sunbury finished the game with a 7th goal, which pleased the Sunbury no 7 and his comments on this incurred the wrath of the umpire and he added a yellow card to his collection. The whistle went shortly after and handshakes were offered all round.

Thanks to Ali Mac for umpiring

[Ed: Thanks to Jane Simms for her photographic skills ]