Rainy Ruskin fails to dampen Revellers

It was the morning after and at times the football seemed to match. The Chairman at one point asking if everyone was on the lash last night? As a Nation suffered a collective headache and looked for scapegoats at least the brave hearts of SHWFC went through the motions of enjoying their game with good humour and no little skill. Monday morning and the unveiling of Deggsy as a 'new boy' albeit his first outing at the start of the week rather than his more usual midweek outing.

Coach Davies was missing possibly in St George's Park attending a post-Euro de-briefing session? So it fell to the Secretary and Chairman to conduct affairs with all the enthusiasm they could muster. 18 souls were wrecked upon the rocks of the warm up, with some clearly lacking the vigor one might reasonably expect from dedicated honed athletes.

As rain interrupted proceedings we dispensed with the fineries of small sided matches and went full combat 9 -a-side, can't have wet chaps standing around watching when they can stand around and join in a game!

The teams were;

Yellow - Phil, Andy, Jeff, Geoff, Chopper, Dave Seagull, Tony, Nigel and Deggsy

Blue - Tom, Lord Rainford, Wayne, Speedo, Mike A, Grazer, Martin B, Alex and Bryan

In truth there was little between the teams until we kicked off then it soon became apparent that Yellows had a clear edge that shone through as the drizzle descended. It took a goal by Huyton's finest to finally settle any nerves. Deggsy latching on to a loose ball that had a certain ricochet quality before firing home in good style, his first Monday morning goal and 1-0 to Yellow.

Blues were in some ways the authors of their own downfall with wasteful midfield hesitancy condemning many efforts to failure, add to that regular suicidal defensive lapses, a recipe for certain disaster Jeff was the grateful recipient of a poor clearance and pounced to steer a fine effort past a despairing dive by the keeper, 2-0 and Yellows now in cruise control mode.

Phil added a third goal unselfishly set up by Deggsy who was the beneficiary of a ricocheted clearance, a decent reward for an excellent display the best goal of the morning finished in some style

Nigel needed two chances to seal Yellow's 4th goal. His first effort taking the skyward route to the roof of the net, chalked off for that minor high-flying detail which also ignored his little run onto the ball in the build up. Undeterred he did make good with his next effort, unleashing a powerful daisy cutter with some venom past the onlooking defenders and Cockney Rebel guarding the net. 4- nil and a resounding victory for Yellows.

In the grand finale Dave Grazer Clark felt the full wrath of the referee's fury following an agricultural tackle on Nigel. A well deserved Blue Card for Grazer - pick on someone your own size!

Sharp eyed readers might have noticed this Blog has been somewhat amended in this last version. In our rush to get the copy out in a timely fashion we credited John Lord Rainhill Hawkins as a member of the vanquished Blues. Lord John is in fact Lord Rainford and not Rainhill. It really does highlight this reporters lack of knowledge of the district environs of the Borough of St Helens Apologies all round - just too much Rain in the area is my only excuse!