Gameweek 8 of the season and this week was the first 6-a-side of 25/26. With very few fixtures available, it was Jamie and I selected to play our first fixture as captains against each other. I was able to thankfully take advantage of having the first pick. With the teams selected in what seemed record-time, the players made their way onto the pitch and the game soon got underway.

Both teams had set up with similar structures, with myself and Jamie both following the tradition of starting in goal as Captain. Although at 6-a-side it felt at times a bit more like ‘Rush Keeper’.

Following a tentative start with neither team having any clear-cut chances. It was the Whites that nabbed the first goal following the ball breaking loose in the area for new signing Ant, who hit a powerful shot on the turn into the top left corner of the goal. 0-1.

It stayed at 0-1 for quite a while, which struck me as odd for a 6-a-side game. That being said, both teams were getting chances in a pretty even contest. With Tom coming close on occasion and Reuben seemingly having a vendetta against my nipples, having hit numerous shots straight at my chest...ouch!! Nevertheless, the score remained at just a one goal deficit for some time.

Luckily for Yellows, with about 30mins gone, Gary was able to thread a pass through to Ed who levelled the game from a tight angle. 1-1.

With about 20 mins to go, I wanted to switch up the team a bit and looked for a replacement keeper. Having given the team a shout of “unless anyone is gassed?”, Harvey agreed to switch with me. Jamie also switched at this time with Ant in the White’s net.

The next goal came shortly after, in bizarre circumstances, I hoofed a long pass forward towards Mike, who was running into the box. The ball took an awkward bounce which meant that Mike just missed a touch on the pass, this seemed to throw some confusion for Ant and the ball bounced again past him straight into the net. A rare goal for me, but I’ll take it! 2-1.

This goal then seemed to open up the floodgates for more goals, with 4 more coming in the last 15 minutes.

3-1 was another long ball from myself, this time to Gary who was able to bring the ball down on the turn, and slot past Ant. Things were then looking up!

Our final goal came from a quick throw-in taken by Mike, which seemed to catch the whites off guard and an unmarked Tom was able to bag his well-deserved goal. 4-1.

Jamie’s Whites did not lose hope and really began to throw caution to the wind, with Jamie himself joining Gary W, Reuben and Dave in a charge to level matters. Whilst Graham was doing some decent defending on his own.

This tactic paid off as shortly after, it was Gary W who gave himself a yard to fire a shot past a blind-sided Harvey. 4-2!

Finally, right at the end of the game, we had some confusion (as we did in the previous week) whereby Full time was  suggested but not called going by the clock. Yellows broke again with Gary having a chance to make it 5-2 with almost no time left, but he missed it...GARY P, the ‘number 9’, current double-trophy winner, missed an ABSOLUTE sitter. Surely there should be some sort of player valuation penalty for strikers missing sitters.

Nevertheless, the shot bounced off the goal and we found the Whites counter-attacking, again breaking for Gary W who showed how it’s done, and clawed another goal back. 4-3.

Time (finally) called and the match was over. All still to play for in the second leg!

MOM - difficult, as every player on the pitch put in a good shift with plenty of running. I would have to give it to Tom this week, bagging goal and doing the odd sprint back to break down counter attacks.