NEW TEAMS - NEW SEASON

Another thoroughly enjoyable night visiting our Monday night 6 a side league in Havant last night as the new campaign got underway. In-between some average banter from supervisor Mike and Westy die hard Ash Hyson I was able to witness some amazing football and it was a privilege to be present for the trophy presentations for our league and individual award winners from last season. 

On the pitches, there was an early season test for Prem champions Cardiac Arrest who met last seasons runners up Puff Puff Pass in a brilliant game that just went the way of the champions. Fair play to Puff Puff as always though, giving everything. 3 - 2 in this one. Two of our newest teams got their Leisure League careers underway too with Bumbaclart Bandits starting very strongly with an 8 - 0 win over Rapid Decline, Cian Cleary scoring 6 on his return to the league. Meanwhile Blue Badge went down 2 - 1 to Not Quite Heskey in a great game where Jordan Naylor's two goals were just enough to take the points. Westy made a solid start to life in the top flight, recovering from an early howler by keeper Ash Hyson to go on and win their game against MK Dongs 5 - 1. Last seasons golden boot winner Toby Appleby making the step up look easy with 2 goals. It's obviously too early to say but it looks like it could be a competitive season in the top division this season, can anyone push Cardiac Arrest this time around ? 

Division One also has a really competitive feel to it this season with some good sides dropping down from the prem, Smashes started well, getting the better of Farlington 6 - 4 thanks to a Jamie Keens hattrick while H&W pigeons benefitted from Island FC's late withdrawal from the league. 5 - 0 win for them and another new team lined up to come in next week. OAP's defeated Mole Hill 4 - 1 and in their 1st game outside of Division Two, Kye Rovers produced a great performance to beat the much favoured Six Bells Vets 5 - 2 thanks to two goals each from Jack Legg and last seasons MVP Jordan Evans. So after week one, Pigeons lead from Kye Rovers on goal difference, is there a double promotion on the cards here ? They couldn't... could they ??

We had some unbelievable games in Division Two to kick off the season, Meat FC sitting pretty after a 6 - 4 win against Peter File, Bailey Kerridge at it again in front of goal with 4 while an Ashton Scardfield hattrick was sadly in vane. Lallana's won a feisty game against Westleigh which unfortunately included a red card. Just a reminder to all players that regardless of what you think of a decision, abusing the referee will only result in you being banned from the league, as was the case here. Life ban, end of story, it does not happen in our leagues. Apologies to those who had young kids and family present that had to witness the embarrassing outburst. Well done to Nathan for dealing with it perfectly, we move on.  Bottle Jobs are well fancied to win Div Two this season and they started solidly with a 2 - 0 win over Willian Your Mouth while Whatdivock played their part in the best game of the night as they came close to picking up their 1st win, in the end just going down 4 - 3 to Leavemyarcelona. What a brilliant match though and hopefully a sign of things to come this season. 

A great night, so good to see the league running so well, Mike, Nath, Mark and Chris were all absolutely outstanding, it is no surprise we have a long waiting list for this league. Well done everyone and good luck for the rest of the season.