It was a 10am meet at King Edmunds school, Stifford for a 10.30 kick-off. It was a homecoming for Johns dad Richard who attended the school many years ago (I think it was all in black and white when he went) as in the old days he was nursing a hangover after a late night out (he must have had some painful memories to have to block it out like that).

Jamie warmed up the outfield players while his mate Ollie was warming up Lewis the "cat" Griffiths. The team lined up with Lewis in goal, Callum and Josh at the back and John slotting in the middle, James was on the right and Frankie on the left, Demon Dave was our striker as usual. The two quite boys Adam and Tommy were sidelined. Grays kicked off and straight away gave the ball to our defence, the ball was played down the left finding Frankie in space, he carried the ball forward and put in a great pass for Davey to run onto and shoot. The keeper made a stop and pushed it around for a corner. Davey put over a teasing cross from the corner which was dealt with by the Grays defenders, it came kindly out to Josh who put the ball into the danger area and found James who turned and fired in a great shot which hit the back of the Grays net, 1-0 to the Signet Lions. After the restart our defensive trio of Josh, Callum and John were keeping a good forward line at bay with some great tackles and jockeying. Half way through the half Frankie unleashed a long range shot which is becoming a bit of a trade mark for him, unluckily the shot went straight to the keeper. James went on a lovely run down the wing with a ball put through by Josh towards the corner flag but just before he could get his cross over he was beaten to the ball by a Cosmos defender who had to boot the ball into his own supporters. The ref blew up for half time and Den had them over for their team talk. He kept things the same for the start of the second half with Signet taking centre. As in previous weeks the opposition tried to bolster up its forward line in the hope of getting a goal but Josh, Callum and John were putting in the tackles where is counted and worked very hard as did the midfield always coming back to help. John came off for Adam to get stuck into their midfield. The new look Grays forward line were nearly on level terms with Signet but for the fact that not much gets past the brave Lewis who just before half time had got a whack in the nose saving a certain goal. He gathered in some great shots with the Grays forwards homing in on him like a pack of wolves. Tommy came on in the midfield for Frankie late on in the game and was unfortunate not to score from a shot that fell comfortably into the keepers arms, again towards the end of the match they put a lot of pressure on us. During the match we had another glimpse of the silky ball skills and fitness of Darren Jones sprinting after the ball like a gazelle (large hairy one) and trying to pass it back to one of our players saving him from the long run out to get it, unfortunately for a panting Darren he sliced the ball spooning it 20 yards the other way making James run even further to retrieve the ball, still the thought was there. The ref blew for full time and we were delighted to come away with another win in a great evenly fought game, all of the Signet Lions played very well again and it would have been very difficult to pick the most outstanding player today as they all did their individual jobs very well.

The only disappointment of the day was that the game wasn't played at the Treacle Mine pitch because we missed out on our bacon rolls and tea at half time. Still we were very happy for the win anyway. We all trudged off to our cars with Richard still telling us what he used to get up to in the old days.

 WELL DONE SIGNET LIONS.