The B's this week took on Immanuel away, and with no less than 6 changes to the starting line-up it was always going to be interesting to see how this game progressed.

Most of these changes were enforced upon Juan, with Cam promoted to the A's, Jason and Anthony away and Kevin injured.

Pre-game, the ref had come over and spoken to the boys about the wearing of jewellery and also talking back to the ref, pretty standard stuff, but this did become an issue later in the day.

From the kick-off, our boys had the better of the early exchanges, without really being able to take a strangle hold on the game. Our passing particularly was a little off and we tended to lose structure and shape moving forward.

In saying that, aside from 1 half chance, our defence looked too solid and our midfield regularly won the ball. The only thing really lacking was a bit of invention towards goal, with our best chance coming from set pieces, one corner in particular Joel got a head onto, but the Immanuel keeper made a fine save, While a free kick from Juan over the wall enabled Lev to latch onto a shot, but unfortunately he just got under it.

At the break the score was 0-0, which was probably fair as it had been a scrappy encounter.

At the break Juan asked the boys to do better with their passing, and also to not be afraid to take Immanuel's defence on, as the sloppy conditions meant if you wrong footed an opponent it would be very difficult for him to recover.

Early after the break, Spencer was sent from the field (temporarily) to remove his bracelet, this was soon followed by Wes, as he was asked to remove his tongue stud. As for game action, again we had a good chance, with Joel being released to goal, but again the Immanuel Keeper made himself big and kept us out. With our midfield looking a little tired in the muddy conditions, Juan brought Dan Joyce on out wide for Manny. Very soon after Ryan and Joel played a lovely 1-2, which gave Joel another opening. This time he calmly slotted the ball home for a 1-0 advantage.

Soon after Joel came off (as he was needed in the A's), with Nitish coming on. Unfortunately, Nitish was only on the field for a minute, before he also was sent to the bench to remove his eyebrow ring... This was almost a turning point though, as he could not remove it and we spent 5 minutes or more down to 10 men.

During this period, Immanuel created a fine piece of play, releasing their forward down the left - Heath was stuck just short of the play and we were EXTREMELY lucky when the lobbed shot hit the upright and bounced out.

Daniel came on for the unfortunate Nitish as soon as Juan realised and almost immediately his fresh legs created a chance, as he chased down a defender and almost got clear, only for the Immanuel keeper to beat him to the ball. Ryan also come off for Jean late in the game but he didn't get many chances in the dying minutes.

In the end, the boys snuck home with a tough and fortunate win. Highlights for me were Joel and Juan in the forward half, and Craig, Chris and Tony at the back.

That's the 3rd 1-0 win in a row for the B's - Well done boys! Let's keep it going.

SafTop

I thought I had gone "Back to the Future" on Saturday when I arrived at the game and saw a bloke warming up from the A's that I thought was Ethan Hopgood about 20 years older than he should have been. But on closer inspection I realised it was still 2008 and it was in fact Campbell Hopgood who had been recalled to the A squad. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Rob was also there as usual and as he is old enough to be Campbell's dad so I guess we were looking pretty sprightly in defence after all.

The game was very even from my perspective but if I had to put a label on it I would have called it "The Mo Show". The pitch was very sticky and muddy but looking at Mo glide over the surface with consummate ease, it was almost as if he was using one of those hover skateboards pioneered by Marty McFly. The man's skills are a joy to behold and it seemed that he had more time than anyone else on the pitch.

Immanuel were very plucky and probably had the better of the first half in creating a couple of very nice chances which were quite bluntly wasted. A couple of low hard balls across the area were met with attempted diving headers from about one foot off the ground which is really only a recipe for seven stitches and a 'Nil by mouth' sign above the hospital bed.

In any case, the Whites took the lead after a very nice move (i.e. I missed it) was finished off by Baxter who hit a low and hard shot across the keeper into the bottom left corner. I was on my fourth Pale Ale by this stage so the match from my perspective was going well.

Although the game was ok as a spectacle, the crowd were more than entertained by Ethan Hopgood falling off things and falling into things such as the Esky. Comedy gold. This was only just beaten by the referee sending off Spencer in the B game half way through the first half in the A's notionally for saying something nasty. Given that I had just harangued the ref for giving the free kick against Long I thought I had created Uni White history by getting a player sent off in the pervious game by one of my typical acidic comments. It turned out however that it was not my words that caused the problem but words that no-one could remember anyone saying. To say refs are a strange breed is an understatement.

Well the second half came along and Immanuel scored straight after the break when again I wasn't watching (was probably Aiken's fault though). The rest of the half was pretty even with both teams having a couple of chances to score, but in the end a draw being a fair result.

Mo was the man of the match with sublime play and Hopgood did pretty well after some early match ball watching. Ex Uni White Jan played a full game in defence for the A's and showed what the Uni Whites B's have been missing off the bench in the last few years.

After the game it was off to the Kentish......... no wait the bloody Highway for a cleansing ale. I assume we went there to feed Joe's pokie habit but seriously, that's no way to treat the club sponsor.

Look forward to past players week next week where no doubt I will miss even more of the game than this week.

GraemeTop