A derby match between the eternal rivals who share the south pitch was the latest incarnation of the age old fight between good and evil. On this occasion, the dark side of the uni force was forced into submission, with goals coming from Wez and John either side of the half time break. The blacks were to get the consolation of a twice-taken penalty, but it wasn't to be their day.

The very heavy condition of the majority of the field coupled with the general laziness of the blacks midfield made this game have a strange slugishness to it. Neither team moved the ball around with any significant speed or purpose in the early stages. The difference early on was the that the "home" side were making huge errors in the heart of the midfield leading to greeat chances for the whites. A misplaced pass played straight to Juan and some slack marking, gave him a 20 meter run on goal leading to a shot that tested the blacks "less than convincing" goalkeeper. the errors kept coming and chances flowed but nothing was put away by the whites.

Slowly, the whites began to assert themselves on the match. The majority of the play was in the blacks half and they could only respond with long balls in behind the defence, which apart from one or two errors of communication, were dealt with comfortably. John was thriving in his lone striker role, linking the play well with Juan and Anthony. Wez just missed the top corner with a fierce drive from the edge of the box. The blacks were under pressure and soon cracked.

The Blacks keeper had been trying to slow the pace of the game down to give his mates time to catch their breath and see the game to half time. This came back to bite him when the ref gave an indirect free kick against him for holding the ball for longer than the allowed 6 seconds. Normally, these don't amount to much, but a well worked routine between Juan and Wez led to the red haired one striking on goal. The ball took a substantial deflection before ending up in the back of the net.

That was in effect the last kick of the half. After the interval, the whites hoped to finish off the game as they spoke about during the break. Almost immediately the second goal came. Some great interplay between the front three, including some well worked one-twos sliced the blacks to pieces. John had only to pass the ball into the net for a deserved goal.

At this point, it seemed there may be a rout on the cards. Crab had the best chance he'll ever have to get the goal he craves. A perfect delivery from Long (a sub only because he left his boots at home!) gave crab a free header at the back post which he glanced just wide. The chances kept coming, but the third goal just would not

As often happens in such situations, the ref got bored and decided to spice up the game, awarding a penalty for an attempted clearance that clearly hit Spence in the face, not the arm. A well taken penalty made it 2-1. This gave the blacks hope. They began to play, where before they were arguing among themselves. They threw on sub after sub, some from their A's to try and force a draw. The whites stood firm though, weathering the storm to get a deserved derby win.

My man of the match: John, worked very hard for the team, got a good goal.

MannyTop

Well, what a debacle.

From the first whistle, we were outplayed physically and mentally.

It's not like we didn't have a good team on the pitch - we has plenty of skilful players out there - we just, well... I don't know.

From ten minutes in I had no idea why free players were running through the middle AND down the wings. 45 minutes and two goals later I still didn't. Why did we miss every tackle, and every pass? And if we weren't defending in numbers, why could the Blacks move the ball around the back so easily? We weren't anywhere!

After a boost by Robin we picked up in the second half, but that may have been due to them taking their foot off the accelerator. We still didn't look like scoring and our inablity to pass five metres at times was abysmal.

We have basically regressed to the first Mercedes game in round 3. FOUR months ago!

We were panicky and slow to the ball, and the effort and committment shown was just nowhere near good enough.

I guess that's why I got so frustrated I took my anger out on the ref. I really apologise to all for that - it should never happen. If you're going to be booked, it should be because you're going in hard and committing yourself.

I do hope that EVERYONE was as frustrated and pissed off as I was after that game.

Let's get back on the track this week and work out how to fix this.

Surely the only way is up from here.

I would however like to congratulate the B's on their performance. And also commend Dan and Craig who played two matches; Craig especially for running the line in both games as well. That's the type of effort I'd love everyone to show.

JoeTop