The second game was one we were not anticipating well as we were to play our "bogey" team, who seemed to have a knack of placing a few banana skins under our trainers. They also seem to like contesting each decision and giving no benefit of the doubt to their opposition, they like to have their cake and eat it! Anyway the typical Saturday scramble preceded the match, what looked like a new five dropped to a insufficient three on Saturday afternoon. All efforts were made to get a few players in to make up the quorum of five to play. I even asked my wife to put out a Facebook SOS, alas nobody responded to that but it received one "Like"! With a few contacts here and there we got ourselves up to five and then an extra, giving us the luxury of a sub! Albeit one player would be coming to the match straight from a night shift and three would be coming direct from a 10 Kilometre city run.
The gameday arrived and we got to the "silky" surface of cracked concrete and our fluorescent yellow opposition gathered. The game was a tight one and to our surprise the frequency of complaints had reduced since our last meeting. A tight first-half ended us having the luxury of a narrow one goal lead, it was goal to nil in our favour. This was good but we could not let our guard down in the second half.
Half Time: Los Hombres de Paco* 0 - 1 FC Twenty
The second half started with a fllurry of yellow as the opposition hit us with two quick breaks and they went two goals to one up in the early stages of the half. We kept attacking and attacking and eventually broke down the resolute defence and regained parity with the opponents. The game looked like it was heading for an unprecedented draw, two seasons in existence and never a draw. As the end drew closer five minutes was called and no way through the defence. Eventually full time was called, but in this league there is an arcane rule where the ball must leave play twice after time is called before the match ends. When you are sitting on a narrow win all you normally want to do is get the ball out and take your three points, however this was not the case: we were staring a draw and dropping of two points squarely in the face. So time was called the ball went out for a kick in, in our favour, to the right of the opponents´ goal. The ball was played to our forward who took the ball in his stride two steps towards the edge of the penalty box then unleashed a powerful left footed drive that blasted over the keepers balding pate and rattled the back of the net. As Alan Partridge would say "he´s got a leg like a traction engine", or as James Richardson would say "Woof!". Goal it was and very little time left to hold on. The opposition were fired up and the game had to restart, as the game can not finish with a goal: the ball must be out of play to the side or behind the goal line. The opponents restarted and tried to fashion a chance, however an over enthusiastic pass was skewed to the right and the little jamon-esque legs of their furthest forward player could not reach it. Game over! Phew, I mean three points in the bag. To our surprise there was little for the opponents to moan about this week.
Full Time: Los Hombres de Paco* 2 - 3 FC Twenty
* The perculiarly monnikered opponents take their name from a now defunct Spanish TV series chronicling the life, crimes and times of a police force. They also boast a player named Paco, which is short for Francisco much the way that Frank or Frankie is short for Francis in the English speaking world. The name would fully translate as "The Men of Frankie".
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