The men’s 4th team started off very unorganised due to lack of players with 9 people and 2 minutes left until the match had to start. But as luck would have it, Andrew Delaney and Sabir Khandukar came to our aid.

So now as a full team we could start the game. So in the first 10 minutes it became apparent that there was a star player on their side of the field who was able to control the pitch which put Crostyx under pressure. However Crostyx had a defence like no other which made it difficult for Maldon to make any shots.

When Styx had retrieved the ball once again, Mike Bond was always ready for a good pass into space usually towards the pensioners; some of them are known as Barry Payne, Simon Preston and Steve Leel who made strong leads and worked hard.

When the match was halfway through the first half, Dave Matson joined to cheers from the pensioners and provided the Crostyx team with structure by hard and fast hits towards the forwards. When there was a player from the opposition going directly toward the goal Matt Payne made a block tackle that stopped the player dead in his tracks. This was followed by a pass to James Preston who gave the team his gingerly touch.

Felix and Andy Murphy were ready for the attack as always and gave each other a few passes with Andy doing a reverse hit at the goal on one occasion.

Finally when it all got too much for the other players, Robert Moncur was on the scene, engaged an attacking player and followed up with a smother resulting in a beautiful save. Unfortunately the match was too much for the players of Crostyx and resulted in a score of 2-3.

Unlucky purple pensioners, maybe more young people would help.