Christmas for red blooded men!

By Michael Dixon

It's like Christmas for all red blooded men, the day we count down to for 3 months, the day that signifies an end to being dragged to IKEA, shopping, taking the children to the park, zoo, the park, indoor play centre, the park, the park, the in-laws, visiting wedding venues (yes James, that means you). It's the start of British Utd's campaign to win the league and gain promotion to the top tier of Belgian football.

The day began with the usually enquiries of how many players do we have? Any sign of a proper goal keeper (sorry Kieran)? The usual whole-sale changing of the team on Saturday morning due to last minute cancellations etc, yes the season starts off as it ended.

With that theme in mind, the goal was continue the great run we went after Christmas, giving us a great start to mount a serious championship winning campaign and thus taking the glory at the "end of year presentation". Notoriously slow starters, we wanted this year to be different!

Before the season started, Scott was tinkering with the idea of 353, 821, 263 but decided to start with a trusted 442 diamond with Miguel in the slot (how was the slot for you Miguel?). After an inspirational team talk by Scott, Lee and myself, mainly pointing out the other team have 10 player, 5 older than Dave Lees, and one who's shirt looked like it was made of latex, due to a beer gut in comparison to Big Daddy's (for the non-English or those bought up with WWF!!). So in short, we better spank this lot.

The wind was against us in the first half, but with the extra man and the flowing football, we were firmly camped in the oppositions half!! Unfortunately, we were struggling with the final ball and were trying to walk the ball in the net ala Arsenal. Kevin was having good success down the left with Tom pushing up the right, but the penetration from midfield and the movement up front were letting us down. Tom whipped in a superb cross but the keeper made a good save from the resulting shot. Kevin had a nice strike but the first half was kept at 0-0 by some good defending, some missed chances and a few good saves. It could have been at least 3 or 4 - 0 with Kieran the keeper not having a save to make. In fact Lee and Karl had put up deck chairs on the half way line to enjoy the sunshine!

In the 2nd half with the cob webs firmly off, we starting to take a grip on the game with the midfield dominating, in particular Rehan who was the driving force both vocally and in terms of performance. However, 15 minutes gone, still no goals and a few more chances gone begging. Luckily, the other team were starting to really tire and we stepped up an extra gear sensing they were there for the taking. Miguel finally came up with the goods and opened the scoring but in our haste to get more, the other team had a 1 on 1 with Kieran. Karl and Lee were still catching some rays!! Kelly came racing out of the goal and with a centre half's tackle, kept us in the lead. Soon after Kenny followed up with number two after a quick free kick from Miguel caught everyone napping, Rehan topped of his MOTM performance with a strike, soon to be followed by vintage Miguel and Kenny goals. A 5-0 drubbing that could have been 8!!

So the message has gone out to the rest of the league, British Utd are top and that's where we want to be stay. A good workman like performance, solid at the back, dominating midfield, with some good quality up front. All the ingredients to win the league. Now, if people can just stay in the country every week from now till April, we are laughing!!!

Team: Kelly, Applebee, Dawson, Telfer, Horspool, Nagawa, Pesquera, O'Grady, Allen, Laas, Duncan
Scorers: Rehan O'Grady, Miguel Pesquera 2, Kenny Duncan 2
MOM: Rehan O'Grady