By Kenny Duncan

Phew, what a relief. After the disappointment of last week's goalless borefest, Scott "The Special One" Allen made it clear that it was critical for BUFC's 1sts to pick up our first away 3-pointer of the season. With 6 teams below us within 2 points, it felt like the vultures were circling (from below - OK, dodgy analogy) - and this mob were among them. Fortunately for us, a mob they were - nothing Barca about them apart from the shirts and maybe the sunny weather. So we got the result, and got the hell out of there quickly - here's how we did it:

With James choosing to follow the egg-chasers in France (well done England... I suppose), Kieran away and Miguel feeling a knock from last week's game, we welcomed Karl and Tom back to the fold, and drafted Antonio in to right mid. Scott played himself in his more familiar role in central midfield, alongside BUFC's Czech Peter Pan. It looked something like this:

With game heads being applied in the dressingroom, Dr Juri was dispensing advice and Tiger Balm from his mini balmpot - who says Saturdays shouldn't be educational too?

The first setback - no ref, so one of their older lads in a Celtic top was drafted in. His first attempt at refereeing is likely to be his last (he was substituted at half-time, as the home team didn't feel he was giving them enough!)

BUFC started the brighter of the 2 teams, and it didn't take long to get off the mark. The first goal came from our second attack, with Kenny skinning the right-back before crossing from the byline. Antonio and Juri were both in the box to meet it, and there was a bit of a stramash with all sorts of handball/off-side claims - even the ref's whistle - but while all around were losing their heads, Juri coolly finished it off, which the ref didn't seem to mind - 1-0. Cue much wailing and whingeing from our Turkish friends, which was to be the soundtrack to the afternoon, really.

Our second came from a great series of passes in midfield, with Alex being sent down the right flank. He beat his man, took it to the byline, and fired a low cross towards the 6-yard line, where the onrushing Kenny darted in front of the last defender to slot home at the front post. Great team goal.

Their goal came from a direct free kick conceded near the right corner of our penalty area. It was a very good strike, that Dave managed to get a hand to but couldn't prevent it hitting the top left corner of his net. Other than that, there was little danger, with Dean, Lee and Carl giving little away.

Back at the business end of the pitch, their right-back was pleading for mercy (à la Roma), and we looked capable of scoring 3 or 4 more.

There was a great chance to go 3-1 up just before the interval, when our forward line were squeezed up to midway, and Antonio took it upon himself to take the ball into the gap. His thrusting run was brought to a cruel halt with a cynical scything from behind by their last defender - a fact we gently brought to the ref's attention. The ref bottled it and gave a yellow, when a red was clearly in order.

Still irked about this after the interval, and getting some additional tender loving care from his marker, Antonio removed his top and started to head for the exit, before being persuaded to put his toys back in the pram. Technically a red for his marker (raising a hand to face) and technically a yellow for Antonio's striptease, but fortunately commonsense prevailed as the afternoon threatened to descend into farce.

Meanwhile, back at the football match, their defence were still determined to turn the game into an offside-athon, pushing up almost to the halfway line whenever possible. A curious tactic given the quality of delivery from Tom on the left, and the pace of the BUFC boys - but a tactic that paid off for them, given the standard of refereeing.

Marek and Alex in particular were unlucky on separate occasions when they found themselves in the clear, but the ref had been facing the wrong way when the ball was played - thus missing the fact that the guys had beaten the offside trap legitimately.

In the centre of the pitch, Scott was doing his usual, haranguing and worrying everything that moved, while Marek was immense, charging around, half filmstar, half rhino, and doing most of the simple things right.

There was a great Lee header effort from an Alex corner on the right - unfortunately this one came off one of the corners of his head and rocketed skywards - but with the number of headers he's winning from corners, it's just a matter of time before he gets one in the ol' onion bag.

With 10 mins to go, Dean was feeling his groin a bit (hmm) so Scott pulled him off (oh please) and inserted Gonzo into the hole behind Antonio (that's enough). Unlucky for Gonzo that he didn't get more time to do what he does best, but it was still long enough for him to get into a tussle with a guy 3 times his size!

In the dying minutes came the only other moment of danger at the back - an identical free-kick to the one they scored with in the first half - Dave managed to turn this one onto the crossbar, and there was a nervous moment as we waited for it to re-orbit and finally clear our lines.

There was still time for more drama when one of their guys got booked, then sent off for making such a fuss - then their captain got booked and was so incensed that he demanded a red, which he nearly got. The second ref spared their blushes moments later by calling an end to proceedings, hands were shaken sincerely and warmly at the end of the game with many of their players apologizing for the actions of the few.

We never really looked like losing the game, and controlled it more than the scoreline suggested. On the whole, a decent effort by everyone, resulting in 8 of the 12 players picking up at least 2 MoM votes. Things always look rosier after 3 points and 3 pints, but given the league leaders lost, and the Irish drew, it turned out to be a pretty good afternoon for BUFC 1sts.

Man of the Match: Marek (Lee 3rd, Alex 2nd)