Close to a triple hat-trick
By Mike Stabenow

A somber day with a sunny result – just the opposite of what we were used this season so far. Although there were just eleven players available for this game they all thought this should be more than enough to make AMEA pay a price for some of the frustrations of the last couple of weeks. And so it happened, perhaps also because instructions for the game were given twice: in Scottish, first by Tom and then by Mark. Stuart, the third Scotsman, for some unknown reason remained silent.

The first ten to fifteen minutes of the first half looked pretty balanced with AMEA pushing up a couple of times and obtaining even several corners. However it became clear soon that – for once – our midfield was well in control of the pitch with Stuart putting a lot of pressure in the centre and Mark almost playing as a left winger. On the other side, Pedro didn't need to be reminded of the day on which he scored five goals to understand something similar could be done today.

As one Portuguese can hide another, it was up to Adriano to score the first of a total of seven goals. A combination of Sporting Lisboa coolness, a shot or was it meant to be a cross from the right angle of the box? Anyway, somehow the ball landed in the opposition's goal, helped first by a tremendous kick (with the new magical boots) which must have almost reached the height of the Lisbon Pantheon, helped then by an AMEA player's head who must have visibly been very impressed by this startling display of Lusitan incisiveness.

The rest was pure BUFC routine with three players scoring twice: Stuart (one with the head), Pedro (both with his right foot, but one with that swirling shooting technique that only few Non-Lusitans master) and the author of these lines (both, for once, with his right foot, and both with his usual well considered and judicious manners in front of a goal).

If those reading this match report are not one of the eleven BUFC players, délégué Bengt or the three only and true supporters witnessing this historical match this evidence should be enough to know that this second victory of the season was well deserved and that after a difficult start of the season we seem ready now, as Clean Sheet Goalie Colin put, "to march, not run up the table" – after all we are (still) veterans.

For the other 15 readers: Yes, it was awful (and an awful feeling) to put the ball above the bar of a more or less empty goal, especially since I find it so difficult to hit the ball higher than a meter. One slight excuse: after all I was not brought up near the Lisbon Pantheon, although I wear similar magical shoes. Next time someone passes me a ball in front of an empty goal, which is, as experience shows, unlikely to happen before another twenty three years of my BUFC career, I will do a better job – or at least try to do so. Promised!

What else should be revealed or admitted to the other 15 readers – or to put it exactly – thirteen readers? Yes, we were close to a triple hat-trick. But to tell the truth: Stuart and myself had concluded some sort of tacit agreement that we would prevent each other (and Pedro) of getting a hat-trick in the second half. Unfortunately, Stuart's hat-trick was actually also prevented "thanks" to a nasty tackle by an AMEA defender on the ankle, leaving BUFC with ten players for the last twenty minutes of the game. In the end this was a good excuse for the fact that we didn't manage to score any more goals. In fact, the quality of the game had already gone down quite a bit before, while the level of shouting at each other had gone up in a way that impressed AMEA almost as much as our skills with the ball.

Team: Shayler, Brewerton, Bortolini, Woollin, Kemp (c), Stabenow, Zilhão, Hunter, M.Thomas, Assunção, Reilly
Scorers: Assunção (2), Hunter (2), Stabenow (2), Zilhão (1)
Man and of the Match: Assunção