MATCH DAY REPORT: 8/3

What looked like a pitcher's duel ended up with the White team blowing an eighth inning lead and slumping to a defeat on a humid and crowded morning.

And yes, it was soccer - not baseball. Just clearing that up.

At one point we had 14-a-side as the heat index was up through the roof. Most importantly, we had two goalkeepers, Steve and Doug, and neither had much to do for 85% of the game such was the focus on excellent defensive plays that frustrated a packed White attacking force in particular.

The White strikers couldn't cash in on the handful of chances that came their way. With Dan, Colin and Moe pulling the strings in the middle of the park, the three-pronged line of Scott R, Tom and Keeble struggled to even get a shot on target. Even in a key goalmouth scramble that would have given the Whites a lead had in ended up in the onion, shots were cleared off the line.

Meanwhile the Blues continued to surge through Vince, Rocco and Ed with Sal often found at the end of promising attacking moves, but unable to hit the ball with any conviction in any direction.

Two goals were disallowed for fouls, but it wasn't a nasty game. The always upbeat Jeff livened things up, but the long lay-off had taken its toll and his rust was showing. I feel for the photographer - seemingly a friend of Sal - who came up to take photos of the beautiful game, but would have ended up with a freakshow of ugliness in both penalty areas.

At 1-1, the game could have gone either way. The Whites had most of the possession, but the Blues had Mike and that can't be overlooked. Like Mark Miller, but with even more benevolence, Mike ran the show in defense and attack. Had Joe not been on top of his game along side Scott P and Ken P at the back, it would have been over-and-out-thank-you-goodnight by nine o'clock.

As the heat went up and the White playing staff went down (Dan and Ken were early leavers, and both had sterling games until that point) the Blues finally made a breakthrough and wound up running up a 3-1 lead - that would become a 4-1 victory with the last kick that ended proceedings.

FINAL SCORE: With more confidence that most weeks, I'm pretty sure even with the goals that were disallowed that it was: Blues 4 Whites 1

Man-of-the-match: Joe (White) -didn't miss a kick from the minute he took to the field (about half-an-hour after we started.)