Fernhill 3, Maroons 4

Some games should come with backing music. Perhaps the Benny Hill theme would have been appropriate here. The game reminded me of a few Sunday morning matches, where the goals start flying in before anyone is really awake.
Two-nil up inside five minutes: Ant met a wonderful Dave C cross from the left with an unstoppable header, and then Fergus held off a defender to run away and poke past the advancing keeper. The goals  the obvious warning from the sideline that we had made a similar start against Uni and wound up losing, but there was no getting over the light-hearted air in a game between two teams out of finals contention.
So it was that Shane brought down their forward - the second penalty he has conceded in the same box in two years. He had no complaint and Pete was beaten when he dived out the way of a straight shot. Minutes later it was 2-2 as a defender missed his kick and they ran through to equalise. Less than 15 minutes gone and our subs came on with four goals already banged in.
As half time approached we won a corner on the left. The bloke running the subs tried to drag Tom off and bring on corner whiz Dave C only Dave wasn't listening and the change never got made. Instead a short corner was played to Tom who resisted a step over and instead curled a beauty off the outside of his left foot into the goal from the inside of the post.
We had barely stopped celebrating when they scored at the other end, direct from a freekick after a poor handball decision. We had another clear handball waved away at the other end as Paul's header was goalbound, and the ref waved away a couple more shouts for freekicks. Th10 was yellow carded for losing the plot in foul mouthed fashion (sorry, fans) and we went to the break full of frustration.
The second half was a dominant display and we should really have fashioned more out of it than the single winning goal. Ian S got his first in the Coledale colours, driving home after their keeper spilled another Dave C corner curler. We should have added a few more, Paul coming closest when his header from another corner smashed the post at speed and it might have cost us but for a neat save from Pete right at the death from a worrying freekick just outside the box.
Enjoyable game against some decent blokes, with an interesting postscript courtesy of Graeme P.
A year ago we played the same opposition while riding high on top of the ladder. "These guys are shit, they shouldn't be leading the comp", or words to that effect said one. GP reports that the same guy told him this week: "You guys are good, why are you so low on the table?" Quite.