Clattenburg seals it for Makos.

Before I start, the views expressed here are solely those of the author and in no way (necessarily) reflect the views of the club. I fully expect to be requested to edit this match report pronto!

As the game began, we had the bare 11, and Shane had already stated he would rather not play. The Makos were well on top, but our boys were battling really hard, limiting them to a few sporadic shots. After about 20 minutes or so a long punt appeared to be rolling over the dead ball line for our goal kick, unfortunately for us, one of their players managed to just get his foot to the ball before it crossed the line. His attempt to keep the ball in play saw the ball roll across our goal into the far corner - probably the one spot he could have put the ball into the net.

Heads dropped a bit, but not for long, Ant slipped a delicious ball into the path of Dave whose ferocious shot beat their keeper all ends up. 1-1 - and the tide began to turn in our favour. Their forwards were seeing little of the ball and suddenly a quickly taken free kick by Fergus saw Dave (I think, may have been Shaky) return the favour for Ant to put us 2-1 up. It was probably a merited lead due to the effort everyone was putting in.

Now at this point, with three minutes to go before half time, I should mention that I'm a Spurs supporter, as such I have.....less than fond memories of Mark Clattenburg, the referee that failed to notice that Pedro Mendes shot from the half way line, against Manchester United, crossed the goal line by about a zillion feet.

Well today Mr Clattenburg (having been demoted to refereeing an over 35's comp in Wollongong) managed to continue in the same vein. Earlier in the game, he'd awarded us a corner as the ball went out of play some 10 feet away from him. The linesman on the opposite side of the pitch, some 70 yards away intimated it was a goal kick and he changed his decision. Quite how you manage to believe the eyesight of somebody 60 feet further away from the event is beyond me, but I guess it was a sign of things to come.

Another hopeful punt saw Dave (who had finally turned up) running back towards our goal, with a Makos player in pursuit behind him. Dave stumbled and the Makos player went over the top of him. Mr Clattenburg, who had a fine view of the incident from his position in their half of the field, trotted over, saw both players lying in the penalty area - and promptly awarded them a penalty! Despite managing to get a hand to it, I couldn't keep it out and we went into the break at 2-2.

Into the second half, Shayne's ankle had given way and we down to no substitutes. Given how hard we'd been working, it was going to be hard work keeping them at bay. A shot from them was tipped up over my head and I turned around to catch it. I am reliably informed by a passing spectator that the ball was a good two feet over our goal line - although I must admit I actually thought I'd kept it out. With the linesman some way distant play was waved on and it would seem Mr Clattenburg had repeated his error at Old Trafford.

Eventually a cross into the box and a well placed header - again agonisingly coming off my fingertips - put them 3-2 up.

Shortly after, Graeme made a great run across their box and was blatantly upended. The resultant penalty seemed a sure way to get us back into the game at 3-3. Except there was no resultant penalty, Mr Clattenburg, despite being perfectly positioned waved play on? Did he book Graeme for diving? No, of course not - and of course they steamed up to our end and stuck the ball in our net. What should have been 3-3 was now 4-2.

From that point on we collapsed - although having a few chances, several players were feeling the pace and they had time to knock the all about. I managed to drop the ball leading up to their 6th, but their 7th was sublime. With lots of time to pick his spot, the Makos player chipped the ball over my head. All I could do was applaud his effort.

So in closing, Mr Clattenburg at one point offered Fergus his whistle. Fergus should have taken it as he couldn't have done any worse than the incumbent. I know it's not an easy job refereeing and can be a thankless task (I've done it a few times myself), but I often wonder why they put themselves in a position to get 90 minutes of abuse flung their way when their level of incompetence more or less ensures it will happen. I actually thought our players restrained themselves remarkably well.

That's not to say the referee was the cause of our defeat, Makos are a decent side, but personally I'd rather have had a Makos player refereeing it and doing his best than have an, at best, incompetent referee, at worse a cheat of one.