1st Team: Jeckel & Hyde!

With round 1 now completed the 1st team traveled to Three Kings to try and avenge their loss in their debut match in the AFF Championship.

Three Kings must have heard how well BMAFC had played on a quality pitch the previous week - at the 11th hour the game was transferred from the #1 field to the #4 goat track.

The early 1pm KO obviously put some of the lads off their normal routine as 5 lads turned up late. Stand in coach Brian Derby (due to Pete Jones rupturing his achilles tendon playing indoor netball the night before ) was trying to get part of a team to understand the game plan while the late-comers were getting stripped.

The warm up was unusually quiet and a few sensed things weren't as normal, BMAFC were immediately put under pressure from the start as they failed to put more than 3 passes together, giving away cheap possession at this level can be costly as the lads finally got punished for poor communication and not dealing with things quickly as old boy Brian Preston was not given a call of man on! So he was dispossessed of the ball, the Three Kings player then feed his strike partner before coolly slotting home pass the advancing Adam Mathews.

Half time couldn't come soon enough as the lads had had not one attempt on goal, Brian Derbys advice was to forget the first half as it was that bad it was not only giving him nightmares but it would cause us insomnia due to nightmares! The second half got off to a reasonable start, the boys started to shift the ball around and passes began to stick, a good switch from right to left saw Ant Schomaker race away only for the ref to blow for offside, Matt Henney was the guilty one even though he wasn't going for the initial pass, a conversation was held with Ref & Matt which resulted in a straight red card, harsh in anyone's terms! No foul language just queering the decision, BMAFC down to 10 for the last 40 mins seemed to step it up, unfortunately the goal didn't come, even last week's 2 goal hero glanced a well placed cross just wide in the dying minute.

It would have been an injustice to Three Kings if it was a draw as BMAFC deserved nothing from the game. They fought valiantly when down to 10 men, but too little too late. Things to be learnt as this team is capable of a top four finish if they apply themselves week in week out.

Our best wishes go out to Pete Jones for speedy recovery, hopefully we will have him back on the sideline this week yelling out instructions and waving his crutches about.

By Brian Preston