With only 3 points separating the top three teams, the boys faced Immanuel in what would be the first of 2 weeks that’ll shape our season.

Immanuel were sitting top of the table & have not lost since round 1. In our previous encounter at the start of the season they’d belted us 7-1, so we were out for a bit of redemption.

We had a strong squad for this game, but it was somewhat weakened as Mohammed didn’t make it to the ground by the time we handed match sheets in.

On the flipside, we gained the services of GT and Ryo who’d both played earlier in the day.

At the start Immanuel kicked with the breeze and came out with all guns blazing. They had more of the ball and kept us inside our half – but our defence and midfield were compact and disciplined and we were doing an excellent job of keeping them at bay.

On the couple of occasions they did get passed the backline – Markus (in his last game for the club) made a couple of super saves!

Late in the half though Immanuel got a breakthrough – as a corner came in – Ben got front position, but was nudged over (no free given!) allowing his opponent to head home from close range.

Going in at 1-0, with the breeze behind us for the 2nd half, we were all thinking anything was possible.

Immanuel though again had a little more of the ball, as their midfield and mobile forwards were making us work hard. They managed a 2nd goal and a 3rd before we rung the changes. Bringing on Chris, Andy, Mike, Bryan and Ryo to spice things up.

Late on we managed to peg a goal back as Zac’s nice free kick went around the wall and bounced in off the upright (all that practice during the week paid dividends).

In the end – Immanuel were worth their 3-1 win, which now puts them 2 games ahead of us with another huge game against 2nd placed Pembroke this week.

Man of the match for us was (again) Markus – in his last match for the club – his 2nd half of the season has been top shelf.

A special mention must also go to Matt Bate who covered a lot of km in the defensive midfield role on a pretty tough day.

Massive game next week. If we want to keep our season alive we must beat Pembroke this week and hope that Immanuel drop the bundle somewhere along the way.

See you all at training.

That’s it!