Thaxted Rangers Yellows 8 : 1 Sandy

In Sunday’s lovely Autumn sunshine the Yellows were up against another brand-new adversary, Sandy. Not, alas, the much-loved Olivia Newton-John character from Grease, but an under 17 side from Bedfordshire.

We were also on a brand-new pitch for this home league fixture, the white lines having mysteriously disappeared from our normal one.

Truth to tell, this was a very one-sided affair, especially in the second half when Sandy’s keeper retired hurt, leaving only 10 men in black and white to try and stem the flow of goals.

Matty showed he is back to full fitness with a typically well-taken strike within five minutes of kick-off. And whilst the visitors snatched an equaliser courtesy of an own-goal from Ethan on 20 minutes, from then on it was strictly one-way traffic and 4-1 at the break. This was thanks to Harley's spectacular 25 yarder, a Sandy OG and Matty’s second of the day. Rory made it five immediately after the restart, followed by a goal from Jacob, another from Matty to complete his hat-trick, and a powerful volley from Henry.

As we’ve seen before when the Yellows have been in a dominant position, rather than put the opposition to the sword, we started to become self-indulgent with tricks and flicks and a loss of shape that would be punished mercilessly by a stronger team. There was even a brief outbreak of silly handbags as Sandy, not surprisingly, became frustrated at the scoreline.