This week morale was at its lowest point in a long time. Last week’s performance was a total disgrace and lacked belief, passion and skill. Training wasn’t much better with only about 15 people making it and the game at the end seemed to be riddled with the sort of problems that were all too apparent on Saturday. To compound things, it also looked as though we would be starved of players going in to the weekend’s game.

One OFC player summed the general mood of the camp up at the end of training. “No Butler, No Furno, no Ryan, Moo or Jordy? We’re f*cked this weekend!!”

One potential ray of light this week was the return of Tom Pryce who has missed 2 games because he was on holiday and then was expected to miss the rest of the season after breaking down in training with a self diagnosed broken ankle. But after going to see the doctor, the injury wasn’t as bad as first thought and little over a week later he was back in training and back in the squad.

As per usual Saturday rolled round and a number of players emerged out of the woodwork and although it was a little bit of an unusual looking line up of players, we managed to get the required 11 plus 4 subs.

The team: Will, Bayno, Ross, Sonny, Prycey, Tom BL, Sean, Dockers, Spooner, Jamie B, Jamie N. On the bench; Simon, Pod, Jizz.

I didn’t see the game and I am reporting purely on the opinions of many who saw it, so this week should prove to be a refreshingly accurate take on the events on the pitch.

I suspect that most of our morale issues were quickly put to one side when we lined up to face Lightwater and saw they only had 10 players to start the game. Like some sort of male deer in rutting season, it seems that the Oatlands team had caught the scent of a lesser stag in its nostrils and it didn’t take OFC long to gore Lightwater twice in side. Jamie Nichols doing the early damage with a brace in the first 10 minutes.

I should think that from the side, careful attention was probably being paid to the performance of Tom Pryce. A few days ago this website asked the question of whether it would be the greatest and swiftest comeback since Lazarus rose from the dead or whether we would be left the same with a feeling of mild disappointment that followed Michael Jackson’s attempted comeback tour earlier this year. Apparently it was a mixed bag early on with Prycey failing to see Will coming out for the ball and trying to beat him with a back header, but we soon knew Prycey was 100% when he took on an attacker with a shimmy, released the ball and then turned to Beater in the crowd to ask if that would be in the match report.

Reports from the game suggest that midway through the first half Lightwater were up to the full compliment of playing staff, but it was still OFC on top and in control.

It was Tom BL who put OFC 3-0 up. After 2 years of scattered appearances in which he’s never really had a sustained run in the team due to University and band commitments, he’s been threatening to do some serious damage for the last few games with some great performances. After being bought down in the penalty area Tom had an opportunity to put OFC 3-0 up. Although he’s missed important penalties in important games, Tom put that to bed with a well taken penalty to put OFC 3-0 in front.

3-0 quickly became 4-0 as Oatlands remained on the front foot and it was about this time that I phoned Beater to see what the score was. We chatted briefly and discussed the fact that if it was 6-0 we could start thinking about all three points.

After half time there was the usual dip in performance that usually seems to follow a strong OFC first half and these dips have in the past cost us dearly. As a result Lightwater found themselves very much in charge for 20 minutes and got a goal back which undoubtedly caused those on the sideline to start producing beads of sweat. Thankfully for Oatlands, Lightwater were back down to 10 men when their keeper left the pitch and Oatlands got themselves back on top.

Oatlands freshened things up with 2 changes. Si on for Jamie up front and Pod on for Sean in midfield. Unfortunately for Oatlands, Joe Spooner was forced from the pitch with injury after making his first start of the season and giving an excellent performance until that point. James Robertson came on in his place.

Last week Simon McCormack came on for 10 minutes up front, but admitted after the game that in those 10 minutes, he didn’t even touch the ball once. Different story this week though as Simon bashed in goals 5 and 6 for Oatlands to put the game beyond any possible doubt.

Tom Lloyd rounded off a good day personally for him and Oatlands by grabbing a 3rd for his hatrick and Oatlands 7th. 7-1. OFC did have other chances, but the bar and some bad luck kept the score at 7-1.

Overall it was a good and extremely useful result for Oatlands. Although Lightwater were clearly under strength, we too had some important players missing and those who stepped in clearly did well and got the job done and in style.

Almost unbelievably it looks like this year is going to be the closest in ages for the OFC Golden Boot award. Already Tom BL, Simon and Jamie Nic are on 3 goals and they are being chased down hard by Jiz and Butters.

Next week we have a week off, but the week after we have a County Cup game at home against Darkside FC who play in the Kingston and District League. Steve said that there were 20 odd supporters at Corrie Rec on Saturday to cheer the lads on; it would be great to get another good turnout to welcome our County Cup opponents.