Venue - Warren Farm Conditions - Sunny, windy and bitterly cold Yet another fine squad turnout from ASB or ABS as new signing Rio calls us of 18 players for our last game of 2005. A year that saw Frange's mantlepiece require him to at last have to move along his carriage clock, Biarritz snowstorm and bouffant tongs to make way for a managerial trophy, the Furry Cup! A year that was momentus for the nearest ever miss at winning Worldnet (apart from when we won it of course!) and the 1st new manager in 3 years, the mercurial Jordan Ali.
Back to the game and after Jordan announced his team, we literally rushed out to the pitch and got started asap to avoid freezing to death in the Zurich-like temperatures. Not being in the opening line up, I quickly offerred to referee the 1st half, with that being the best way to keep bloody warm! We started thus: GK : Rob
RB : Orville LB : Tina
CB : Hef & Peewee
RM : Jamie LM : Slouch
CM : Task & Riz
S : Rio & Jordan We started as we meant to go on with Riz feeding Jordan with a cross/pass that he neatly slotted in from 7 yards after 9 mins. 2 mins later we went 2 up when a text book Task corner was neatly finished from Rio, scoring his 1st goal for ASB! We continually displayed some fine short passing married with a lot of crossfield play that pleased yours truly the ref as it meant I had to run a bit more to keep up with play thus preventing bodily parts from freezing off!! Another excellent Task corner saw tina speedily nip through a crowded defence to slot home a third on 23 mins. 7 mins later some fine work from Orv down the right allowed Jordan some space to cut in down the right flank and expertly beat the keeper for 4-0. Their keeper continued to make fine saves from the likes of Riz and Slouch before after 40 mins Task volleyed home from 14 yards , doing very well to keep his shot down and low. 1 of their players jokingly commented to me that he couldn't wait for the 2nd half to see what they could do in 2nd half with the wind with them. Their 1st half misery was complete when their guy taking a throw-in fell over 1 of our bags, allegedly containing Peewees homework and Thomas the Tank Engine lunchbox! Anyway, 5-0 at half time allowed the manager to make wholesale changes which prevented pneumonia from setting in amongst the assorted subs bench. Our passing and confidence were wonderful ingredients that created that famous ASB swagger cocktail.
Tina took over referreeing duties and excitedly set about blowing his whistle like a demonic St Trinians schoolmistress!!
It was always going to be tougher against the wind but impressively, our dominance continued in a half that saw us create almost as many chances without the luck or adept finishing of the 1st half. Riz, Woody and Jamie had shots and headers cleared off the line, Sharkey and Woody hit the woodwork and the skill and persistence of Jools and Jordan was extremely unlucky not to produce more goals. Buoyed by his goal of 2 weeks ago, even Orville fancied another notch but his long shot spun wide of the mark.George came on for Riz, Slouch and Tweena came back on late on for Frange and Jools. In the last 2 minutes, yet another goal-mouth scramble lead to Jamie scoring 1 of his trademark Owenesque finishes in the 6 yard box. The whistle was blown and a fine 6-0 win was achieved with yet another clean sheet and fine performance by all.
Worst performance of the day was probably Iain in the pub afterwards ,who failed to follow up his Saga pulling form from the previous week but with hogmanay just around the corner, the advice must surely be for the grandaughters to lock up their grannies. Woody. | 
