TMS kicked off their challenge for another trophy with a win, which it has to be said is down to one man, myself. What can i say, what a goal it was! A cross from the right hand side was nodded home with text book style and precision, leaving the goalkeeper flapping in the wind. I can't remember who scored the other four, but to be honest they were of little consequence and don't really warrant comment anyway....

Well alright back in the real world, TMS were still missing a few players through injury and so myself, Gary Underhill and manager Phil Pascoe made rare starts in this Arthur Pearce preliminary round cup tie. The reshuffle left a few players out of their preferred positions and so TMS got off to a slow start. Mount Ambrose started with ten men and rarely threatened an upset, their eleventh player arrived ten minutes into the game and came on to boost the visitors, however a crunching tackle from Anthony Caddy moments later and they were back to ten as their midfielder limped off the field to look for his missing kneecaps! The visitors then plucked an ex-player from the crowd to fill the gap. TMS began to take control of the game and started to thread some passes together causing problems in the visitors defence, before Marc Taylor finally broke the deadlock firing high into the roof of the net and the home side took a slender lead into the break.

The second half kicked off as the first finished with TMS firmly in control and looking to increase the lead and we probably would have, if only we could teach Taylor the fundamentals of a one-two (the greedy..!) The second did eventually come and was pretty much how I described it above as I headed home from Caddy's pinpoint cross before limping off minutes later, when the third sliding tackle from behind in as many minutes proved one too many for my old ankle. The ref amazingly claimed to have not seen any of them, obviously some relation of Arsene Wenger's - "should have gone to Specsavers"! Further substitutions gave TMS fresh legs and the home side stepped up a gear as Taylor added two more with near identical thumping headers from wide crosses, taking his personal goal tally to twenty for the season. The scoring was completed, following the award of a harsh penalty for a challenge on Tim Grose in the area. TMS keeper Kevin Pellow awoke from his nap to race the length of the pitch before thumping home the spot kick to set up a first round tie against Praze-an-Beeble.

Jeremy Hocking, Webmaster