Although this was an away fixture for Nailsea the game was held at Nailsea school when St Brendans’ usual pitch wasn’t available. The first 20 minutes were evenly matched but St Brendans broke the deadlock as their young midfielder (permitted to play under the father and sons rule) showed his pace and left the Nailsea defense in his wake to drill home from 10 yards out.

Nailsea rallied and continued to play neat football resulting in a corner on 25 minutes. The ball swung into the 6-yard box and Clarkey was there to score from a couple of yards out; a deflection off his inner thigh rather than the ‘worldie’ he tried to describe to the rest of us!

Nailsea took the lead with a well worked move. Frosty and Jerry linked well to find Christian in space 8 yards out to fire home and make it 2 -1.

Shortly before half time St Brendans gifted the ball to Christian 20 yards out. One look up then he struck a terrific shot into the top left corner of the net to make it 3-1 to Nailsea and double his tally.

Even more, shortly before halftime, St Brendans were awarded a penalty as Clarkey was adjudged to drag a player to the floor as he ran across him. A well-taken penalty was brilliantly saved by Lee Mc as he dived to his right to maintain the 2-goal cushion at halftime.

10 minutes into the second half Nailsea had 3 injuries at the same time, including keeper Lee. Jeff took the keeper’s gloves and with some re-shuffling outfield (thankfully enough subs) play resumed. It took a few minutes to settle with a reshaped team but Nelly put the result to bed with 25 to play. Jerry made a great challenge to push the ball to Nelly who ran across the face of the box, passed two defenders to drill into the bottom left from the right-hand side of the box. 4-1.

The final goal of the game came from a penalty after Matt was fouled on a mazie run inside the penalty area. Christian took the ball as he was looking for his hat-trick and duly converted to make the final score 5-1

All played in a good spirit on a fine early summer morning.

A well contested game at BAWA saw St Brendan’s come out on top. With no keeper and no strikers due to late drop outs, Decliners expected a tough day at the office and conceded two poor goals in the first 15 minutes. After this they grew into the game and gradually took control, creating numerous chances which they were unable to finish. Brendan’s had their moments on the break and stand in keeper Biccy made two superb saves in the second half before Russ finally pulled one back with a great finish from the edge of the box. An equally good goal from the Brendan’s striker effectively put the game to bed, despite Temps scooping the ball over the keeper to make it 3-2 with 10 minutes left. The game was played in a great spirit throughout, a good advert for the Corinthians League.