City of Manchester 1 - Bowdon IX's 7

After a sequence of 4 moral wins, which had propelled (morally speaking of course) the Bees to the top of the moral league, all the pre match talk was whether The Streak would continue. Fortunately 2 statisticians in the Bees swarm were on hand to provide some trend analysis...step forward...Ollius Offroadum Marcos Roundus Maximus Quiffus Erectus and Dead Shot Marshall. Ollius argued that the trend pointed to a moral loss whilst Dead Shot thought that the statistics pointed to a very narrow moral win. Morally confused ? Well you would have been when the pair then started to debate the merits of moral goals.....all very confusing for the moral heathen majority.....

The game started (as usual) brightly for the Bees and a sweeping moving down the right wing in the first couple of minutes led to a short corner being won. Whilst the initial shot was well saved by the goalie, Neil Breton was on hand to put away the rebound.....GOAL ! ! ! The Bees were buzzing....

The skilful but youthful/inexperienced oppo tended to allow the Bees too much time on the ball. The Bees took advantage and passed the ball round the pitch in their legendary silky fashion. Further attacks and therefore goals as the first half wore on. A second goal soon arrived from Dead Shot...although I should point out that only moments before he had missed an absolute sitter having been set up by Yokker. A deserved third goal was scored by our hallowed leader. A short corner was won and Ollius's fiercely struck shot found the corner of the corner leaving the goalie stranded. Just before half time Dead Shot put away a fourth goal with a stinging shot from all of 6 inches after a dreadful mix up in the oppo defence where the goalie almost kicked the ball into his own net.

Ollius struggled for words in his half time team talk - the Bees were 4-0 to the good, playing well and incredibly even playing back balls.

The second half started with the Bees on the back foot as the oppo came forward with renewed vigour. The Bees defence were holding out with Nick and Tom leading the way....until Carl decided to throw his stick just as the oppo centre forward was winding up for a shot. Without hesitation the ump pointed to the spot. The resulting flick was put away...game on. The Bees were forced to up their game and up it they did. Further goals followed from Yokker, Dead Shot (thus completing an immoral hat trick) and Neil Breton (goal of the season contender ?). The scoreline would have been even greater if it hadn't been for the excellent performance of the oppo goalie and the wayward passing of our centre midfield pairing...Ollius and the self-proclaimed hockey god Braithwaite. (Actually I think you'll find the scoreline would have been greater if the forward line hadn't missed all those open goals , but that's just the uninformed opinion of a mid-fielder hick you understand... - Factual correction Ed)

Overall a fine Bees performance and an immoral way to end the moral streak.

Yokker

As tables seem to be in vogue, here's one from this week's game;