Chester VIs 3 - Bowdon IXs 2

Excitement and confidence were high as The Killaz rolled up to face this weeks wannabe Moral League champions. Having farmed out players to higher teams for a bit of the killer experience the week before, Colonel Hawkins expectation of nothing less than outright slaughter was palpable. Indeed knowing that this weeks victims were currently languishing beyond the infra-red end of the bottom of the league no-one expected any prisoners to be taken and indeed the talk was merely of how long before Chester's "Terror Alert" was raised to 11 simultaneous white-flags. The Colonel decided to heap mockery upon the opposition by putting Andy "Runs Like A Gazelle" Pritchard into some ridiculous keepers kit and leaving one man at home.

All went according to plan ... for about the first 30 seconds. 1-nil to Chester. When someone suggested that the team werent a complete push-over and decided to ... 2-nil to Chester. Yes it really was that quick and I'm afraid thats all I remember (obviously if I'd seen a bit more of the 2 balls that went in I would have done more to keep them out). They were both pretty deft flicks, the first went under the keepers right arm and the second making its way around the keepers left leg.

Movement, position and vision among the Bees threatened throughout the first half to break into scores on the doors - the Authors wife saw a few shots hit post - but were frequently let down by weak passing. By half-time and the associated legendary team talk it wouldnt be unfair to say that the best players on the pitch were pensioners.

The Colonel felt that "Cover Drive" Cooper would serve the good of the many better inside the keepers kit and "The Box" - yes recently found to not only have traces of flesh-eating Necrotising Fasciitis but also of the H5N1 avian flu virus strain.

The Bees thoroughly redeemed themselves in the second half, although Chester gained another goal (which we pretty much set up for them) it didn't dampen the drive and desire to show these pseudo-scousers who was boss. The movement up the wings was excellent but helped massively by the forwards switching wings frequently, leaving the Chester defence wondering who was where and who was supposed to be marking whom. This opened up some huge holes in the Chester back line and allowed some very accurate diagonal cross-pitch passing from left to right wing, where Neil and Andy penalised the defence for napping. Yokker, Marsh and Pritch all came alive through this and the defence must have wondered from whence the va-va-voom eminated.

Despite Ginge pulling up and effectively putting us at 9.5 players, the Bees soon scored, and really were over the opposition like a dose. Only the huge gravitational mass of one of the Chester defenders meant that a lovely cross-pitch ball, surely goal-bound, was sucked away from the intended recipient - lightning reactions and the drilled-in come-to-the-ball motion were what saved the poor forward from a similar fate.

The final goal came as the Chester defence weary from their efforts, allowed a ball to run off the back line, one plucky Killer summoning up the remaining strength within him fled toward the ball and managed to stop it reaching the line, whalloped it back toward the penalty spot where the Chester defence - aghast at such a move  - were left dumbfounded as the ball was put firmly in its rightful place - bottom-right.

Overall 10 Bees took on 11 mere mortals and were unfortunate not to have won by a very healthy margin. This certainly should be logged as one of the Moral League victories of the season. Final score 3-2 Chester (2-6 ML Bees)

Pritch