Nice to get back to a normal Saturday with a full programme of football.

The 3 games at Alan Drive were thoroughly entertaining and it was difficult to choose which one to follow. With suspensions starting to affect availability there were a few scratch defences on view and this seemed to affect the middle sides the most.

The 1sts also suffered changes but rose to the occasion down at Kew with another late rally. This result has enabled them to leapfrog Kew and go into 4th place.

A good open game was on view on the bottom pitch with some scintillating attacking play from the 2nds. My man-of-the-match, Sam Penny, covered every blade of grass and his surging runs from midfield added an extra forward who Carshalton never picked up. One encouragement for such runs was that Sam knew he was surrounded by experienced players who had the ability to spot his run and play the quality pass.

Some of those players were playing for the 3rds before Christmas, and were perhaps missed in their 3rd round AFA Cup game. Despite this, after conceding an early lead, they were all over Enfield in the second half but could only get one goal from a mass of chances. A disappointing end to a good Cup run but they did well to get there.

The bubble seems to have burst for the 4ths who lost to the team immediately below them and slip into the bottom half.

The 5ths are in more trouble and are facing a relegation battle unless things pick up. Unusual to see Matt King and Shane Khan on the score sheet, and Dan Caskie saved a penalty but despite leading 2-1, they let things slip away in the second half.

The 6ths were severely weakened by dropouts and were in no condition to offset a two division gap between the teams. They can now concentrate on the League!

The 7ths got a shock when they went two down to an 8ths side largely comprising of schoolboys and who looked the better team in the first half. However, they managed to claw it back and achieve the third draw between these teams in the last 4 games.

Despite a few defeats there was an excellent atmosphere in the Club after the games which reminds us that we are a social club that plays football rather than the other way round. Although the football is not everything, we could do without the organised outing to Manchester United next Saturday which will take away about half the 1st team when they have an important Cup game. It really questions whether we have the commitment to win any silverware?

To see commitment in action look no further than the Ladies, who took on Stevenage on Sunday who are about 6 divisions higher. Despite serious injuries to Emma and her substitute Sue (both hospitalised) they scored 2 and hit the frame of the goal 3 times to stun the opposition with a 2 – 0 lead at halftime. OK, they eventually wilted against an increasing wind in the 2nd half but what a performance in adversity!