It could have been a Valentine’s Day massacre with unavailability, late drop-outs and about 5 or 6 people in the top sides who decided they could only manage a home game. Surely with games finishing at 4.15pm players could get to whatever evening commitment they had even from south London? As a result of player shortage, Ralph and Jamie were left with teams mainly shaped by the ability of players to travel rather than normal criteria.

In the circumstances the 1sts did remarkably well to get a point at second placed Civil Service with plucky defence and a bit of luck getting them through.

Not so lucky for the 2nds who had the long journey to Carshalton and lost to a side they beat at home only a month ago. After a good run, they have lost two on the bounce without scoring, so need to stop the rot very soon.

In all 3 games at Alan Drive (on remarkably dry pitches) we looked to have the measure of the opposition. The most disappointing was the 3rds who always looked the better side on the bottom pitch but having fought back to a 4-3 lead with 10 minutes to go let in 3 fairly soft goals handing the points to the second bottom side. The game was notable for a 40 yard goal from Sean Carroll.

The 4ths, on the middle pitch, also looked comfortable for much of the match but didn’t convert it into enough goals and gave a rare point to a side fighting relegation.

You’d think that by scoring 4 goals you’d win any match but the 5ths were the third side on the day to prove this is not true of EBOG. Not only that, they were able to give the bottom side their first point of the season!

The 6th’s and 8th’s games were off because they were scheduled to be played on Barnet Council pitches, which were cancelled across the Borough. They were apparently unable to mark the pitches despite our groundsman having no difficulty marking ours on Friday. This is an example of the lamentable support given by the Council to sport in the Borough following on from leaving cold showers at Bethune Park for the first 2 months of the season and showing little effort to repair them!

Finally, on the top pitch, the 7ths were up against Parkonians who had soundly beaten them on an iced pitch a month ago. This game was far more even but they kept getting caught on the break.