Welcome to the weekly EBOG FC review.

The 1sts kept their winning run going although it was a little tighter than they might have wanted. They have now risen to 6th place with the third best goal difference. Rob Laney has scored 6 goals in the last 5 games and it is good to see two 1st team players up amongst the Club’s top goalscorers.

The 2nds made it 4 losses on the bounce and can’t really explain this one away as a difficult fixture. Civil Service were second bottom and swap places with EBOG. Most spectators felt that we deserved at least a point but they are going to have to get back their sharpness in front of goal to avoid another relegation dogfight this season.

In contrast the 3rds continued their astonishing run with their eighth consecutive win and the trouncing of Old Owens. It’s not often you can say that, but Owens are having a miserable year by their high standards with their 1sts near the bottom of Div 1. The 3rds are undoubtedly our star side at the moment and Lee Sterry is leading by example sitting in 3rd place on the goalscorers’ with 8 goals. Remarkable for a central defender! The other central defender, Danny Pearce, has got just one goal, but he did ask me to mention it!

The 4ths were, until a few weeks ago a contender for best side, but have been comprehensively beaten in 3 of the last 4 games, and are now out of all the Cups. Mind you, they were playing a third team on Saturday which reflects the slightly strange ‘seeding’ arrangements unique to the AFA Cup. The 4ths still sit in a very creditable 4th place in the League, with games in hand, so have it all to play for if they can snap out of this decline and get back to defending.

The 5ths went into their match against Finchleians 5ths with identical points and identical goal difference. I suppose the smart money would have been on a draw and we remain above them in 4th place ‘alphabetically’. Something of a disaster for the 6ths with captain Steve Down away, they seemed to be short of players Saturday lunchtime and with no goalkeeper who dropped out late. This must have had a bearing on why they went down so badly against the second bottom side who now leapfrog them. They are 3rd from bottom now and are the side we can least afford to have in relegation peril.

By contrast, the 7ths produced the result of the day with a fighting performance against the 4th placed side 9 points above them. This unusual result was the exact reverse of the score against the same team 7 weeks ago!

The 8ths have had a month to forget with some big scores against and this week was no exception.

The 9ths were more than a match for Polytechnic despite fielding nobody under 40, 4 players over 50 and one over 60! They didn’t kill off the tie though until the last 10 minutes. They now join 3 other EBOG teams still in the AFA Cup.

The ‘real’ (but much younger!) EBOG Vets were disappointed to lose their quarter-final fixture against Old Woodhouseians on Sunday, but after more than 12 hours of torrential rain over Saturday night it was a good decision not to damage the pitches for future matches.

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