Bowdon Killer Bees 0 - 5 Lytham

The day started well with a glorious winter day after several days of torrential rain, and the Bowdon Fifths having their game cancelled! Not good for them, but stonkingly good for the Bees as the normal swarm was somewhat depleted. and we needed extra bodies. The major bonus was getting Sammy D-S in nets, with Mike & Mini-mike Graham drafted in outfield. Also guesting was KHK. Now that he's found the right woman (after an awful lot of trial and error) Jonny is not letting her out of his sight, so Janet came along too... Egg & Skippy umpired (under the watchful eye of Mike G of course )

The Bees were slow starting, and Lytham quickly took advantage of this with two goals in the first five minutes. The Bees tried to get back to their 'normal' astro game but Lytham did a wickedly efficient job of closing down our midfield, and we struggled to put more than a couple of passes together. Pressure was maintained by Lytham throughout the first half, and another goal was conceeded by the Bees.

The half time speech was perhaps a little lacklustre as the skipper wasn't having a particularly great game himself, but it concentrated on the need for individuals to focus on their own game (and stop kicking the ball!). Just before half time the Bees had appeared to pick things up a bit, but as the whistle blew to start the second half it became obvious that the oppo had stepped it up more than we had. The second half followed a similar pattern to the first half, with a couple more goals from Lytham, and a half-hearted counter attack from the Bees .

Some people had indeed looked to their own game, and highlights of the second half include Giles' rocketing shot on goal, Martin Graham's work in the midfield, and some vital one-on-one defending by Nick West, Carl T & Janet at the back.

Despite discovering that Lytham have finally gone into a league, and are playing a lot more astro games than ever they used to (so much for our traditional advantage then!), the Bees never even approached the quality of play that they have demonstrated on several occassions already this season, so never really gave Lytham a run for their money. Worse still, Lytham outstayed most of the team at our own bar! It's always a (tough) pleasure to play them however, and we will see them again for our first game in 2004!

Olly