It's the league season opener!

It was a much changed Brooklands 5th team which started the league season opener against Ormskirk 1sts on Saturday. Out went Captain Bod (sniffles), Vice Cap Simpson (severed leg) and the talismanic Kenny Latham (family duties) to be replaced by Jeeves, Danny ‘Pie Man’ Poyner and a fresh intake of students. Despite the changes, this was a strong Brooklands side with depth in numbers and the pre-match mood was full of optimism.

In an effort to dispel unfamiliarity within the side, Brooklands decided to run a name call during the pre-match huddle – sadly this only served to confuse matters as young goalkeeper Dan Wilkinson somehow managed to get his own name wrong!

However, despite the early confusion, Brooklands started quite brightly – the quality and experience of Jeeves and Poyner in the back line gave the side a solid base and an energetic midfield led by Colin Campbell kept Ormskirk pinned back in their own half for large spells. Unfortunately Brooklands were unable to make their first half superiority tell and at half time the sides came in level.

So all to play for in the second half and the wise words delivered during the break by the new Bod/Simpson managerial partnership had an instant effect… Brooklands went 1-0 down. But in a move which would prove pivotal to the game, a double substitution was made bringing on youngsters Tom Lee and John Ballentine. Within minutes the 2 subs combined to score Brooklands’ equaliser – redemption complete, all hail the new Sir Alex and Brian Kidd of Brooklands!

And so to the end game, 20 minutes to go, the scores level and the decision was made to push for the win… For a quarter of an hour it was all Brooklands! John Carpenter, fresh from running 1 for 25 short corners the previous week suddenly opened up his box of tricks and flat footed a defender on the far touchline. Pressure built around the Ormskirk D and in the frantic melee that followed John Ballentine found himself with the ball, 5 yards from goal! But, just as the crowd gasped in anticipation of ball hitting backboard, John Carpenter - who had started the move in the first place - flew in from nowhere, pinched the ball from young Ballentine’s stick and awkwardly scraped it wide. Oh dear Carpers!

More chances followed, more chances were missed and then the inevitable happened. Ormskirk who had shown much improvement on their 1st half performance, countered and won a short corner. Their first effort on goal was saved, but young Wilkinson in goal could not stop the powerful follow up and Ormskirk led with 5 to go. It proved to be too little time for Brooklands to gain an equaliser and the final score stayed 2-1.

MOTM: Too many to single one man out – a very good team performance and certainly one which did not get the result it deserved.

DOTD: Bod ‘Sir Alex’ Morrison – who despite not even playing, still managed to have the games only argument from the side-lines with one of the Ormskirk defenders