The game began well for TCS as Conor 'Happy face' Neal latched onto a through ball from fill in midfielder Toron 'Usain' Everett and selflessly slid the ball to DJ woody proving that he still knows where the goal is and notched up his eighth goal of the season. From there the game changed and Chard began to show their strength as they pressed the TCS D and eventually won a short corner. The short corner routine was primitive but fortunately for the Chard boys TCS were intent on making a good game of it and the big hit sailed through all in the D and hit the backboard, 1-1.

TCS then took the lead again as the ball dropped to Usain Everett in the centre of the Chard area and he finished clinically. As with the first goal this spurred Chard on and a sweeping move through the TCS defence lead to the second equalising goal of the game. 2 - 2. Just before half time the cards began to fly as Chard players began to show ... well ... nothing really but the cards came out anyway. At one point Chard were left with their keeper taking the long walk off due to some ... rash words... but in turned out all cards were wiped out and a green was shown to another Chard player (I lost count if I'm being honest but I think by now the card count was at 2 greens for Chard and a yellow that soon became nothing).

From the resulting short corner Skipper Carter with his only sane and useful moment of the entire game, drew the defender before slipping the ball to Usain Everett - coiled like a slightly tubby viper Everett unleashed a shot that found the backboard to send TCS into half time with a slender 3-2 lead. The half time team talk this week could be described as derogatory, derisory and entirely falling on deaf ears. Another yellow followed shortly after for an infringement of foul language and questioning umpiring decisions from a Chard player on the side line (despite this same player whinging about bad language later in the game) however this did not lead to a player advantage for TCS as it should have done ... See Facebook for a rule update.

The second half began in the same way as the first half ended, with Chard on top overall but a very tight game was unfolding. With Martina Bradley in midfield feeling the pace of the game with a loud feminine scream of 'shut up Toron, I'm not that young!' The game began to shift away from TCS and Chard started to boos the play. Eventually the constant award of short corners against the TCS defence (Including one from outside the 23 ... I know but we are clearly embracing the need to defend unearned shorts) told and as Karl 'Northern' Patrick went for a wander off his post and Mike Whitman decided to leave a clearly on target shot Chard secured the equalising goal and were in the ascendency.

Another flurry of cards came as bad boy Julian Brown and baby faced Evan Tarr incurred the wrath of the umpire and received green cards despite the protestation of Skipper Carter who tried explaining that nothing they were doing on the pitch was in any way deliberate - they just don't know how to tackle. (Those on the cards sweepstake - that's now Four green, and two yellow with no player suspensions). With both the TCS defence and the TCS attack trying to encourage the midfield to discover the true aim of marking Chard broke through again and scored to take the lead for the first time in the game - from here the game became decidedly unfriendly.

The Chard team fell back on the failsafe tactic of hitting players off the ball - it worked really well but led to a high degree of frustration in the TCS team especially skipper Carter who genuinely believed he had crossed into a more ice based hockey sport as he was hit in the back, pushed down and leant on in the middle of the Chard D - as two further Chard players descended to try to retrieve the ball Carter was glad to hear the whistle blow only for the hit to be given the other way - apparently when you put your hands out to break your fall (face first in a crowded D) and you touch a defenders stick you are always in the wrong ... I know, but there was no need for the frustration that followed. Fortunately the previous swearing offender was on hand to remind Carter that there were youngsters on the pitch who did not need to hear such vulgarity - thank you for that.

Thankfully the whistle went for full time before tensions boiled over and what proved to be a very good game came to an end with Chard running out deserving winners 3 - 4. Man of the match for TCS went to 'Not in the least bit angry' Dan Adams who can usually be relied upon to throw some cards in the mix had a truly stand out game and showed that he has really stepped up to the mantle of vice captain. The DOTD went - of course - to Toron 'usain' Everett - for a lack of running and for proving the point that no one was on the right wing by pumping the ball out of play when three players were free on the left hand side, when we were a goal down ... and had men over... well done, point proven.

Next week we play Bridgwater D - at least it'll be a friendly one...