Game 2 of the Nene Sunday League 4 took us on our travels to Stoke Bruerne to take on Tove Valley.

Still men playing in their yellow away kit were right up for the game from the off within the first 2 minutes the boys were off the mark some incredible play down the left hand side saw Mlauzi merrily dance the ball past the Tove defence as if they weren’t there, played a perfect cross in for Reynolds who made sure of the finish to give Still Men the lead. 1-0

2 minutes later another attack led to a free kick in a dangerous position, up-stepped Brown whose shot was sent in at rocket speed, so hard that even with the ball ending up just under the bar in the dead centre of the goal, the keeper could not keep it out. 2-0

A few minutes later and the ball was in the back of the net again as Still Men broke the 100 m record on the counter attack a delightful through ball was ended with Durham showing the Tove defence a clean pair of heels and he made no mistake with an emphatic finish. 3-0 the boys were rampant.

Attack after attack was made by Still Men but the rise of the Assistant ref who was training to do flag semaphore in the Navy was thwarting some attacks with some dubious decisions (VAR for grassroots anybody?) however there was an occasion we beat the offside bear traps and gavin was put through clean on goal, the “Striker” took 5 touches too many and when you just need to put your foot through it he thought he could get a little lob on the keeper, which was saved and definitely does not equate to a miss in the Gavin English Dictionary.

Not long after that Tove finally broke in to the Still Men half where the striker met Dent and his back, and despite Dent being pushed a free kick went to the greens of Tove. Queue the roll out of the red carpet as the Oscar award for acting made its reappearance at the Bernabruerne, after being attacked by an Asian hornet their striker laid down on the floor, the ref didn’t buy any of it and the delayed time only meant Tove hit the free kick wide.

A few more chances were created by Still Men only for the dubious linesman to call offsides on one occasion denying Blake his first goal for the club. The headband bandit is still fuming.

After that a frentic few minutes played out where Still Men lost a little composure but soon enough Gavin was making amends for that miss by supplying the ball that led to Durham being able to score his second of the game with another great finish. 4-0

Surely we wouldn’t be seeing a first half hat trick would we? You better believe it as just 2 minutes before half time Durham was through again and after an initial save by the keeper, his effort was to hot for the keeper to handle and the ball ended in the back of the net for 5-0. A near perfect first half.

The 2nd half saw Still Men pick up where they left off even having made 3 half time subs the boys were soon extending their lead after some further great play at pace saw the ball fall to Reynolds who again was clinical with his finish for his second of the game. 6-0

Minutes later and the boys were at it again with Reynolds supplying Millman-Grant who at first was nearly odds on for miss of the match after his effort from a few yards out smashed the bar but he was alert and super quick to tuck in on the rebound. 7-0

The next 20 minutes Still Men relaxed a little Tove had a few attacks but Found Tambo in imperious form, big Dave had a wonderful 20 minute cameo using his experience well and showing the youngsters a thing or two about Sunday league football.

Tove did create one chance from a corner, the header was going top corner but Barker managed to finish his cola, jump off his sun lounger and tip the ball on to the bar the follow up shot is barely worth mentioning.

As the clock was running down, the boys still had time to score again with a move down the right hand side finding Mlauzi in the box unmarked and he finished with aplomb to seal a very comfortable win for the Still Men. We look forward to watching the highlights on Tove Valleys YouTube channel, but rumour has it they stopped recording after going 3 down.