Match report by Our Man In Holland Lunchtime O'Booze

                                       Hance

           Brown         Gatter       R. Edmonds    Thornton

                Barnett           Pickin        Jones

            Knight               Golding            Taylor

Subs : Thomsett for Brown, Burlington for Taylor

Final score 5-1 (Half time 2-1)

  A story of missed chances and an extremely physical Dutch side who went for the man and the ball.

  The game started well, but the City defence looked shaky on the left side, and it was from this side that the ball was floated in from a free kick for Edmonds to volley the ball expertly past Hance for his first international own-goal.

  Spurred on by this, Thornton attempted to let SV through for a second goal, but the posing right back was there to clean up.

Gatter, making one of his rare forays up front accidentally made contact with a free kick to put City back on terms.

 SV channelled most of their attacks through their tall central midfielder, and it was no surprise to find that he ghosted in to set up their second goal.

After half time City, looking for more flair in attack, brought on Burlington, who sadly only proved that he cannot pass straight. A hurried conference on the touchline allowed the changing of Brown for Thomsett. With most of the team worrying about a possible injury to their only Michael Aspel impersonator, SV scored twice more before Thornton took much-awaited revenge for some of the Dutch tackling by chopping down their right winger

with a tackle that was so late that we are still waiting for it. The crunch was heard for miles around, and cries of "Ooh, Oddbod !" were his only punishment. (Colin received his studs back afterwards).

  The game was made more depressing by the fact that it was to be the only one, the only bright spot being the fact that Brown had gone off, not for an injury, but in his own eloquent words, "I was dying for a shit !"