After several weeks of hard training, a convincing win in The Ashes and a slightly unsuccessful seven-a- side tournament, the first day of the season was finally here and The Raiders were raring to go. So much so that, Mick Stanbrook arrived an hour before kick off, although this was probably to give himself the maximum amount of time to talk about how good Liverpool had been the previous day.

Despite losing a couple of players to illness and other commitments before kick off, The Raiders had an extremely strong squad and were looking to exact revenge on Sporting for a pair of defeats in the tournaments the previous week.

The pitch was bloody gorgeous and was big enough for The Raiders to try and impress their passing game upon their opponents, a daunting task without the injured Crazorla. There were fresh legs up front with Nico back from his European Selfie Tour and Hoggy stepping in for Soggy who was unfortunate to be dropped after his shift against The Saints.

The game kicked off and despite Jerry’s generous passing in the opening passage, The Raiders looked in control and were doing a great impression of Barcelona with Vincent taking inspiration from Dani Alves by rampaging down the right and linking well with Edwin ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’ Pfeil. With similar link-up play on the left with Gary and Sipho, Raiders dominated the opening stages and barely gave Sporting a sniff.

The opening goal came after yet another surging run from Vincent who when faced with the option of crossing or shooting, decided to power a shot at goal. Unfortunately, what it had in power it lacked in accuracy and went straight to their keeper, but like a good housewife after a spillage in the dining room Ben was on hand to mop up and he gleefully profited from the sloppy goalkeeping. A first Raiders goal for Ben and the season was off to a strong start.

Buoyed from the goal, The Raiders continued to press on in search of another with Andy and Mick controlling the midfield and spreading the ball around nicely, however, for all of their possession The Raiders were not making enough clear cut chances for Nico and Hoggy to take advantage.

With Coach Colin sensing the need to add a bit more height in midfield, he brought on Scott for his league debut, but what followed was surprising to say the least. With his first touch he tried to chest the ball to Sipho, however, the referee, seeing something which only he did, decided it was a handball worthy of a yellow card, the fact it was dubious and a mere 70 yards from our goal, made this a little perplexing. However, that was not the most controversial decision of the weekend, that has to be that man Joe Eastwood getting his eyebrows tattooed, each to their own I guess. Half-time 1-0 Raiders.

It was more of the same in the second half as The Raiders continued to build impressively from the back with Mirko using Jerry and Olly as deep-lying playmakers who linked well with those around them. Furthermore, it must be said that these two were indomitable and they won every challenge that came their way with Ollie managing to complete some rather acrobatic clearances. One particular Olly clearance led to a Hoggy breakaway which ended in him nonchalantly lobbing the ball over the onrushing keeper for a deserved 2-0 lead.

Growing in confidence The Raiders pushed on in order to put the game to bed and were unlucky to see two set-piece goals ruled out for offside in quick succession, Nico and Stu those unfortunate to miss out. Struggling with a cold Nico took on the role of linesman for a brief period in the second half, declaring that the ball was “Super out!”, just in case everybody hadn’t noticed that the spherical object they were kicking and chasing had left the field of play.

Sporting did manage to get themselves involved in the action in the second half and even managed to have one of their own goals ruled out for a foul on Mirko. Sensing the need to kill the game and to make the most of Luke playing in an advanced position once more, The Raiders put together a nice bit of passing starting on the right and worked it over to the left where Sipho released Hoggy who ran with the ball across the pitch from a wide left position.

Running at them like a fierce and follicly challenged crab he continued to move sideways for quite some time before finally dispatching a clinical shot into the bottom corner, 3-0.

The Raiders were good value for their win and started the season in style, deservedly picking up the first three points of Coach Colin’s Raiders reign, giving lots of new players the opportunity to make their competitive debuts with Mustafa putting in a solid shift in a number of positions as well.

There will be tougher challenges ahead but if we play like we did today we can beat anyone on our day. In a closely contested battle Olly edged out Vincent by a single vote for Man of the Match. It says a lot for how well our defence played that they got all the plaudits after another 3-0 win. Twenty-one more of those and the title will be ours!