I’ll start with a quote from the esteemed Mr McDonnell.

‘’Unbelievable game yesterday lads’’

I’m tempted to reel off cliche after cliche but that wouldn’t do justice to what happened yesterday. In the lead up to the game there was the usual bravado. Talk of what needed to be done to these lads due to us travelling to their lovely water polo park recently and not getting to play soccer. If I remember correctly, we then headed to a very good Indian restaurant and then to the Orient for what was an excellent impromptu team night out. It turns out that both times we’ve encountered these lads so far we have gotten a very nice result. I digress….

Immediately before the game I noticed a calm descending upon the ‘turkey’ as out of the corner of it’s eye it noticed the ‘cock’ entering the arena and strutting its stuff…

Every good team has a leader but every great team is a collection of leaders ready to step up when called. Aaron pointed out that for us to succeed we’d need to encourage one another. ‘’No one goes onto the pitch to **** up and no one needs to be reminded that they ****ed up. Tell them to move on and get the next one.’’ or words to that effect. A prophet I hear someone say…

Daniel, as usual had mustered the troops and put us through our warm up and stretches as we awaited the arrival of the  general to outline his strategy. Even the fiery General Pat was unusually calm. He began his address with POETRY.  Inspirational! He then named the team with a  few personnel switches and we readied for battle. In normal days a cock is a fighter and a turkey is for dinner. This was no ordinary day. We started with Mirko ’the cat’ in goals and  ‘new’ centre back Harry back from his brief sojourn in the training camp last week. Ollie moved to centre midfield and Stuart into attack. Changes to the spine of a strong 4-4-2 line up.

The game started at a ferocious pace with the cock threatening to make a turkey out of the turkey.

Any turkey that’s still alive at this point in January is no easy meal. The first blood went to the cock as you’d expect but no panic. There’s 85 minutes to go! Nerves settling and we’re putting a few moves together and all is looking good. What happened next cannot be explained by conventional science. The turkey’s defence is stretched and the right full back goes across to cover Mirko who has gone off his line to close down an attack. He’s rounded and the cock fires… … A rush of blood to the head (hand) and in a nano second a goal is stopped (postponed) and the full back is already walking to the sideline before the gentleman (I use the term loosely) with the cards reaches for his red to the applause of the cocks. 2-0

What happened next is what happens when you throw a turkey into a fire in January. Out of that fire arose the Phoenix that is Saigon Raiders. With Aaron’s wise words now resonating, those aforementioned leaders emerged in ten rotating positions for the remaining 80 minutes.

It started with Mirko pulling off what I predict to be the most important save he’ll make this season. One on one with the cock he closed down the space and spread his fiery wings to stop a certain number 3. Game on.

The defence decided that they’d had enough of this nonsense and with Daniel ‘the assassin’ Vo, Peter ‘so calm’ Bloor,  ‘boat race’ Harry and Olly ‘the boss’ taking over that section of the park the cock was now looking a good bet for dinner.

‘selfless’ captain  Daniel,  ‘twinkle toes’ Mike Owen, ‘pocket rocket Chi’ ,  ‘scented …’ Jerry (ask Harry) and Luke ‘he’s everywhere today’  McDonnell dominated the middle of the park.

Mike ‘the rock’,  ‘fast as …’ Tam,  ‘what a finish’ Stuart,  ‘Messi’ Miguel and  ‘the philosopher’ Aaron conspired to roast the cock on a spit.

Mike Owen danced and jigged around the park and with two strikes he stunned the cock and Raiders were level. Calm momentarily deserted the sideline but it was war cries and not whining that were heard all over Ky Hoa. Before half time captain Daniel [think it was Mike actually – Ed] sends a beautiful diagonal cross towards the box and Stuart rises to meet it and glances a perfect header beyond the hapless cock. Delirium returns to the sidelines. Calmness remains with the warrior Raiders. There are tackles won that we had no right to win and passes made that would grace grace La Liga. Some said we should play every week with 10 men…

Half time………. ‘dejected cock’  2 – 3 ‘’phoenix’ Raiders

The second half started off well for Raiders but a wounded cock is a dangerous beast and as the half wore on the pressure was rising. If they scored an equaliser then it was game on again. Those leaders mentioned before all stepped up and were duly counted. What happened next was hilarious! That ‘gentleman’ (yes, the one with the cards) stopped the game to check we only had ten men on duty. That one incident sums up the spirit shown yesterday.

As is customary, a Raider will score on his debut and this was no exception and no surprise. Tam had continually tormented the cock (in between trying out different combinations of ankle strappings) and came close on several occasions before finishing off the game as a contest. 4-2

After the game there was a fiercely contested ‘turkey moment’ vote but I hope you have all learned your lesson now and will ban this scribe permanently.

The man of the match was contested by every Raider this week and the winner, Danny Vo was a very popular and deserving recipient.

Written by Colin Dixon