Saigon Raiders played an inter club friendly this weekend due to a lack of competitive options. After a tet holiday that was no doubt filled with travelling, eating and boozing for many and with afternoon temperatures reaching 35 degrees the stage was set for an unpredictable ninety minutes. Saigon red began the game positively whilst the word over in the Saigon White camp was one of, ‘keep ‘em to long shots’ and ‘we’ll be happy if it goes to pens’. It appeared the whites were underestimating themselves. It was a cagey opening twenty minutes with both teams happy to play the ball around the back and wait for their opportunities going forward. A narrow pitch made for a battle in the middle and around the half hour mark whites began to make their presence felt. In the midday heat the reds switched off and allowed Gary Forde to pick the ball up from a throw in on the half way line. He turned, sauntered up to the edge of the box and with a cultured swing of his left peg floated one gently into the top corner past an unfortunate Mirko, 1-0 whites. The game went up a notch after the first goal, the reds having finally woken up began to apply some gentle pressure. The whites had put out an experienced back line that was relying on positional play rather than out and out legs, suspect challenges in the full back positions from McGeever and Vo were testament to this however the whites were managing to keep a strong reds front line quiet. Composure was key and on the stroke of half time Mike Owen took advantage of some casual defending from the reds and played a simple ball over the top for myself to run onto and frantically slot past an on rushing Mirko, 2-0 whites. It was clear that club captain Olly wasn’t happy with the reds performance so far and at half time attempted to rally his team. They needed a response and will have been encouraged by some of the questionable skills they saw on display, naming no names, when the whites made the bold move to put myself and Forde up top. Needless to say the game went goaless for a short while but the reds were looking stronger in this second half. Mick was trying to dictate for the reds in the middle and Clemens was now taking pot shots from the 40 yard mark, the whites were happy to sit and wait for more opportunities to come their way. Despite their lead the whites saw their team getting sassy mid way through the second half with Forde picking up a booking for desent, much to the amusement of the rest of the squad but not to the referee. Rolling substitutions were made throughout the game and around the seventy minute mark a quiet assassin with only ‘The Raven’ on his back, ghosted in to lash home a rebound after some good work again from Forde. 3-0 whites, reds were looking cross. Mirko continued to make some good saves and the reds were getting some joy down their left hand side when they could work the ball out to Edwin but despite their best efforts the whites were finding too much space and the ball just kept coming back at them.

All in all it was a beneficial friendly for all involved. If nothing else we sweated out the beer, burnt some of those calories and saw some good attacking football. Well done to all for making it through the ninety minutes in that heat, glad we got a run out before the serious test this Sunday…Filestring.