Wilderspool Causeway

This was a painful watch at the home of Woodley Zebras, the Stade de France pitch at the Bulmershe Goals Centre. We arrived with seconds to spare having inexplicably lost Evan’s registration form on the way. No questions were asked, however, and he ran straight into the action, facing up to an extremely well-drilled and immaculately shorn Zebras team who lined up in a rigid diamond formation against a somewhat raw blend of hairstyles, genders and philosophies on the Wokingham side. Woodley raced into an early lead before Evan picked up the ball in his own half and lofted it Beckham-style into their goal to equalise. However, something went badly wrong during the remainder of the half and Wokingham went in 9-1 down at the break. Woodley tore through the defence as if it was Harriet Harman’s shadow cabinet. The halftime team talk, if it was audible, would have brought a tear to the eye, I’m sure, as after the break Wokingham attacked the ball with venom, hunting in packs to nullify the Woodley attack by any means necessary, resulting in a much narrower second half deficit of 2-1. A punishing morning’s football but they never gave up the fight, emerging with egos at least one stop short of total annihilation. A humbling lesson.