Final Score: 2 - 2
Attendance: 13 (all opposition supporters)

"I didn't manage to get to the last AA meeting to see my old mate Bestie...

Anyway rumour has it that he spent the last two weeks on the wagon in order to organise a charity game against the Bank of Japan. This raised a lot of laughs in the GA meeting I went to. We all thought that Bestie must have been hoping to find loads of cash stuffed in lockers and lining the walls of the free Bar there. We were just starting to lay odds on Bestie having to be carried out of the post-match party when some boring sod at the back of the meeting reminded us in a very loud voice that we weren't supposed to be gambling at GA meetings...

I went along to the game to see what sort of action might be going down. Most players managed to get to the meeting point on time - well against the odds I thought, although there were one or two late-comers as you might imagine. Unfortunately no-one was going to cover bets on Tomo and Wooly losing their way to the ground, so no chance of a quick win there...

The ground actually had grass on most of it, although it was a bit long in places. Good chance that the groundsman had taken a bung from the locals to make sure that the BEFC could not use their superior speed and mobility to run past the younger, fitter BoJ players. Just before the game started Biffa was checking through his wallet and wondering out loud whether the Referee was an independent or whether he was just a BoJ player in a black shirt...

There were plenty of players out for the game, which was good as it was the first really hot day of the summer. We quickly thought about raising a book on Gareth being able to last the full first 25 minutes, but we didn't want to let Gareth know in case he tried to alter the odds. Or have a quick back-door punt on the result himself, using a suitably sleazy accomplice with no morals at all. I had a quiet word with him myself but it seems there was nothing doing...

Biffa organised the team sheet on the day, after solo chats, probably looking for back-handers from "starters". And then the lads took the field...

Most of the early action took place down our right flank. The mid-field seemed to be failing to protect Lou who was covering the right of defence all on his own. It seemed odds-on that if the BoJ were going to do anything then it would probably start down that side. It would not have been Lou's fault, but the laws of probability were not on his side. Failing that of course, then the next most likely outcome would be BEFC sneaking in a quick one on one of their many attacks down the other end...

Bloody typical then that the opening BoJ goal came from a punt straight down the middle. What ever happened to betting each-way on the second favourite? Never seems to work for me...

The lads had a few pops at the far end, but too many attacks were called back for dodgy off-side decisions. Wooly attempted a lob of the keeper at one point, when put clean through, but the lob sailed way high. Just not our day up to that point...

At the end of the first third it was 1-0 to the BoJ.

Half the side was changed for the middle third, using the tactics of Sven in the friendly versus Australia, so the stewards wouldn't be able to say that we had thrown the game. However if we did not beat the spread then the bookies in Vegas might have been looking for some suspicious early bets from Japan before they closed the book...

We brought it back on track in the second third, however briefly, when the tactic of using fresh runners versus the fading BoJ players seemed to pay off. Andy was a man on a mission. In his full debut he needed to open his account in order to dedicate the first one to his new-born (last Wednesday - congratulations to the lad). Some good work close to the bye-line on the left hand side led to a lazy looping cross onto Andy's noggin, where from only 2 yards out he had to score. Anything else would have been well-suspicious. Fairly decent odds against Andy opening the BEFC scoring as well, so everyone was happy...

BoJ got another one back before the end though so two-thirds of the way through and it was 2 to 1 against. We had come back from worse odds before though...

In the final 25 we starting getting well back into the game and got a bit of control. The last throw of the dice was the unusual step of subbing our keeper for the last 10 minutes, but the reminder of the time left focussed a few minds. And who else would be the man to step up to the plate when the chips were down and we needed to get the big guns blazing but the old soak himself? Knowing that it would be free drinks all round paid for by the management if we salvaged a draw, Bestie turned up the pace to flash down the right, cut into the near post and blast one straight at the keeper's legs. And with the luck of the Irish well in force, the ball bounced back to Bestie, who promptly skipped past another challenge to finally bury the ball in the far corner...

The excitement wasn't yet over though. BoJ were still trying to upset the odds and sneak a late one. There was clearly some Bank cash riding on this one. A quick break down our right lead to a short-handed defence trying to stave off imminent defeat. A high ball came into the near post and it was a one-on-one between their short-arse striker and the 8 foot 3 Lobster. Only one result there of course and the striker managed to get a looping header over the top which was always sneaking under the cross-bar. Luckily 'Dinho had seen this early, and recognising that he was going to be needed had deliberately positioned himself on the line. He managed to watch the ball down and head clear to save the day...

At the whistle we had the correct friendly result of 2 - 2, after a good, fair and enjoyable run out. Previous "form" in this fixture was not a problem for Wooly or anyone else and neither was it expected to be.

Then we retired to the Bar for the rest of the afternoon."

Team: Keith, Giles, Lou, Steve, 'Dinho, Makoto, Takashi, Gareth, Tomo, Jun, Ken, Biffa, the other Jun, Andrew, Richard, Simon, Bestie