Sporting Valdebernardo v FC Británico

Recap

Fines continue to reap havoc, particularly in the Majid family who were all at sea with the Sunday early meet time. Rami couldn’t park; The water bottles were locked in the Omar’s car; 2 rogue high value bottles arrived late with Ish and the adopted member of the family H had his mind firmly on finding ovens in Madrid. Fortunately, none of this was sufficient to derail Británico’s newfound January focus.

A glorious Madrid day on a newly laid, large Valdebernardo football pitch was the context for this tie.  Head coach Simon was insisting on implementing the work in training, a greater degree of ball retention and having the courage to take risk. Rami wisely cautioned against complacency emphasizing the importance of this game and this game only. With the black keys ringing in the ears for the shortest warm up of all time it was swiftly on to kick off.

Valdebernardo showed some early promise keeping the ball well and were seemingly an organised well coached outfit. However, there was a naivety to their well-intentioned football and Británicos were focused and ready to pounce. Padraig looked like he could create or score with every possession and it was his silky work that put Paco in for a nicely taken opener. Padraig smashed home a pen for the second. It was only a matter of time before H joined the party and he banged in a beauty into the bottom corner. These were the end products of some excellent build up play. Sutcliffe and Ismael were distributing from the back which created space for Yaron, Calum and Mats to connect with the full backs Will and Ed. this was to be the story of the half until the 5-0 advantage triggered a moment of complacency. Valdebernardo nicked one back just before the break to make it 5-1 at half time.

There was less zip and fluidity to the second half, but Britanicos saw this one through as changes were rightly made. Padraig got a few more, finishing with 4 goals and H competed a Hatrick. Karlos ensured there were no more lapses with an excellent late tackle, Macca held it together in midfield and great to see Rama back in action following an extended injury break. 8-1 seemed about right in the end.

Ultimately, it is 3 more points, an unbeaten January and some good habits emerging from some increased collective focus and coherence. On to the next one after the big gig at Intruso!!