HAMMERSMITH CELTIC 20-16 F.C. SE7EN - 22.10.20

Stopping the winless run was great, maybe we were still recovering from over-exuberant celebrations of that, when we turned up for Thursday night's match with Hammersmith Celtic.

Earlier the same day, we had released our FC7 Promo Video to the company, showcasing what we had achieved so far in our exciting journey. It had blown up, we got loads of positive feedback, some people had cried, others, with no interest in footy wanted to get involved and help so they could be part of something special.

Luca's widow; Alessandra, was stunned by how much we had achieved, and it hit her that all of this was delivered during lockdown, when so many people were consigned to accepting defeat, rather than just taking a few minutes out to maybe re-think their outlooks on life, we sought to change that.....as the video proclaims, "Anything is Possible......Together".

On a pure footballing front, off that back of the promo, we had 3+ signups, hugely significant as we turn this into something more than just a kickaround every week. The video has been viewed over 200 times, as of posting and we nabbed a few extra followers on Instagram too.

Myself and Jumbo, reminisced.....about a time over half a year ago, we talked about how we could make football easier to organise, get more people involved, just make it better. The key, we both agreed, was essentially along the lines of "build it, and they will come". It seems soooooo long ago, the heat was picking up and Britain was on the brink of a hot summer.....all the time, an awful pandemic was raging across the world, over a million deaths so far, as we write. Life had changed.

But we've said before, you can't press the pause button on life....just live it differently. We could sit back, bemoan life being stopped, but what was the point of that. We had loads of time on our hands in the evenings, no footy on TV, no socialising etc. Great things ALWAYS come from great ideas, and ideas are born in your head. You don't need to be outside, with friends or families to develop them. That's what me, Jumbo and Frodo developed.

We're seeing those ideas turn into reality now.

So, I jokingly said, that folks were probably pressing the pause button, on my topless weight loss pics during our promo......but I actually think the team probably were! Something had taken hold of us as the game started. We were flat footed, slow, almost caught in a trance, as Celtic ran amok, racing into a 5-0 lead within ten minutes. What had happened? Jumbo was knackered, Frodo's tricks (just before Halloween) were not being treated. Passing was off, shots sky high. Nothing was working.

Luckily though, form is temporary, class is permanent. Not that we currently have much class ha. But as the game progressed, we slowly kick-started ourselves, and soon enough the goals followed.

Last week's deboo maker Jan, had found his sights and nearly every shot he pulled off was snaking into the net. Jan's super level of fitness, has been a God send for FC7, it's a case of lifting the whole team performance.

On a personal note, I probably played outfield for the biggest stretch of time so far, and I felt better for it. My lungs were NOT battered after a couple of minutes, my ankles weren't experiencing jolts of pain as frequent as 8 weeks ago. Things are progressing nicely, I think I'm at below 50% fitness still though. I believe I can only get to 60% while the disgusting habit of smoking shrouds over me. But still, it's something to work on. Fitness is improving and i'm cautious of trying to do too much and failing on a larger scale. Baby steps, do it sensibly.

In the end, our comeback wasn't quite enough, we ran out of time. The game ended in a now familiar sounding defeat, 20-16. But it's easy to say we lost and move on. It's harder to analyse what was going awry, and fair play we are looking into that more so nowadays. We got the basics wrong tonight. We started slow, we can't afford to give teams a 5-0 head start and give ourselves too much to do. Our shooting is &*@@& and there's no getting away from that. The amount of chances we skied, is costing us results like tonight. If we had only put away 50% of our missed chances, we would of come away with a 2nd consecutive victory! But alas twas beyond us.

The game was actually a lot of fun though, which always adds to the experience. Tey missing an open goal after rounding a couple of players was comical. But the best was yet to come. A rather soft challenge from Celtic, sent Frodo flying rather theatrically, which immediately nearly took out 2 of our opponents. But several seconds later, and Tableau Tey was felled, his legs swiftly taken from him as Frodo's eternal roly poly notched up another victim. The scene was comedy carnage, several players on the floor and me in tears from the laughter, all the while Jumbo was trying to put the goal in the net.

This is what it's about. Creating good memories. But would be better if we did that, while winning ! That being said, this game could of gone either way, alas a narrow defeat for us.

Halloween Footy next week! Would be nice to be able to go for a drink up after, but it's not possible now that London has headed into a Tier 2 Lockdown. Useful to remember that outside footy will still be allowed under Tier 3 conditions, which is something to be happy about, given the toll the virus continues to take on the planet. Hopefully there will be light at the end of the tunnel........it will come.

On to the next!