Reporting the peaks and troughs of sporting endeavour is the most pleasant of pastimes, especially when the sun shines, the wind was cool and if you were in the shade with wind distinctly chilly, in the sunshine was glorious though and, as I arrived we were already 1-0 to the good, a good move involving debutant George Burton, Jon Klug and Sami Bekir ended with the latter laying the ball on for Charlie Heath to score.

This was our first 90 minute game since the restart. For the last three weeks we had been playing double headers, two were against teams near to the top of the division with, literally six points at stake each time, a narrow loss, one draw and two wins was our net haul, we had played well and felt we deserved a bit more given how close games had been. Week three, since coming out of lockdown, was a six pointer. Even if this game was of the traditional variety, ninety minutes, two halves.

Hale End Athletic had already beaten us away, were three points behind us, this was another six pointer for the fourth week running, after months of inactivity it has been getting harder to accommodate work and social commitments into the normal team routines. Injuries, actual and precautionary, have all been taking a toll on who can be available, the defence which had been so strong in the last few weeks was patched up, and while there's more midfield strength in depth it's proving tricky to get 3 or 4 attacking options who aren't nursing injuries to turn up. Anyway, back to the game!

A second goal soon followed, the ball was worked out to space on the right again through Klug and Burton, then slid through to Heath who cut back to Akim Tiyamiyu who had time and space to drive the ball home. Text book, 2-0, so far so good, perfect even. Visitors Hale End seemed to have no answer to the best of our play, when they had the ball we worked well to disrupt their counter. On the touchline we were ruing that the Veo camera wasn't running, this was perfect showcase stuff on how to transition from defence to attack, three to four simple passes, a strong run and tidy cutback, time, goalie no chance. The last 15 minutes of the half were us containing, for the most part, efforts to break us down. Confidence was high at the break

You've all heard about the game of two halves, this was not an exception, the visitors, playing towards the cricket pitch end, exploited the wind coming in over the school and playground side to put in long balls into our right flank, and got increasingly physical with their challenges when we looked to break particularly well and eventually got a little luck getting into our box. Having got into our box the visitors were given what I thought was a rather soft pen, duly converted from the spot. The goal lifted them and led to a spell where we struggled to keep possession and came under increasing pressure at the rather patchwork rear line. A second penalty, a hand ball from the otherwise solid Nanna Okoli gave Hale End a route to parity. The spot kick was saved, only for it to rebound to their striker who gratefully took the second bite of the cherry to complete the come back. The opposition were buoyed and we were equally destabilised, momentum had shifted and we found it more difficult to string two or three passes together. The additional 15 minutes of the ninety minute format also proved bruising, whilst we'd held our own in the first half we'd lost impetus in the second and conceded a loss late on as tired legs really hit home. The good news is that by only losing 3-2 we remain goal difference better in the table. Next? another double header and six pointer, what else?

The family that dances together stays together. The last two weekends' results have been damaging in terms of league position, but the signs are there of a team that can power through teams when they click. The trick will be to make that consistent over a whole game, and then from game to game.