"We simply had a bad day at the office" (Mike Phelan, Assistant Manager Manchester United, post match interview Liverpool game)

I know exactly how he feels.  Yesterday was probably our worst set of results of the season and there were some lacklustre performances around as well.  The first team never really got going in their semi-final, and actually never troubled the Bank of England keeper, and by thier own admission it was a poor team performance.  The news got worse as news of Finchleians league win filtered through, and the 1's now lie 2nd on goal difference.  In fact the top 5 sides lost and the 7's got 1 point out of 6 in their crucial double header.  You could see disappointment around the bar yesterday, and in fact a couple of players mentioned to me that the atmosphere had been flat most of the afternoon, even in the dressing room beforehand.

So why the malaise?  Have we become coomplacent? Do we believe that an excellent half season entitles us to just turning up for the 2nd half and we will all be ok?  Have we become victims of our own successful turnaround, and think we just need to turn up?  I don't believe so, but I do think we need to look at ourselves and get the belief back again very quickly and put the hard work in.

In the dark clouds that gathered yesterday there were some beams of bright sunlight.  The 8's are on a promotion charge and an emphatic win over Old Wilsonians actually puts the destiny of a league title in their own hands, and that side of the bar was celebrating, but recognises there is still much hard work to be done.  The 6's also won emphatically and remain top, and all of them came back to the Cope with beaming smiles reflecting on another great performance and looking forward to this weeks game.  And let us not forget that the 1st team still actually do have their own destiny in their own hands, as they still have Finchleians to play.

So are we downhearted - well we better not be, as we have all worked so hard and to get nothing would be an absolute travesty.  So, lets pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and work hard.  Training is on Wednesday, lets make sure we make the most of it and get the whole club back to winning ways.  The 6's and 8's are leading by example, and if you saw them yesterday you will remember how good it feels when you win - lets all share that feeling next week.

I'll finish as I started with Mike Phelan "We simply had a bad day at the office.  We paid the price and we'll have to move on to the next game............we have a bad result and we bounce back afterwards. That's what we do."  Let's make sure that's what we do next week.

Steve Martin-Lawrence, Chairman