First points of the season

An injury ravaged A.C Panache took to the field tonight and gained their first points of the season. 

Brian Gunning, struck down with a suspicious "weekend acquired" injury was unable to take his place as the fulcrum of attack, and a vicious case of Brennan's groin disabled poor wee Michael in his prime the day before the game, leaving him with a bulge and an ice pack between his legs. 

The game started at a brisk pace and Eamonn Kennedy carrying an ankle injury soldiered through the discomfort and produced a world class performance at the back, while his partner in crimes against strikers Jim Butler nursed his hamstring through an hour of football as they dovetailed superbly to dominate proceedings for A.C Panache and allowed the others to shine. 

Before beginning their domination though, the early going was intense and choppy, with passes going astray and A.C Panache showing all the signs of a team unused to playing with each other. This early unsteady play allowed Every Hole Stuff get a number of shots but Aaron Buckley was once again in goals and started very brightly by keeping Every Hole Stuffed at bay while his compadres were finding their bearings.

Aaron was called on repeatedly early on as A.C Panache took too long to start making passes stick. Brian Butler started up front with the job of running hard to pin Every Hole Stuffed down in their own half and while this worked to stop them building phases, their long clearances produced some ping pong football and the loose balls were sometimes pounced on first by the on rushing Every Hole Stuffed midfielders to keep peppering Aaron with shots.

A.C Panache's luck was only going to hold for so long and eventually Every Hole Stuffed gained their rewards and went into a 0-2 lead after 15 minutes with two goals that had pinged into the net from well placed half volley rockets. 

Soon though James Slowey, signed up at the last minute on a bosman and with the legs and lungs of a Kenyan, entered the play and began to assert himself. His hard running from midfield closed the space quickly when A.C Panache had the ball up front and allowed Brian Butler to start making some telling moves. 

The opening goal came via a pass from Jim Butler in the right back position who pierced the midfield with a ball to Brian Butler. Turning quickly Butler saw James Slowey cut across from the left and fed him the ball, his movement took two defenders with him and he faked a ball wide to Csaba Bujna but instead back heeled in to the crossing run of Brian Butler who danced cleanly through the gap and slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net. 

This invigorated A.C Panache who started to hold the ball and string some real moves together. This allowed Csaba Bujna, who overcame a dose of food poisoning, to make some well timed support runs and finish the game with 4 goals to his credit on a night when many of his team mates were a touch wasteful in front of goal. 

The second came swiftly after the first with James Slowey picking up the ball on the right wing and cutting it back inside Csaba Bujna controlled it with his left to move it outside the keeper and he calmly placed it home. 

Even Jim Butler wanted in on the action during this purple patch, and after picking up the ball at right back played a nice one two with Jamie O'Driscoll and then slalomed through the defence only to see his shot come back off the post.  

We could be looking at a new wooden spoon competition between the defenders for who scores the least goals!

Jamie O'Driscoll, making his debut tonight, started showing why there was so much interest in his signature on deadline day by producing a performance that justified the hype. He started coming forcefully into the game and his physical strength began to show as he took the game to Every Hole Stuffed and set up Csaba for another chance. Winning the ball in front of his own defence he broke  left and took two Every Hole Stuffed players with his move to allow Csaba to make a run down the right wing unimpeded. Switching play forward to James Slowey he immediately got the return and bewildered the defence with an outside of the foot pass to set up the chance for Csaba, and on a night when he scored 4, he couldn't miss!

A.C Panache began to turn the screw even more in the next few minutes as they swarmed all over the play. Opta possession stats show that for this period they had 78% possession, the other 22% was probably the Every Hole Stuff goalkeeper holding onto the ball for dear life. 

The third goal saw James Slowey get on the score sheet, and as befitting a man who could give David Rudisha a run for his herd of goats, he picked up the ball on the left wing and jinked and danced his way past 3 would be tacklers as he moved towards the centre of the park then he put his head down and sprinted through a gap to leave just the keeper to beat. 3-2 and A.C Panache moved into the lead with 5 minutes left in the half. 

The fourth goal came in the last minute of the first half as Csaba Bujna came onto an Eamonn Kennedy interception that set him through the middle and taking the pass in his stride he finished cooly to the bottom left of the keeper. 

Half time 4-2 and A.C Panache were happy to take on some water, or Aaron's strange looking fruit drink, and make a small few adjustments to how they were playing, because despite the hyperbole and impressive comeback from 2 goals down they had squandered a lot of chances that were there for the taking. 

The second half started very brightly and Csaba Bujna opened the scoring with a well placed shot to the keepers left after some nice inter play by the whole team. It was their only moment of Barcelona like passing.

Every Hole Stuffed were not going to break easily and they began to fight harder and look to wrestle some control of the game back, but despite that a period of about 10 minutes went by where neither team scored but there was a lot of hard running, tackles, and good goal keeping. 

The breakthrough came from a Csaba Bujna interception which broke to Brian Butler and he immediately switched it back to Csaba who had turned the defenders and swooping in from the right flank he finished cooly into the bottom corner. 

The four goal cushion allowed A.C Panache to control things and Jamie O'Driscoll, Eamonn Kennedy and James Butler put up a solid wall that held onto the ball and build moves for the duracell bunny James Slowey. Despite his great effort and numerous chances the goalkeeper for Every Hole Stuffed was having a superb game and thwarted chance after chance after chance that A.C Panache created. 

With 10 minutes left in the game the compact and solid nature of both teams started to fray along with their stamina. The game suddenly went end to end with chances opening up for everyone. Once again this loose play suited Every Hole Stuffed who sprang to life with two well taken goals from quick through balls that caught A.C Panache napping.

An interception by Brian Butler set him free through the midfield and his shot was saved but fell to Csaba's golden boot and he smashed home his 4th goal.

A final Every Hole Stuffed goal squeezed through the legs of Aaron Buckley, who like Michael Brennan will be worrying about between his legs for the next week as his boisterous team mates are hardly likely to let these things pass without a comment or two! 

Scorers: Csaba (4), Brian Butler (2), James Slowey (1)