Old Pauline’s III’s 8 -1 Old Tiffinians III’s

The last game of 2024 was against Old Pauline’s, so in a nice piece of symmetry the first game of 2025 was also against Old Pauline’s.  This time we were up against their 3rd team in the cup, who couldn’t be much better than their 4th team, surely?

Well, actually, they were quite a bit better.  One might go as far as to call them a good team.  They quickly took advantage of a rusty Old Tiffs, and despite us scoring a cracking equaliser that was comfortably the best goal of the game, they went in at half time 5-1 up.  A change of formation and a bit of determination saw Tiffs put up a much better fight in the 2nd half, but eventually tired legs gave in and Pauline’s were able to pad the score up to 8-1.  The wild celebration after the 7th goal, including substitutes running onto the pitch, were maybe a little much from a team top of the division above us.  One can only hope that they go on to win the cup from here.

It would be easy to get deflated after such a heavy loss, and for a brief moment, when TWC mistakenly told us the showers were cold, all hope seemed lost.  Luckily, a brave and intrepid second expedition to the showers discovered that you just needed to turn the knob all the way round to ‘hot’.  After a hot shower, with better water pressure than a pressure washer, Tiffs settled down for their post match hospitality (sausage roll and chips, or bacon and avocado if you’re gluten free and make a fuss) in better spirits than expected and talk quickly moved on to discussions of ‘whipping it in’, turning into long ball merchants and rail replacement bus services.  Welcome to 2025.

Next week – Old Paulines again, for the third game on the spin.  At least we know the showers are worth it.