A rare Monday night fixture was thankfully played yesterday and it was highly successful.

The line up was very Gardner heavy but that proved a serious bonus with all three of them putting in big performances.

The league fixture was taken care of 3-0 when as usual the opposition didn't turn up which was a slight relief for mercenary Will Priest who arrived late having already played (and won) in the Bentham league.

After a 40 minute warm up and shooting practice we made it onto the pitch taking on a team who had been promoted from the Championship this season.

The game was sparked into life when Ashton Gardner smoked a rocket into the top corner. We doubled our lead after a cleverly worked corner gave Priest space about 20 yards from goal and he surprised the defence by not shooting but finding Fred Evans metres from goal and he did the rest.

Having conceded, Evans restored our two goal lead as he again found a gap past the keeper. Then another conceded past the outstretched Priest, before Ashton scored another scorcher.

This free scoring game saw another goal against us just before half time. So we held the lead 4-3. When W. Priest handed over the gloves to O. Gardner who faired a lot better than he had. With a lot less protection in front of him. Pulling off several impressive saves.

Ashton completed his hat trick with a third long range howitzer. By now the opposition had almost given up trying to stop him such was the inspired form he was in.

After missing several chances, Fred Gardner finally got off the mark with a smart finish following some lovely build up play from all the outfield players. O. Gardner was finally beaten after every outfield had given up playing defence. Another F. Gardner goal before conceding the final two goals of the game.

As the final whistle went on the pitch next door, our self refereed game which was extremely fair, we followed suit and the opposition offered a penalty shoot out for a laugh to book end the game.

F. Gardner stepped up first and confidently buried his. He was matched by the first taker. The nerves of steel must run in the family as O. Gardner went the same way and scored his pen. Parity was maintained as the standard of pens showed no sign of abating. "Always put your best penalty taker third" this was true here as W. Priest, despite his penalty history, pinged his into the corner. We held the lead 3 when Ashton who had roped into keeping for the pens due to certain limitations of our other keepers. F. Evans then scored the best pen of the day slotting it straight into the top corner. Another scored before Womersley sent the keeper the wrong way. Ashton then saved another before having the chance to win but dragged his pen wide. But the shootout was won when their final taker also missed the target.

A lengthy pub session followed and the atmosphere was very pleasant without the confrontational members of the side.