The Shambles loosing streak came to an end with their comfortable win over Div. 3 side, The Crown in the first leg of the new cup competition for div 2 and 3 teams.

Even though the Shambles were fielding a basic 5 with Captain Shirehorse "ill in bed" , Ade still suffering with his collarbone and Graham on his tour of Thailand, the remaining 5 had a buzz of confidence going into this match.

Right from the off , with the combination of strikers Dave and Paul linking up The Shambles were unlucky not to score straight from the kick off with the ball just missing the opposition's top corner.

The Shambles played the ball around well with Ian and Chris solid in defense , Tom growing in confidence with every game pulling off some great saves and pouncing like a cat and strikers Dave and Paul wondering who would be the first to score and catch current top scorer Chris. The answer was soon to come with Dave confidently placing a great through ball from Ian past the stranded Crown keeper. Paul was next to add to his talley with a well took Penalty after The Crown inadvertadly playing with 2 keepers when a defender stopped a ball a good foot inside his own box.

A great team passing move resulted in Daves second and The Shambles third goal with a well taken half volley. The Shambles' confidence was growing by the the minute and just prior to half time Shambles added a fourth after Pauls shot was deflected back off the wall to drop right in front of Dave who, with some of the Shambles defence thinking he wasnt paying attention,calmly hammered the ball home with a jumping kick Bruce Lee would have been proud of.

The second half saw the effect have having no subs start to show on the Shambles as the pace slowed somewhat, although this didnt stop Paul adding a fifth goal from distance. The Crown rallied and eventually claimed a goal, but the shambles responded with Dave running ( yes running!!) down the left to meet a great ball from Ian and cut it back with a left foot shot from  an almost impossible angle to shock all with a sixth goal. Paul followed suit shortly after and also hammered home a left foot shot to make it 7. The Crown managed a 2nd before Paul killed the game completely with his 4th and and the Shambles' 8th.

An all round solid game with all 5 Shambles players playing with commitment and confidence.