With both teams coming off the back of recent victories this was always going to be an interesting encounter! Shambles were fairly confident that, having played those marathon friendlies against Portishead during the mid season hiatus ( ok we were knocked out of the cup first round and had time to kill!), a good natured friendly game would ensue.

How wrong they were ! Shambles were without key players Keith, Craig , Ade and captain G-man whose leadership was missing from the start evident by the headless chicken approach to positioning that The Shambles too frequently follow. Add to this the fact that Portishead started as a complete different friendly bunch of lads we were accustomed to , coming out not unlike a team of Tasmanian Devils, clouds of dust, flailing arms and all..! This combination deemed to failure for the Shambles from the off as they soon found themselves 1, 2 then 3 nil down before they had time to blink.

Things werent helped by a referee who seemed to be watching a different game to the one being played, with some notable misdemeanours being completely ignored and soon it was 5 nil to Portishead with stand in player Dave R. being felled as if a Portishead lumberjack had taken his legs away! Next to feel the tasmanian effect was Flash, who having been on the pitch only a few moments was soon hobbling straight back off and not even a free kick awarded. (Weren't you watching again ref???)

Shambles needed to get a grip and did so with a strike from Golden boot hopeful , Blues . Half time 5 -1

The second half settled down and Shambles rallied to pull back the deficit with 2 further goals from Blues to complete his hat-trick and another from HRH, but the damage was already done and the game ended 7 - 4 to Portishead.

Shambles were left reeling from the mugging they had just recieved from both Portishead and the referee who was in a world of his own most of the time!