Now you know me, I'm not one to live throu' others. Selfish, selfish, selfish is my motto. And yet this hardened exterior does occasionally allow a little light to spread around on those who I allow to get close. Family for instance. I'm certainly perfectly prepared to pick up any amount of praise that is the direct result of the many,many hours I have spent improving my own darling children to make them perfect little statements of what I can bring to the world and finally one of them has had the good decency to return a little bit of it.

It started like any normal training session, get them to run about and kick a football with both feet. Not you would think a particularly difficult exercise when you consider the brilliance of the metaphors and similes we use to describe precisely how the ball should be kicked but they still find it hard. Some of them even believe they know better so the specialized threats and cajoling is employed. 

But it has to be said they actually did it all rather well. And the first team ( that's the team that plays first nothing more ... ) went out and to everyone's surprise passed the ball around really rather well. This probably shocked the players more than anyone else and the level of wonder was so intense it carried on right to the end of the game. All very impressive.

Then the other team ( that's the players who aren't good enough to be in the team that plays first...) took to the field. This was responded to in two fashions one of which was expected and the other which was not. Firstly the parents of the first team wondered off to get a sandwich, and secondly the rain that had been fitful up to that point decided to really make a go of it and see quite how wet it could make fourteen nine year olds, one referee and an odd smattering of parents who hung around to try to detect the first Beckham-esque smatterings in their particular bundle of joy.

IT didn't start well and we were two goals down by half time, and it got worse as the opposition proceeded to knock two more in. And then it suddenly happened. Richard, my own personal pride and joy turned very nicely on the right hand side of the box and rocketed the ball into the back of the net. This was followed soon after by a mad scramble on the left hand side with him involved for the ball to come into the centre only for the self same child to come belting on from the left and knock it past the keeper.

Then Robert McPhearson got his foot solidly behind the ball on the edge of the area and it was four three. And they were playing like they meant it. Richard was laying off superbly to Matt Isherwood on the right wing and Natham was making a right pain of himself, for the opposition coming out of defence. 

The opposition benefiting from a fairly obvious push in the back broke away and scored a fifth, but Richard was having none of it, and robbed the centre forward at the kick off and after dribbling through half the team got on the end of a pass with Nathan to get it to 5-4 when the referee ( from the other team ) blew up and that was it.

Rich got his first hat trick and man of the match, but obviously it really was all down to me and I can only assume you are all the more impressed by another aspect of my myriad skills.

But meanwhile, well done Richard.