The second round of Canterbury's Sunday Soccer league 4th grade saw the Titanz take on the highly rated Sunnyside Strikers C in a titanic battle. Edgar MacIntosh Park set the scene with a harder than hard deck and a more than crisp autumn zephyr spoiling an otherwise sunny and pleasant day. 

Starting into the sun and wind, the Strikers began the fist half indifferently. To their credit, the Titanz utilised the conditions and resorting to a common tactic of "fatting" the ball back down the middle and letting the wind and bounce do the work.  This led a turbulent first half with well grafted attacks by the Strikers being quickly spoiled by the "club" foot of the opposition. Good judgment or pure luck by Striker's captaincy saw Groggy at defensive sweeper and his performance covering up at the back through-out the first half was nothing short of impressive.

Jew kid on the block Simon "Junior" Hanrahan opened the account for the strikers in the 17th minute scoring a "patient"  goal from five yards out.  Dexter Rag'm followed with several misguided shots finally opening his match account with an absolute blinder that left the Titanz keeper spread eagle as the ball fired into the onion sack.

Following on from a shocker in Round 1, Timmy tackle displayed further ineptitude at goal keeper, this time letting a very soft shot on goal slip between his legs. Polite word from the sideline was "Get lower Tackle... third leg might come into play!". Capitalising on a dreadful midfield defensive lapse the Titanz scored again a short time later with a very well struck and well deserved equalizer.

Timmy Tackle must have thought things would get better but worse was to follow. Late in the half he copped a flying elbow to the nose. Like a bull stunned at the abattoir he plunged on the ball spoiling the threatening attack of the time but loosing any chance of salvaging dignity from the game. Much to the delight of several of the Sunnyside players, The Tackle was forced from the field bloodied and jaded and was replaced by Jesus He Zeus at keeper. The remainder of the second half was uneventful and the score finished tied at two a piece.

The second half was dominated by the Strikers but was unattractive and very disjointed. It did however offer moments of brilliance. Amidst anonymous cries of "go on son... shoot...  shoot the keeper...  go on... the f##n keep is out so shoot!!!" Fudge Packer lobbed the keeper only to be defied by the cruel bounce of the pitch which saw the ball graze the outside of the crossbar.

The strikers were first to score in the second half with another Dexter Rag'm special. The glory short lived though as the Titanz came back with an equalizer. Big Little Bones staged a last ditch fall for dramatic effect but it did little to cover up the fact that  he was completely diddled along with the rest of the defensive line.

With minutes left on the clock the strikers had all but given up hope of a victory when the Titanz self-destructed off a long throw in by the Grogster (or was it Fudge... who cares really?). The point was the ball bounced and an uncontrolled header by a Titanz defender lobbed their out of position keeper and dribbled into the goal awarding the Strikers the victory.

Captains Report
We won 4 - 3. Let's just leave it there.