Back-to-back wins for the first time this season have moved Torpedo out of the bottom two. Welcoming back our top scorer Tom, he wasted no time adding to his tally with two goals in the first half. A sweet left foot finish from Lloyd early in the second and it should have been game over, but we once again got the jitters and conceded two goals to make for a nervous finish, but we held on.

Other results mean that we probably can’t finish any higher, but with a return game against the team below us, it should be in our hands to stay up.

Downpours late in the afternoon sent the traffic into chaos, and I was looking at another late showing to a 7 o’clock kick off. Luckily, the congestion eased and I made it to the game just before half-time.

Playing the bottom side in the league, a win was vital to start our push to avoid relegation. We were 2-1 up when I arrived, so that all important first goal after the break was going to be even more so. And it came and what should have been a coast to the finish again became a panic. Two quick goals and we were back in a fight, only to be saved by Donny who skipped through and rounded the keeper just before the final whistle.

In the post match analysis, it turned out that we started the game with four men! So our 4-3 win was well deserved. Four games to go and it looks like a straight fight between us and the team above to avoid the bottom two.

We’re over half way through the season now, and we need to start picking up points if we are to avoid dropping straight back down to the Championship.

We started a run of games with the teams around us last night and three points would have been a good start. After an edgy first half with no goals, we knew that the first score was going to be even more crucial. A sweet move was finished with an even sweeter left foot from Rich P to break the deadlock – we were in front!

The game plan of concentration and a more organised defence was working and Rich added a second soon after. We looked to be in control, but we hadn’t been in this position in a while and we forgot to just close the game out. A goal back and panic set in, minutes later we were 3-2 down. But we dug in and drew level from yet another timely effort from Marcus, only to self destruct and succumb to a crushing goal near the end.

There were many positives from the game and we played much, much better than previous weeks. If we can take that level of performance into the upcoming games, we may yet finish the season with a flourish.

Anth – ‘But we weren’t hammered…’

Donny – ‘…no, just convincingly beaten.’

A third straight loss and our second 6-1 reverse on the bounce wasn’t pleasant. We’re struggling with the heat of the Premiership and the good summer we’re having so far…

4-0 down at half time, I decided to take matters into my own hands and hand the gloves over to Rich T and have a run around. Despite a couple of off-target shots, all I got for my trouble was a pulled back muscle. Although we did steady the ship and only lost the second half 2-1. Rich pulled off a couple of good saves, which may have given the manager some selection dilemmas…

The one highlight of the game was Rich P’s ’Stuart Pearce’ moment. We were joking before the game about his miss in a tournament a couple of years ago, which put us out. So this week, maybe not with quite the same pressure, he put away his spot kick easily – redeemed.

So far we’ve had a tough but not unexpected start to our Premiership campaign. Last night was our second defeat in a row and the second time we have conceded six this season. Unbelievably, I collected the man of the match award – probably because I touched the ball more than anyone else on the field including picking the ball out of the net…

But we’ll regroup, and hopefully recapture the defensive form of last season. We have a few important games coming up, which we need points from if we are to pull out of the bottom two.

Come on boys, we’re better than this!!