No fun in the sun

On a beautifully sunny Spring afternoon twenty two gladiators took to the field.  Perhaps the ball should have been mounted on a plinth in World Cup 2010 style so it could have been welcomed with a for those about to die we salute you introduction. As with the corresponding fixture downstream in Middlesex ten days earlier the match quickly turned into an attempt to restart the British space by the unconventional method of dispatching the ball skyward at every opportunity. With both teams in such a long desperate spell of form you could see the logic in getting rid of the ball from defence with alacrity and patron saint of the long ball Charles Hughes must have been beaming at the number of goal scoring opportunities created in the first ten minutes. Once these had been spurned or denied though there was precious little to enjoy and with so much to lose, particularly for the Magpies it was time for teeth to be gritted at the prospect of enduring a goalless draw which at least brought to an end a run of six consecutive league defeats.