Manorbier 0

Merlin's Bridge 6

October 15, 2011, will go down as one of the bleakest days in sporting history!

On this day, like an emaciated raven, picking at the cadaver of a liquorice-coated slice of black Welsh beef, at night, in a powercut, with the moon and stars hidden by clouds, everything turned black for sports-loving fans.

Not only had the Welsh rugby XV suffered one of the most galling and undeserved defeats in modern sporting history, but Manorbier United - chief entertainment officers of south-west Pembrokeshire (especially the bit between Lydstep and Jameston) - also felt the sharp pain of sporting loss as their world collapsed in on them like a blancmange which had been taken out of the fridge too soon!

To date, Manorbier's success has been founded on free-flowing, Harlem-Globetrotter style football, with players swarming all over the opposition like flies on a fresh cow pat, suffocating them with footballing methane.

However, it was the home side who played like stink last Saturday, shipping six goals with none in reply, as they were bamboozled by a Merlin's Bridge team swelled by the arrival of four highly talented new recruits - who crucially, were not Welsh.

From the start, Manorbier were out of sorts, carrying with them the misery of the national side's rugby defeat.

However, Merlin's Bridge's Scottish imports (having had several days to come to terms with their own side's poor showing at the World Cup) came with a spring in their step which Manorbier could never match.

The home side's 4-2-3-1 formation has worked well against more limited sides, but as Merlin's Bridge stretched the game from touchline to touchline, the narrowness of Manorbier's set-up was exposed.

Exacerbated by the strong October sun beating down, Manorbier spent the game chasing shadows. Shadows which were moving more quickly, passing more crisply and using the full pitch far better than Manorbier's players.

Merlin's Bridge had hitherto been bumping along at the bottom of the league, but with their new line-up, will undoubtedly take points off all those teams with ambitions of promotion.

Manorbier, however, remain in the mix at the right end of the table, in a season which promises to be closely fought.

By next week, the blackness will have dissipated, Manorbier will be playing in the cup, hopeful that this defeat will be but a momentary blip in this season's campaign.