When St. Clears took the field against visitors Manorbier last Saturday, they must have thought they had stumbled across a set from 'Dawn of the Dead'.

Several of the Manorbier players were carrying a bubonic-like virus which had rendered them undead, and the rest of the team seemed to have been bitten and infected with zombie blood - thus sapping them of their life-force.

Manorbier have made an unfortunate habit of starting games slowly this season, and this game was no exception. But unlike in other games, Manorbier were punished for their indolence.

St. Clears looked confident on the ball, and were finding space all around the park, as the visitors did their best impression of extras from Michael Jackson's infamous video for Thriller.

Within 10 minutes, Manorbier were 2-0 down - the first goal a fine strike from 25 yards, the second was a tap-in following a well-worked manoeuvre up the Manorbier right. The Normans of Manorbier looked well and truly conquered.

As the red blood cells started to fight back, Manorbier's play started to improve. Passes started to find team-mates, tackles were made, headers were won... and Manorbier began to find their feet on what was quite a heavy pitch, not helped by the long grass which was bordering on jungle-like conditions on one of the wings.

In each game this season, Manorbier have had a barnstorming second half and blown the opposition away, so confidence was still high.

All it would have taken was a couple of zombie bites on the neck of the opposition, and they would have been undead too - but this tactic had to play second fiddle to Manorbier passing, moving and generally raising the dynamism of their play.

And so it proved that Manorbier would dominate the second half. There were a handful - not a hatful - of chances, all of which were spurned, until Jay French burst through the middle and drilled the ball into the bottom right corner, leaving Manorbier about 15 minutes to salvage a point.

Alas, it was not to be, as the home side barricaded themselves in and kept the zombie hordes out, winning the game 2-1.

Manorbier left the game feeling proud of their second half performance, and confident that with 11 healthy bodies on the pitch, they will have their revenge in the return fixture.