TFA Totteridge 1 v 5 Kensington Dragons U14 Eagles
Sorrow in Southall had left us cowed like crouching tigers. On Sunday we pounced back as Hendon Dragons.
Playing at last beneath the Wembley arch (rising, just, to the darkening South) we were made to work for our victory. This was a Totteridge side transformed from the one crushed so elegantly at St Mark’s in October.
Of some nine fine first-half Eagles strikes, only one found the net, and that was quickly cancelled out by a penalty inspired by the patron saint of falling timber, Arsenal’s St Santi Cazorla.
The second half brought little relief on a day of graft and toil. And as the driving wind emptied the Hendon playing fields of light and people and possibly hope, the Dragons management began to fear the worst.
But then a rebound nicked, a rasping strike and a final flash of brilliance saw a decent score racked up in time for the final whistle. 1-5 to us and every goal wrestled from the Totteridge mud to send us into the Christmas break more relieved than euphoric.
After that very un-peaceful YAC Ealing, these Eagles deserve to take it easy. Until the New Year, then…