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Katherine and I demolished two bottles of rosé between us last night.

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Hawks lost 1-0 at home to St Albans City. The first half was pretty dull; the second was anything but. First a Bobby Hopkinson tackle left the St Albans left-back on the ground; he got up, squared up to Bobby and shoved him in the chest, whereupon Bobby rugby-tackled him to the floor. Both players were sent off. While that was perfectly understandable, ridiculous refereeing ruined the rest of the game. Wes Fogden was hacked down in the box and, to the angry disbelief of everyone in the stand, got booked for diving. Minutes after that, Ian Selley made a clean tackle that brought down the Stale Buns number two, who proceeded to give an Oscar-winning performance of clutching his face while rolling around in feigned agony. Once his side had been awarded the free kick the number two rose to his feet, affecting a pronounced limp (L-I-M-P, pronounced 'limp' - copyright Spike Milligan) but with a huge grin all over his face. We could have no complaints about the goal; that came from a rare howler by Simps, who gave the ball away on the edge of the box to leave the Stale Buns striker an open goal to tap into. Foolishly, Manny Williams got booked for what the ref judged to be a flying elbow, then in the fifth minute of injury time he flew into an opponent with a two footed tackle, leaving the ref no option but to send him off.

No joy in the clubhouse after - the Shire lost 2-0 at Queens Park.

On the way home Bob reckoned the ref had had it in for Manny since he protested too much over Hopkinson's sending-off, and that none of our team had really seemed up for it today. We agreed Galey would be giving them the hairdryer treatment, and that Steve Ramsey should be able to fill in for Bobby during his suspension, but we're hoping Manny escapes with a one match ban, as the squad's paper thin where it comes to strikers...