So, it's 3.11pm, the push back is 3.15pm but that doesn't bother the 'Interim Skipper' as yours truly sat in traffic on Kidbrooke Park Road! The sun is belting down and Taylor Swift is blurting out the lyrics to her new hit 'Style' on Radio 1! 'We never run out of style......' Very aware that another 8 members of our 14 were in the cars behind, I was slightly conscious that the push back was moments away, however the words stuck in my head and as skipper, today was always about 'style', the 'vavavoom' the 'laissez faire' the 'get out there & enjoy it boys' attitude. And that's just what we did......not to mention it was 'roasting' hot (13 degrees)......calypso time!

A momentary gathering at the top of the D having all found a shirt, enabled me to tell everyone where they were playing, having said that I named 12 in the starting line up....oh well, that wasn't the worst bit of sportsmanship of the day. Shirts & starting positions decided, it was only David 'Torres' Broughton, Dave 'Gobbler' Golbey, Chris 'Super Vet' Brown & your truly that were over the age of 18. The rest had youth on their side and, despite having all played school matches in the morning, ran for ever and a day.

In fact, it was quite a bizarre match for the neutral to view. At one end was a team 2nd in the league and hunting promotion, going through a very professional warm up progressing to what looked like a seriously serious team talk from their captain. Drilled, organised and with icy intent. At the other end: the underdogs, the no hopers, the 'basement dwelling' rabble of red shirts, the no warm-up, no tactics & 'no rules apply' team that was the Mighty 3s. Little did the crowd of 3 (Chris Smith, Nick Owen & one from their lot) know that the skipper had conjured an almost fool proof 'blank page' of tactics and had cunningly put each of the lads into their favorite positions. What, from the outside, looked like a mish mash of ingredients, was about to turn into a wonderfully sweet yet smooth cocktail!

The first 5 minutes were the only 5 minutes that BOE struggled in, the youngsters were still finding their feet having already played 70 minutes for their school sides and were caught napping. A simple passing move and a decent pick up in the BOE D saw the T Wells forward control the ball like Alan Shearer (with his foot) rather than Jamie Dwyer. Umpire Coleman was unsighted and his resulting question to his officiating partner: 'Did you see anything to disallow the goal?'....was met with a resounding unbelievable 'no'.....speechless.... Perhaps he was the same official who didn't see Maradona's 'Hand of God' ? This one will be forever be remembered in the Tonbridge Wells Gazette as the 'Foot of Twod' should the T Wells boys get promoted. Goal stood, 0-1.

BOE gave not one care to the deficit and were happy to knock the ball about in a style more befitting the Nou Camp.....rather than Blackheath High School. Will Tate would expertly locate Edd Thorogood and with the skipper through on goal the Oppo's Keeper valiantly slid out to take the ball off him. Chance gone. The lads were finding space and the introduction of Lewis Tutsell in the forward line won BOE a corner. The resulting set piece saw the marauding mature left half David 'Gobbler' Golbey locate the goal from 0.3 yards. He couldn't miss. 1-1 and BOE in the ascendency.

Taylor's lyrics continue: 'you got that long hair, slick back, white t-shirt...' A song lyric clearly written about Jack Colegate more than Chris Brown. She continues to add that she has 'that good girl faith with a tight little skirt....' I think that's more Golbey than anyone. Nonetheless the Mighty 3s continued to add the 'style' to the occasion as the T Wells players started to really lose their rag and implode. Embarrassingly more with each other than us. It was hard to believe that this 'team' were doing so well in the league as they continued to bicker and berate each other as BOE continued to carve them apart time & time again. However, in the final phase BOE only located the keeper or made a decision that didn't quite allow for a simple finish. No goals came from this dominance. As the youngsters continued to be wrestled around the pitch by T Wells it was clear they were wobbling......1-1, half time!

The Calypso atmosphere was further enhanced by a bag full of Capri Sun delivered by Nick Smith.....delightful. The interval message was simple to the lads:

1) we were better than them
2) when we passed it well, they couldn't handle us
3) they were losing their composure
4) we will stay calm
5) let's ruin their day
6) keep enjoying yourselves

With these words resonating loudly the second half was incredible. BOE absolutely dominated with wave after wave of attack,. T Wells just couldn't cope. Chances & corners would come our way, but as observed earlier the only 'poor' part of our game was the finishing. We were liquid up to the D, tearing TW apart, but we wanted so much time in the D......too much time....so sadly the goals eluded us.

After 15 mins TWells broke after a great bit of fortune & after about 34 rebounds in the D their right back pushed the ball into the goal. Our scoring deficiency was punished. Strangely, they didn't celebrate. Who were this lot? BOE maintained a smile on their faces, they knew they were in this, this was fun. And as the crowd swelled to an impressive five with two late arrivals Michael Wickenden would break down the right and superbly locate Tutsell in the D who executed a first time slap into the goal: 2-2. What a game and still BOE wanted more. Fuelled by Capri Sun, the 'style' would continue and my my, weren't we looking good. This was so enjoyable.

Now as I mentioned before TW were starting to seriously lose their composure. Perhaps it was an 'Away at BOE 3's? Simple 3 points surely?' attitude? Either way it was an interesting debacle. Highlighted by a clumsy and untidy but not aggressive attempted tackle from Lewis Tutsell which was met with an astonishing verbal tirade from the TW's no.13. He accused Lewis of not being the best tackler but with language you might not expect to hear on the pitch. But true to this guys odd character, he then bizarrely turned on his team mates as well.....only to be consequently sent to the bench with a yellow card. But that wasn't all. He wasn't finished. He would then continue to thrust his stick into the face of the young TW U15 lad on the bench and threaten him with fairly serious ramifications should the lad not choose to keep his opinions to himself. Wow. Very disturbing and unsavoury. Thankfully No.13 did not return.

FYI - Had this been a BOE player behaving like that, especially to a youngster, then they would've had their club membership terminated immediately.

Little happened in the 5 minutes of 10 v 11, in fact BOE were at their worst as they tried to dribble so didn't take advantage of the superior numbers. TWells went back to 11 (minus No. 13!) and BOE stepped it up a notch. Aa great forward aerial from Tawana saw Tate bring it down deftly and play it to Brown. He would locate Thorogood who in turn would slap it first time into the goal from the top of the D. Great goal. The lads were having a ball. 3-2 up and playing 'carefree' attacking hockey with the back 4 launching every attack with an aerial or precision pass.

The only shame was that there was only 5 minutes left. Yes the legs of the young lads were tired but the brain and spirit just wanted to keep going. However, BOE sadly switched off for the very first time in the 69th minute as a hopeful ball into the D was tucked into the net at the far post to make it 3-3. Not a deserved equaliser or fair reflection of the game based on the stats. Our only (but ultimately crucial) fault was that our finishing was not the 'red lipped, classic, thing that we liked.....' It certainly didn't match the rest of our play but mark my words, this was some performance. 3-3 v 2nd in the league?......Cheers, we'll take that.

Aran Tawana was undoubtedly the MOTM with his impeccable performance at CB. The way he got every BOE move going with his faultless distribution was outstanding. I will take DOTD simply because not one of the boys deserved it, they were magnificent, wonderful, brilliant, determined, proud and totally worthy.......but ultimately.....

'We had that James Dean daydream look in our eye
She had that red lip classic thing that we like
And when we go crashing down, we come back every time.
Cause we never go out of style
We never go out of style!!'