Icarus took on the RLC TA at Grantham on Sun 14 Oct at 1100, the reason the date & time is included is to remind all sports enthusiasts that this was the day after England booked a place in the Rugby World Cup Final and, quite rightly, the nation celebrated. Confirmation of this match being played was left to the Fri (two days before the game and a day after Icarus played against the Army Crusaders); the odds were stacked for Icarus to lose their 2nd match of the season. The Icarus Manager accepted the match after frantically beaming his Icarus Badge into the night sky and 12 keen 'Batmen' answered his plea and pitched up at Grantham on the Sun. Seven of the 12 responses had played the day before and all had celebrated the International achievements of winning the previous night...none the less, there was a job to do and McIntosh was to ensure all knew the task ahead.

Mcintosh had to step in to the managerial role and his team selected itself due to the sub only having one working knee joint!! All were told to mentally switch on as soon as the game started; as they will come at us hard and fast, they did and for 20 minutes a disjointed team slowly merged into one unit and played the sexy game the way it should be after this initial onslaught. The 1st half finished with Icarus the stronger side, Croft and Tierney could have even scored if more composure was shown in front of goal but the back four were just grateful of the chance to catch their breath when these attacks were happening.

With 12 players now functioning as 1 team, the belief and desire was there for all to carry into the second half, the RLC could not score when we were at our most vulnerable so the plan to go for the jugular straight from the start of the 2nd half paid off so greatly that it was 2-0 to Icarus after 55mins. Tierney, who was now a threat to the RLC defence, scored after a superb build up of slick passing and off the ball running. Then with the pressure at its greatest, a quality cross from Lowe enabled the training ground set piece to free 3 men who were all in scoring positions, only for the RLC to score an OG. Foolishly, Icarus thought the game was won and rested on their laurels, RLC had other ideas and the very impressive strike force done what they had been threatening all game, scored 2 goals in quick succession to bring themselves right back in the game.

With tiredness and lapses of concentration, this was always going to be the outcome, Schofield and Hodgkinson closed the midfield gaps that were being created and Rutherford and Hays backed them up on the flanks. Hays was then to get injured and Croft covered for him with Swinney coming on at Centre Forward. RLC were in search of the winner and with youth and fitness in their favour, they hit the post on 70 minutes. Taylor was pulling off excellent saves through out this 10 min spell and the rot had to stop. McIntosh, Lowe, Arnison and Turner had been dogged all through the game in defence and with this came the Icarus 3rd goal, Taylor rolled the ball to McIntosh, McIntosh to Arnison, Arnison to Schofield, Schofield to Tierney, one on one with keeper, Tierney scores, 3-2 Icarus, it was against the run of play but no surprise how 4 passes could carve a team down the middle. With RLC desperate to take something from this game, gaps started to appear down the flanks, especially on the left with Rutherford showing great discipline by hugging the touchline on every attack.

This was to be the RLCs undoing as a 5 yard pass from Swinney enabled McIntosh to pick out Rutherford with a defence splitting 40 yard pass, Rutherford had one touch to get the ball out of his feet and the other touch was the scoring of the 4 goal, Rutherford opened his Icarus account. Only Leeds Utd can boast a better record than Icarus but what we do better is respond to calls that are over and above our remit, like short notice fixtures....we truly are a brand that can't be bottled or packaged, we breed a team spirit that can only be described by those who know what I am talking about....and Icarus can play and win Anytime - Anyplace - Anywhere!!!

Team: Taylor, Turner, Arnison, McIntosh (Capt), Lowe, Hays (Swinney 55), Schofield, Rutherford, Hodgkinson Croft, Tierney