Many Football fans had been waiting in anticipation for Saturday, as there was a mouthwatering clash in store for them between 2 on form teams. But seeing as the Liverpool Spurs match didn't kick off till later there was time to see the Ressies take on Yardley Ressies.

The Trees were playing against a strong wind in the 1st half and should have taken the lead when Shandy slipped over on the edge of the area, allowing their striker a clear shot at goal, but he wasted a great chance as he sidefooted weakly straight to the Keepers arms. The conditions weren't great but the quality of football was poor. Yardley offered very little in terms of quality on the ball and Trees created very little as they struggled against the wind. When we did get the ball forward Jervis was often isloated up front as Cloggsy (despite several visits to the Gym) virtually didn't move for the whole of the 1st half as the game passed him by, the only contribution from the Gaffer was an overhead kick in his new Disco slippers. Trees did start to have the better of the play towards the end of the 1st half which offered encouragement that we could really press on with the wind behind us in the 2nd half.

Thankfully the 2nd half was better. Now playing with the wind the Trees dominated the 2nd half as Yardley were pinned back in their own half for virtually the whole of the 2nd period. The commitment was much better as was the football from the home side. But the reason we ultimatly had to settle for 1 point and not 3 occurred in a 5 min spell in the 2nd half. The ball was playing to Jervis who had a good 2nd half, the defender was favourite to win the ball but Jervis's pace caused the defender to bring him down for a blatant penalty despite the protests from Yardley.

With Deano having missed about 8 penalties this season (well according to Jezza anyway, although that number does seem slightly inflated, I mean if he had missed 7 would you let him take an 8th?) and Cloggsy's fearing that his Disco slippers might slip in the mud, a la John Terry, Gravesy stepped up to tkae the pen. Gravesy effort hit the bar and Yardley were let off the hook. But worse was the follow as minutes later Yardley took the lead with virtually their only shot of the half.

Yardley's effort swerved in the wind and went through the side netting, causing the Ref to doubt of the ball had gone in or not. Had the Trees cheated and pretended it went wide we may well have got away with it, but we were too honest and Yardley were awarded the goal (take Note Yardley's Keeper who was less than honest later on in the game).

The goal could have knocked the stuffing out of the Trees as the goal was totally against the tun of play, but the reaction was excellent. We laid siege to the Yardley goal, with Cloggsy now making an appearance and starting to get involved with some good play, but there was no cutting edge and Yardley were desperatly hanging on. the Ref's performance was generally poor, but one instance in the 2nd half was beyond belief. the Yardley Keeper tipped a shot wide and yet again the Ref got another decision wrong and signalled for a goal kick. The players naturally disputed this and not only did the Ref allow himself to be influenced by the players he then decided that the best course of action would be to ask the Keeper if he saved it or not! No prizes of course to guess what their Keeper said, but it wasn't "Yes Ref of course I touched it and it should be a corner. My team may be completely under the cosh and we are battling to hold onto a narow 1v0 lead but I believe that honesty should always prevail over my desire to win".

Despite the Sh1t Ref (Even by North bucks Standards) the Trees pressed on and Yardley were clinging on by the skin of their teeth, but Trees lack of striking talent was showing, if we couldn't even hit the target from 12 yards then getting an equaliser would be a tough task.Finally the pressure told and after a good move Shandy drilled home late on to rescue a point which should have been 3 anyway. Had there been more time on the clock the Trees looked a good bet to get all all the points on offer, but a lack of cutting edge meant that wasn't to be.