November is usually the month managers fear. It is the start of the sacking season and Harris and Wixey are not above the ignominy of the big boot. Five consecutive defeats were too much for Aston Villa but so far, the powers that be at the GPSFA have remained silent, much to the dismay of the duo who were hoping for some free time, a reduction in expenditure and a return to being able to hear normal sounds, like silence without ringing in their ears. Surely a sixth straight loss would be one too many. The dynamic duo discussed what they would do with their free time which basically revolved around ‘getting a life’. Fingers were crossed. Harris showed his bilingual skills, by speaking a version of English and advanced pottymouth. He now leads Wixey 4-3 in the unfortunate utterance stakes for the 11 years they have been trying to coach. Luckily nobody heard.

The long delay on the M4 meant that we were late arriving at Newbury and Harris’ planned new warm up had to be postponed in favour of running about a bit. For some reason it seemed to work and the team started playing well immediately and showed no signs of the usual gift of giving away a two-goal head-start. Challenged to score first the B team set about the Newbury A team from the start. Ali and Glannville had strikes on goal before the home side had barely crossed the half-way line. The visitors’ dominance continued for virtually all of the first half. Stokes and Middlecote were superb in snuffing out attacks while Kelly, Glanville, Ali, Hodges and Baddhity were in complete control of the midfield areas. Howard and Savioli kept the energy up when they were introduced into the game. The only disappointment being that they only managed to score one goal. Kelly put in a great far post cross and Ali gratefully accepted the opportunity to knock the ball in from close range.

Newbury came out for the second period in a more competitive mood and the game was more even and then for one minute, a 60 whole seconds, Gloucester took their eye off the ball, literally in one case, and suffered the consequences. Sadler, who had been brilliant playing as a sweeper and having more touches as an ‘outfield’ player rather than a ‘keeper, miss-kicked a long through ball gifting Newbury an unlikely equaliser. The next play saw the turnaround complete when Kelly for the only time in the game drop off and allow the homeside to score from a decent strike from 20 metres out. A real shame as both players had played so well otherwise. Gloucester recovered their composure well and were soon on the front foot again. Ali went just wide after a lovely cross-field ball from Howard set him up and that was followed by Baddhity’s low speculative strike that just sailed wide. The home side extended their lead following a corner. This only seemed to spur the yellows on and from then on it was one way traffic. Dixon came the fore and began using his power and strength to carve out chances. The first of which he managed to round the ‘keeper but fired wide from a difficult angle and the second was saved by the ‘keeper. Savioli sliced wide before Dixon slammed in the visitors second goal. The defenders could not match his desire as he made a strong run down the left arrowing in on the target before letting rip with his left foot. The final few minutes was a frantic affair but Newbury managed to see it through to gain an unlikely victory having been under the cosh for the vast majority of the match. Gloucester can be proud of their performance. It was full of desire, commitment and a fair degree of quality.

Despite the defeat the boys’ were quite rightly pleased with their performance and the mood on the mini-bus was good….and loud. Very loud. Harris in his infinite wisdom asked them to scream if they wanted to stop at the services. The noise was horrendous. Middlecote’s scream was so high pitched only dogs could hear it.

It dawned on Harris and Wixey that they had now presided over six consecutive defeats and surely the call would come for them to spend more time with their families. But now, following that performance, neither welcomed the call. Both turned their phones off.

Gloucester B:

Sadler, Middlecote, Stokes, Hodges, Howard, Kelly, Glanville, Baddhity, Dixon, Ali, Savioli.