Spiders visited their old training pitch at The Discovery Centre this sunny morning to take on an impressive Great Notley side, who are playing up a year. There was an air of Man City about them: live TV coverage, fancy tracksuits, two young manicured coaches giving off Liam Rosenior vibes (I'm sure they had Ipads and communicated with eachother using headsets), and some fine individual players. Indeed, much like City in their semi final yesterday they sneaked a 2-1 win when for most of the game it was their opponents who were the better side.

I won't labour the match report this evening as we've all seen the match on Veo and had the chance to run the rule over the Spiders performance, and gasp at some of the comments of the watching Spiders Mums who didn't realise their comments were being broadcast. This is why it's better when Paty films it, eh?

Spiders started strong, and were the dominant attacking threat in the early stages. It was a surprise to all to see Stanley Bower between the sticks, due to a late running Beni Salomao, but normal service was resumed a few minutes in. Following on from his excellent performance last week, Beni made a series of excellent saves but his first job this week was to pick the ball out of the net, after the Great Notley midfielder made it 1-0 with a fine strike from the edge of the box. However it was Beni's assist that led to the Spiders equaliser, knocking it over the top to Oliver Dovey who battled the defender to strike it at goal, turning it in on the second attempt. All square at half time, it was Great Notley who took the win by a single second half goal, but this didn't tell the story of the match. Spiders put up a great fight on what looked like a big pitch and were very unlucky not to get at least a point. In addition to Beni's heroics this week, Spiders starred:

Arthur Duff - Seemed to be everywhere on the pitch, always communicating instructions and encouragement (and the occasional telling off) to his team mates, showing skill, speed and an eye for goal.

Elliot Gard - put in another John Terry-like performance, sweeping up as the last line of defence but showing attacking threat when he strides out of defence with the ball.

Jack Salmon - Captain for the day and took the Parents Player of the Match award for his tackling and pin point passes, as well as some dazzling runs down the wing and even a shot in the first half that their keeper saved. Some question marks over whether the voting for this award was fixed as it was being run by his sister.

Henry Rushbrook - Showed immaculate control against a tough Great Notley midfield, and his usual skill and passing. Henry was unlucky not to score in the first half with a shot that went just over the crossbar. Always at the centre of everything Spiders do well.

Oliver Dovey - another worthy candidate for POTM, showing skill, pace and persistence throughout the game, particularly with his goal. Seems to improve every week and always looks a threat.

Seth Hayden - Led the line for Spiders, showing good running and excellent hold up play. Unlucky not to get on the scoresheet this week.

Lorran Voltou - Another strong performance: his first touch when he came off the bench was a tackle that saved a certain goal, and he made some strong and skillful attacking runs.

Stanley Bower - Covered every blade of grass/square of polyethylene and rubber crumb infill on the pitch with his runs. Showed aggression and tenacity to win every ball (which he did every time) and drive his team forward. Anyone watching would have put money on him either scoring a goal or ripping an opponent's head off, and we were all surprised when he did neither this week. More than deserved man of the match.

Coach Sam Rushbrook said this was another game where the players "worked their socks off" adding that he couldn't have asked for more in terms of effort. He too felt that his team were good for a point, but warned his players that fitness drills were on the horizon after noting that there were some tired legs at the end of the game.