Fluxton 2 Met Office 0 Given the quantity of rain to have landed in recent days it was a surprise to many that this game wasn’t postponed, writes Stephen Howe.

Not least to the opposition, who hours earlier had issued a flood warning! Mind games aside, the squelchy surface was just about passed playable, and the players resigned themselves to their kit not coming clean for the rest of the season. Muddy, therefore lots of sliding, and also picture the slope, which in truth was a hill, and which washed all play towards the road goal. It was a top of the table clash; The Met Office leading the pack, Fluxton snapping at their heels.

Fluxton were facing downhill and therefore began on top. Olly Paget galloped into good areas, Matt Amey wriggled through gaps. Edu, Cornish debutant, was impeccable at left back. Twenty minutes in and Tom Rapps emphatically headed home a corner. More chances followed which the muddy Flux, writhing like performance artists, dribbled anaemically into the keeper’s mid-riff.

Would 1-0 at half time be enough? Flux were facing a second-half mountain, literally. The Met Office swept forward like a wintry weather front, but the Flux defence, led by Andrew Butcher, inspired by the tough tackling of Will Boyd and Sam Fisher, weathered the storm.

Fluxton needed a goal to close things out. Steve Winsor flashed a header wide, Steve Howe shied a shot just high, A Paget, O Paget and Rapps pilfered presentable openings. ‘Oh no!’ shouted Olly. When it came, it came from flowing football. Fluxton had moved the ball admirably all game, and the defence and midfield combined to set free the flowing blonde locks of Matt Amey, whose perfect cross was volleyed home clinically by Rapps. A ray of sunshine. Fluxton play Halwill, also in the running for the title, next week.