After last week's victory over Sagarmatha, the league leaders SUNS responded with a 7 - 0 thrashing of Shane FC. This meant to keep level on points and the challenge for the Division Two Champion's title BEFC would need 3 points from this game against JETRO.

While one would suspect deepest winter to be the time squads of players go missing, mysteriously the end of February and early March is the time large swathes of footballers become unable to make it to games, and the first challenge BEFC faced was mustering a large enough squad to avoid any disasters. With some persistence BEFC managed to put out a strong looking squad, with Sotoike making an Embassy FC appearance and Palmer and Blancafort supporting from the bench despite both carrying injuries.

As is the case on matchdays, it is rare for everyone to actually show up, but this time BEFC arrived in check, warmed up and ready to play with a solid starting 11. And true to form of the mysterious early spring football player drought the opposition lined up with only nine. Playing against nine players at first seems like a walk in the park, but without having the correct mentality and in BEFC's case dire need for some good goal difference it can turn into a circus.

Play from the kick off was poor, BEFC passes sloppy and credit to JETRO who were making sure despite the deficit in numbers they weren't ready to go down without a serious fight. And it was early sloppiness that almost gifted JETRO an instant counter-attack on goal that forced BEFC to wake up. Slow to get going, and to the yells of injured captain Ben Palmer (on linesmen duty), for the team to concentrate on the real gameplan and develop their build up play, things slowly started to get into gear. A lot of credit goes to fullback Nils Simon who was finding plenty of space on the left flank. But rather than rushing play Simon showed by example the benefit of breaking the attack into additional phases by playing back inside so BEFC could switch angles, and then either attack or switch back again.

Once this penny dropped and BEFC saw how these extra exchanges made space, and how involving the unmarked fullbacks and central centerbacks as ball carriers create more overloads and thus space to receive passes the determined JETRO defence began get sliced up. Now BEFC were effective in breaking down the first line of JETRO's defence, there began plenty of practice about how to penetrate the final third and finish.

After some close chances the deadlock was finally broken by a switch of play and superbly driven low cross back across the six yard box for Sotoike to tap in home. That also heralded a change in the arranged gameplan as James Pounder moved up from defence into the striker position for a phase dubbed by captain Palmer as 'Drogba Time'. It didn't take long for Drogba Time to make an impact with Pounder's movement and physicality causing the JETRO centerbacks plenty of trouble and freeing other players to use more space. Another switched move, allowed for another quality high cross into the box which Pounder buried into the net with a diving header... and a boot in the face for his trouble. With BEFC 2 - 0 up, it wasn't a game for cruise-control, goals were needed but also this was a prime opportunity to develop intelligent build up play and attack plans for the final third.

Unfortunately just before half time, Blancafort who had come on for Sotoike to initiate 'Drogba Time' pulled up with a hamstring injury, causing Palmer to temporarily hold the fort in defence until the halftime whistle.

Halftime consisted of a quick team talk about using this as the opportunity to really work on improving the team's game play, in swifter passing, decent build up play to create space and then finding the different avenues to get the chances in the opponent's box. Tweaking the formation into a 3-4-3, BEFC looked to focus on the business end of the pitch and get more goals.

After the restart the play continued to be good, BEFC again focusing well on producing the attacks from build up play involving the centerbacks as ball carriers to create more options to move into the opponents half. Then once in the opposition half, more neat ball play and switching play to get deeper into the final third before going to the actual attacking move. The switch for Tsukasa Katase from a narrow midfielder in the first half formation to a wide wingback seemed to have a strong effect as he completed his hattrick arriving late on the opposite side of the box, latching onto a switched ball and crashing them into the goal. Finally Sotoike waved to the bench meaning Palmer came on for the final 15 hoping his own injury wouldn't surface but meaning James Pounder's 'Drogba Time' got a renaisance. This once again proved effective, with Pounder troubling a very spirited but tired JETRO defence to bag his brace from more good attacking play in a cut back for a tap in from the penalty spot.

The match ended 6 - 0 to BEFC, albeit against a reduced but very determined JETRO who to their credit never gave in the entire time. For BEFC it was a great example lesson of how the early sloppy play was contrasted so differently once everyone sharpened up. As well as showing the contrast of how hard it is to attack effectively, even against nine, when we do not make use of our unmarked players as ball carriers, who can free up forward players to overload their markers and get collectively more space to link up and receive balls forward. When BEFC, without the pressure of strong opponent, were able to move the ball forward in phases it really showed how effective the team can be in making all kinds of problems for an opponent. Perhaps the one thing BEFC got a lot of practice at, but is somewhere to focus on now is finishing the chances as the scoreline could have been a lot higher!

After the game MVP nominations were very close between hat-trick hero Katase and James 'Drogba Time' Pounder, with the final nomination going in Pounder's favour. And to be fair playing a decisive role at center back, being a big part of the unit that got the team performing the build up phases properly when it was wonky, and then scoring two goals as an effective striking weapon at the opposite end of the pitch is a pretty good reason to be the Adecco BEFC Most Valuable Player versus JETRO!