There must be something about wet, muddy pitches that the Pumas really enjoy playing on because today's match was played on a wet, muddy pitch and they once again absolutely stormed today's encounter. Despite the stodginess, the ball rolled well enough and certainly moved with pace should either team decide to play a quick passing game.

And a very quick passing game was exactly what the Pumas started off with, especially in the first ten minutes. It was so fast paced that it actually felt like time slowed down and, in those ten minutes, four goals were notched up in quick succession! I don't know what must have happened to our opposition since we saw them last as our first fixture with them was a fraught 4-3 win at Lowther Road. However, the conditions on that day were warm and pleasant.

The first goal came from Ryan. After some strong play between Stef (left-back) and Will FN (left wing), the ball was worked up the pitch and kicked out for a corner. In the ensuing scramble, it fell to Ryan who floated the ball towards goal with Jacob shielding it so it drifted over the keeper and into the net. Literally moments after resetting, Will FN received the ball on the edge of the 18 yard box, passed to him from Jacob, and drilled it towards to the keeper. 2-0.

A few minutes after that, Jacob, playing centre-forward, went completely unmarked and calmly pulled the trigger in front of goal. Similarly Will FN scored, unmarked, from a header. 4-0.

Further opportunities presented themselves with Ethan (right-back) making an excellent run up the pitch, beating a player but running into the corner. With everyone watching on in admiration at this display of talent, nobody thought to provide support so he became a tad stuck. However, skilful lad that he is, he turned the player that had boxed him in and put in a low cross but it didn't have the legs to reach the many Wokingham players that had congregated in the box and was promptly disposed of.

Play became a little more balanced with Goldsworth finally sorting themselves out and putting us under pressure for a good five minutes or so. This ultimately fizzled out when centre-back Captain Jack won possession from the Goldsworth forward and fielded it out square to Ethan. Ethan played the ball up the right side of the pitch to winger Owen, who was promptly fouled after making progress down the wing. Captain Jack fancied his chances from the free kick and raced up into the six yard box. Owen's delivery was placed perfectly for Jack's bonce, but the header went tantalisingly wide. No goal for Jack today – at least, not in that goal!

The next five (yes, five) goals came from Jacob. To be fair, the Goldsworth defence really didn't know what to do with him! He's a big, strong lad and, at times, he attracted four players to try to dispossess him. He was also very, very calm when opportunities presented (accuracy over power) and he often lost any Goldsworth player when they weren't looking. Goals were looking very likely.

Stef, who was now playing a kind of left-back, midfield, centre-forward kind of position, had pushed up the pitch and powered a shot towards the Goldsworth keeper. This was well saved, being pushed away, but nobody was watching Jake, who pounced upon it for a simple tap-in.

At this point, the team very much went into 'let's enjoy this mode' and players started to have fun with the ball. Captain Jack made quite an epic run up the pitch, beating three players before running into the corner (I really need to know what the attraction was of that corner today!). After Ethan's similar run, Owen made sure he was on hand to support and after a nifty wall pass, Jack was fouled on the edge of the 18 yard box. The ref blew his whistle and the free kick found Will FN, who laid it off to Jacob who politely popped it into the net (first hat trick).

Jacob's next goal was scored from the right hand side of the 18 yard box. Going totally unmarked and totally unpressed, he drew the keeper out and placed it low into the net.

So the first half ended 7-0 up. I started wondering whether I should start moving players around to give our opposition more of a chance but, unlike the game against Guildford last month, the Goldsworth team weren't really too bad – they just didn't know what to do with Jacob. They looked like they were only fielding three defenders and two CDMs, which meant our forward three were already matching defence player-for-player, and our centre-mids took out the CDMs.

Goldsworth had some good moments but weren't passing the ball much between themselves, so it was relatively easy for Captain Jack and Will W to cut out any attacks. As Stef had been wont to push up the pitch until we officially shuffled him into centre-midfield, we had effectively been playing three at the back at times, sometimes two if Ethan executed some new tactics and advanced to the midfield block on the attack. It was working anyway.

Of course, a skimpy number of defenders on the break was fine for us when there was only one forward to contend with. The Goldsworth manager now decided to throw three of them at us, who all stayed high. Now this, as well as losing some discipline being seven goals up meant that our opposition made quite an impressive come back. The Pumas decided to pass the ball a lot less and tried pumping it forward for the long ball, which undoubtedly came back at us. When we attacked, an overcommitment of players meant the midfield block had evaporated on the counter and, unbelievably, we started to look like the losing team! Indeed, we conceded a goal in the process.

After that, the Pumas adjusted and went back to playing passing football and some positional discipline was restored. The Goldsworth defence dealt with a strong attack, putting the ball out for a clearance. However, they forgot to mark Jacob again as the corner was taken and he promptly scored.

Another good passing patch ensued. Some emergency shuffling after Mark was injured meant that Will FN was brought on at left-back. He overlapped Stef on the run (now officially left-wing), then passed it back to him and Stef crossed it in to find, yes you guessed it, an open Jacob. Second hat-trick secured!

I've not mentioned our two main centre midfielders yet. Aside from a few minutes when I shuffled Stef into midfield so we could have a chat with Isaac, Jack N and Isaac were our pairing of choice and had been absolutely superb today. Indeed, they demonstrated perfectly many times how our formation works and, just as Ryan had proved pivotal as a DM pivot (and strong and creative everywhere else), so too had Jack and Isaac as midfield pivots, pinging the ball out to the wings and threading it through defenders for Jacob to run onto.

Jack N himself was absolute fire today. Maybe he's grown over Christmas (I'd certainly say so), or was full of energy from being off for a few weeks, but he was very, very dominant on the pitch today. He was also executing our new positional tactic and so found himself to be in the right place at lot to win the ball. Our tenth goal came from him as he broke through with the ball at his feet and made a strong run towards goal. He calmly took the shot and scored a great goal.

With ten minutes to go, the Goldsworth side starting throwing more players at our defence, with as many as five staying higher up the pitch – probably because they were too tired to get back. We won a handful of offsides from this tiredness, although with the Pumas back to not taking things seriously, defence started to become overrun and the depth between our forwards and defenders rendered our midfielders a little out of the game.

Goldsworth won a corner and, whilst our defenders were having a chat about their great victory, nobody noticed the player that ran up to receive the short corner. With a second to cue up the shot, it was simply just blasted at our goal, ricocheting off Jack C's shin as he tried to block it. So he did score in the end, but not as he would have hoped!

Still never mind. The game was reset and, with a minute still to go, Jacob went and scored his seventh.

A good start to 2025. Perhaps the game was a little surprising given our last encounter but I'm very happy with another three points, taking us four points clear as Woking Cougars had a cup game today. Other contenders, Windlesham, third in the table, won their game convincingly against a bottom-table team, and neither Mayford or Ashford thereafter had fixtures. However, we're going to be playing all of these teams in five of our next six matches and they really will be a good challenge for where we're at. COYP!