I'm sure I've used this line before when we've played a double header but, as the late, great Jimmy Greaves once said, "football is a game of two halves". Except, in this case, each half is its own match, with twice the points on offer and, since we wanted to walk away with six in total if we're going to win the table, twice the coaches' apprehension!

The Pumas went into the game today with the same plan as last week. The formation suits us well and adapts to whatever the opposition throws at us. Today, they were throwing a 4-3-3 at us and, actually, a copy of the Pumas, being of the two DMs variety.

However, unlike last week, when a vast tract of pitch would open up between our defence and forwards, we played on what must be the league's smallest pitch, so that middle space was more akin to the width of a mille-feuille. In the first 20 minutes, every effort to play a nice through ball to Owen, in the middle, or Dozie or Adam down the wings, found the keeper. It didn't matter how fast they are (and Owen and Adam are especially rather swift), they rarely caught a break.

At the other end of the pitch, the short length did give Stef some involvement in the early game, if only to scoop the ball up from the opposition keeper's sometimes over-enthusiastic drop kicks. It was a strange start and somewhat frustrated the Pumas' football, not that we tend to play long-ball football, but the small pitch meant that we seemed to have accidentally fallen into this style. In an ordinary game, this would be fine as there would be plenty of time to wear down the opposition but, with the clock ticking and two points evaporating, it was hard to see where the goal was going to come from despite the team looking comfortable.

Bizarrely, the double header format gives each match, or half, its own half-time – or quarter time, if you wish. Despite breaking our flow, it gave us a chance to talk about how we could vary our game. Certainly, we wouldn't be able to play the ball too far forward as this was too easy for the keeper, so this was something for the team to think about. We'd have to adapt.

Before quarter time, the first set of fair-time rotations were made. To be fair, all players in the team have the same excellent core attributes as the others, and everybody has a few unique specialities (ball placement, speed, immense strength, sharp wit, ninja skills), which helps vary things a bit and give the opposition something new to deal with. Basically, any rotation of the subs bench is always going to be a good rotation and never upsets the apple cart. Once the game restarted, the goal came from a free kick outside the 18 yard box, rather than any build up play. It was expertly taken by Ryan and sent flying into the opposition's goal, what with free kicks and finding the goal being one of his own special talents (that and sharp wit). Thereafter, the half largely became a game of holding position and keeping our goal free of danger. The heads of Captain Jack and Will W saw to that, drop kicks and goal kicks bouncing off their bonces and back into play.

However, that's not to say the Pumas didn't have the odd moment to take the game to 2-0. By dropping the ball short of the 18 yard box, or playing out to the wings, some more opportunities presented. A long, low ball to an unmarked Adam, high up the wing, led to him striking a beauty of a shot from the sideline, only to hit the top of the far post (it was almost top bins)! It ricocheted over the heads of Owen and Isaac who had ran in for the rebound. Similarly, crosses from Owen slipped past the other two forwards and Isaac had a great run at the keeper but ran out of pitch before he could strike.

Anyway, pleasingly the first match result ended in 1-0, so Ryan's free kick bagged us the first three points. But then we were back to nil-nil and the pressure was on all over again.

Whilst Will FN was off in the second set of rotations, he chatted to me about making the pitch bigger through our play. "Play out more from the back," he said and "take the ball wide". He made a lot of sense, of course, and I encouraged him to share this with the team in the half time talk as I'm all for team ownership of their game. The other observation he made was the relative size differences of the Staines left and right full backs and our Owen and Adam. He suggested that we invert our wingers and the team liked this idea a lot.

My contribution was to think what the Staines manager would do. Last week, Mayford pulled a forward back to pack out midfield and stop us dominating. I surmised on the small pitch, with very little midfield to play for, Staines would give up a DM for a second CAM rather than lose a forward, so our back four would potentially have five players now to deal with. Our rule is that one DM sits when the other supports the attack, so it was therefore imperative that we didn't get carried away with everyone pushing up the pitch. Our DMs would have to play with discipline and everybody had to make sure that they covered everybody else.

It turns out I was right and it was excellent to see the coverage that the team gave each other, especially Ryan. If Jack N, pushed, Ryan stayed back ("I've got this, Steve", he called out to me, recalling my instruction). If Ethan pushed forward from RB, Ryan slotted into defence ("no worries, Steve," he chirped). When Captain Jack went on a jolly little run of his own, Ryan was back defending ("giving cover, Steve", he affirmed). A true team player.

A goal in the first half of the second 'half' came as Owen thwacked the ball home from the left, which hit the bar for Dozie to pop in. Cue massive cheers all round. Unfortunately, a flag was up and Dozie's positioning was ruled as an indirectly obtained offside. Curses may have been uttered but not for long as 30 seconds after the restart, the ball found Adam out on the right and he took a shot, mirror image of that earlier in the game, but this time finding that elusive top bin. A really unreal goal and so superbly taken. The team were elated! He should play on the right more!

After the last quarter break, game management would kick in as a one goal lead was quite a slight thing to hold onto. Discipline would be crucial and it only truly fell apart once due to overconfidence, with Staines outfoxing Will W and finally having a good chance on goal. The ensuing shot was good, strong and high but the forward hadn't counted for Stef's ability to leap and tip balls over the bar. A crucial save.

During the break, the Staines manager had clearly told his team to go for broke but this had been interpreted as squabble, argue, pick up a yellow card and tug on Jack N's shirt! I'd never seen the ever-pleasant Jack N so cross before and I gave him my vote for PotM simply for his angry face!

As with the first half/match, whilst the Pumas were well in control of defence, it didn't stop up building play to create chances. With about 12 minutes to go, Adam found himself in possession of the ball in the final third. Given nobody was pressing him, despite the Staines team shouting at each other to do so, he stopped for what felt like a minute to weigh up his options. Ethan came racing up the wing, so a quick lay-off saw Ethan chip the ball to the far post where Will FN bicycle kicked the ball into the net! Yes, a bicycle kick! That was a kick and a half and the game, and the second three points, was sealed.

Then, yes, we were definitely into game management not to squander the lead and, before we knew it, the ref blew for full time. Three truly excellent goals and a six points haul.

But, the good news got even better as the league has finally sorted out our final fixtures. One of our earlier postponed games was due to the opposition being unable to raise a team. Being kind, I'd said that we would schedule the game rather than claim points but the league decided that with so few Sundays remaining, we'd be awarded the points anyway. So today we actually added nine points to our tally to take our lead to four points ahead of our closest rivals, Ashford Town.

Wow, this season is really hotting up as it comes to end. We're back on top, a few points ahead and still unbeaten. Can we win the table? COYP!