Sponsor agony as BlueBirds have wings clipped

Hudson Roe is the captain of AFC Bluebirds, a five-a-side team made up of players from across Westminster. The team are proudly sponsored by Conservative Home. Follow them on Twitter.

The ConservativeHome-sponsored Bluebirds teams played their penultimate matches of the season knowing that for one team their position in the first division was secure, but that the team languishing towards the bottom of the second tier had to win at least one of their next two games to stand a chance of remaining in the division.  Sadly, without the big money sponsor in attendance, Bluebirds did not perform as well as they can – perhaps feeling his absence in the corporate box side of the cage.

A strong team lined up for the first match, including debutant Will Tanner.  The team needed a victory against their fellow relegation candidates to put them within touching distance of guaranteed safety and away from the lowest division.
It was clear from the start that the opposition were going to harry Bluebirds as much as possible, allowing for very little time on the ball.  Some great goalkeeping from Joe Cawley and a couple of dazzling runs and confident finishes from Kevin Evans (pictured) saw the team go a couple of goals up.  This provoked a response from the opposition who came back strongly.  Bluebirds went into half time in good spirits and ahead by one goal.

Our over-confidence nearly proved our downfall as Bluebirds conceded a couple of quick fire goals from the opposition early in the second half.  After this brief setback, our neat, sharp passing game returned and Evans found space again slotted the ball past the keeper, taking his tally to a personal best of five.  Despite more attacking pressure (and a few more goals) from FC Coping Badly, a much-needed goal from Ed Winfield pulled Bluebirds level before a last minute goal saw the opposition's lead returned.

As the clock ticked down, barely seconds remaining, a back-heeled free kick from Hooper saw the captain control and unleash a fizzing long-range effort into the bottom corner sealing a deserved draw. The result was fair in the context of the game with notable performances from Joe Cawley and the man of the match and leading goal scorer, Kevin Evans (pictured) aided and abetted by defence splitting passes from the debutant Tanner and Ed Winfield on the wing.

In the second game, a team took their chances to snatch a victory that maintained their title push.  Sadly, it was not Bluebirds.  Joseph Cawley, again brilliant in goal, was the only bright star, again showing a level of performance that did not warrant being on the losing team.  Will McCann (read: star striker) returned to the starting line-up following a month long injury and faced a herculean battle against the Intergreat’s goalkeeper.  The keeper only saw three pass him; another long-range strike from the captain, a nicely taken goal by McCann and a comedic own-goal that hit an opposition player's head, the ceiling and then the back of the net.  Sadly, the team's Wigan-style defending saw us lose by five goals

There were some brief flashes of brilliance, but for the most part, an opposition desperate to win the title (they sit in second place) out-ran and out-gunned the Bluebirds. The players are now looking forward to the final games of the season knowing performances need to improve drastically for us to put in a good show against Labour’s Demon Eyes in four weeks.

Twobirds 8 - 8 FC Coping Badly
Bluebirds 3 - 8 Intergreats