The Unicorns faced a daunting challenge when last minute entrants to the league - Knowle Park - replaced what was a planned bye week for the boys. Having lost their higher teams, this fixture against Knowle Park presented a massive unknown to everyone at GW. With optimism, our boys made the short, and surprisingly traffic free journey to St Olave's School in Orpington, on a warm but humid day. The Unicorns welcomed father and son duo Andy and Tom to make their Unicorns debut, alongside Bubai who played his first game for the club alongside his boy Himanish.

From the off, the boys were asked to show effort and determination, and that's what they did for 70 minutes. It was a resolve that would be tested as the game progressed. Once the game began, the home side had a dominance over the visitors. The mix of adults and talented youngsters proved formidable, pressing and dispossessing our boys to keep a pressure on the Unicorns goal. Yet the boys held firm for as long as they could before the defence was finally breached. While the opposition went into the half-time break at 3-0 up, our boys started to punch back, making excursions towards the opposition goal, but just unable to break through. It was more of the same into the 2nd half, but the Unicorns kept working hard and never gave up, despite conceding another 3 goals. What was however most remarkable was how the boys themselves adapted to the challenge they faced - working as a pack to defend the goal, stepping up one after another to stop their dazzling dribbler dancing through the D. The entire backline put in an incredible effort, with incredible praise for Tom B and Yuvan. At the other end, the boys kept working hard to try and expose a chink in the oppositions defences, but it wasn't to be today.

Tom B was voted Defender of the Day, with honourable mention to Yuvan, while Oliver B was voted our Attacker of the Day.
Thank you to Mike Cooke, Andy Fitton and Tom Simcock for offering to play a second game of the day to support the development of our lads.

Against Knowle Park, they faced a talented team, perhaps one of the best in the league, and now we know the standard. The challenge is set to reverse the result of this fixture in January. Next week's game is a visit by another strong Development Programme - Burnt Ash - 10.15 at home.