Random chunterings from Taff, hobbling up and down the sidelines with the world's stupidest injury.

Cardiff City's seconds took to the field also missing a leading scorer as Lee got his deserved promotion to the firsts. James became the third boy this season to make his reappearance after a trip to the antipodes as the reserves looked to find the result that would give City the second division title.

Against a Cardiff Uni second string bolstered by Grace and Ramzi, the draw City needed looked a tough proposition and the early stages were combative and tough. Some stout defending by both sides (especially from Kay, who stymied uni hotshot Grace throughout the game) kept attackers at bay for long periods. Even so, with both squads showing splendid strength in depth a high calibre game took shape. The students got the initial breakthrough, but City hit back with another of Kat's mini-shots after out-foxing her defender. The ends changed (except for Kat who was still celebrating) and it was only a couple of minutes before the Uni side had the lead again, Caroline's well taken runner making the score 2-1.

That's how it stayed until the stroke of half time when Terry's runner levelled things up at 2 a piece.

The half time changes saw Pam take a well earned breather after spending most of the half wrestling rebounds off the Uni boys. She was replaced by Gwen, and shortly after Sharon took over from Kat at the other end.

The half started in the same tit-for-tat fashion as the first had ended. Ian's diagonal pass carved the defence open for Josh to give the Royal Blues their first lead, but moments later it was 3 all as the students responded. Previously in this season the second VIII have found match winners in the shape of Ian, Josh and Lee; this time it was the turn of erstwhile coach Terry to show his game turning skills. First he dispatched a penalty with consummate ease; then, after a fortuitous out of hands had caused chaos in the Uni defence, he drained the resulting free pass with similar aplomb.

City kept the pressure on, as Holly's rebounding and Gwen's foraging ensured a plentiful supply of ball and it wasn't long before Josh was racing in and drawing the switch. The pass was awful, but Ian scooped it up off his shoelaces and landed the shot from the baseline for a 6-3 lead. Holly had a couple more chances near the post as the half wore on, but just couldn't get the ball to drop. Eventually it was left to Ramzi and Grace to show why they have been stars of the University first team campaign this season as both landed sweet long-shots to drag the scoreline back to 5-6. While even a 1 goal defeat would still have been good enough to hand City the title, the team showed no inclination to lose the match and some stern defending saw to it that there was no further score.

The final whistle went to great celebrations from City players, inaugural winners of the EKL reserve division. Everyone played their part in a strong win over tough opponents, and should the Uni side secure second place it will be no more than they deserve, as they have been comfortably the hardest second team opponents we've faced all season.

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