Our training game against the Ukraine gave us a chance to run out the trip from our legs and get ourselves back into the groove prior to the tournament getting underway. It proved to be a rather tougher game than most of us had anticipated, with the Ukrainians proving difficult to break down and consistently hurting us off the break due to our own errors. Nonetheless the ever reliable Mike Shaw put us up in the first half with another well taken PC - four from four for the young man. The lack of sleep and heat got to us and we struggled for periods, yet still managed to come through with a draw at the end of full time. After a few important words and some lessons learnt, we made a hasty exit from the pitch to get back to the hotel, get showered up and head out for our evening meal.
Dinner proved to be yet another fantastic spread with Naz coming good again for the boys. Private dining room, three course meal and MTV "Pimp My Ride" on in the background, the standards have been set out extremely high. Management has certainly set the bar high, come Monday it will be our turn to do the same against the Poles!
The last items on the yesterdays playbook were the start of the "Play of the Day" and "D**k of the Day" awards. They are related to incidents occurring on and off the pitch, both good and bad. The latter was picked up by none other than yours truly - some tardy punctuality and roughness on the pitch saw me stream ahead with somewhat unanimous efficiency. The "Play of the Day" award went down to the wire with some good nominations: Shawsy, Ketts, Owain and Naz in the running. But after the votes had been tallied, Naz ran away with it after his superb organisational skills to get the boys well fed and back in high spirits.
Sunday morning started off a lot easier after a good 9+ hours of sleep. Amazing how a good nights kip can sort you out! We put in a good training session to get ourselves back on the right foot and get the lads excited to get stuck into the tournament. With less than 24 hours before we play Poland, we are chomping at the bit to get at them and put our mark on the tournament.
That's all from me now. Over and Out...
Rick
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