Figures, they say, can sometimes baffle. But the boys were not put out by Clapton's trick they tried in the FA Cup last week.

Hardly any of their players wore the correctly numbered shirt. For instance, when their no.3 was injured, it was not left-back John Aldrich, as per programme, but centre-half George Luker. And it was outside-right Bobby Winter who fouled Roger Warnes when we were awarded our penalty, not inside-right George Webber as the shirt number suggested.

But this ruse, not entirely new to soccer, did not take our boys out of their stride. They won 8-0 to prove it.

After Peter Slade and Roger Warnes had given us a 2-0 interval lead it was nearly all one-way traffic in the second period and the boys slammed in six more goals thanks to a gorgeous hat-trick by Gerry O'Rourke, a humdinger by David Hyde and an unstoppable shot by Tony Knox that was deflected just wide of Stan Homan by centre-half George Webber, who wore number 8 shirt.

Knox completed the tally with a splendid penalty. He netted his first attempt, banging the ball into the right-hand corner of the net (which was most unusual for Tony who had favoured the left-hand side in all his previous conversions). He was ordered to take the kick again because Roger Warnes has strayed into the area, but unperturbed, gave a repeat performance with another perfectly taken kick just inside the right-hand post.