Martin Luther King, John Barnes, Mike Tyson, Sir Trevor Mcdonald, Nelson Mandela, Rusty Lee.......your boys took one hell of a beating!!!!!!

The mighty Oakhill spirit rose again on Saturday as the team started the new year afresh with a monumental win over top-of-the-table Greenside on their own turf. Occupying the bottom slot and coming off a 6-game losing streak, the odds were stacked against victory but a performance of commitment, graft and a little skill brought The Oak a vital three points.

In the absence of Fred, Tom named Andy in goal (making his first tentative step on his lengthy comback trail from injury), Little Toss at left-back, Joel and Hughes in the centre and in order to introduce both controlled aggression and attacking flair to the back line, Beigeinho returned to the starting line-up at right-back. The Brothers Holt were paired at centre-mid, Mikey took the right wing and Elzie was selected at left midfield. Harris was partnered by Neil upfront, with the latter in a withdrawn role to effectively make a 4-5-1 formation.

Both teams started brightly, despite the holiday hangovers, and Oakhill were very much in the game until a swift break saw the ball bounce kindly for the Greenside centre forward to chip an onrushing Redmond from the edge of the area. It was like Logan was never away....... 1-0.

Despite a real sense of purpose from the Oak midfield, who were winning everything in the air, Greenside's pace and skill on the deck saw them breach the left side of defence again for a neat finish. 2-0.

 In 2007, this would have been the signal for the floodgates to open and a series of demoralising errors would have led to an embarrassing defeat. This is 2008. The back four started to get accustomed to the quality of the opposition and the midfield also moved up a gear, with threatening balls into space consistently finding the intelligent runs of Harris, Doran and Hewlett. Then a swift passing move saw Elzie released to finish with a deft lift over the keeper from the angle into the far corner. 2-1.

Half-time saw a controlled discussion around tactics, an appreciation of the task ahead of us, and an all-round spirit of encouragement and positivity.

We came out in belligerent fashion, with aggression in the challenge and support for each other across the pitch. Despite playing uphill, the passes were still finding the runners and the work-rate was phenomenal. With the defence and the two Holts soaking up Greenside pressure and Neil springing a series of counter-attacks, the game hung in the balance. When Elzie got to the byline on the stroke of half time and aimed a cross at Harris, the oppo centre back laid hands on the wee fella and the ref blew up. Following Carnt's appalling effort against Trinity, Elzie stepped up to place a calm penalty low to the keeper's left and the comeback was on. 2-2.

Having clawed their way back from a two-nil deficit, the Oak were in no mood to rest. More excellent attacking pressure forced a corner, which the quick-thinking Els took short to Mikey D, who spun and picked out Harris to smash a right-foot volley home in the box. 2-3.

Cue every stereotypical 'afro-caribbean' characteristic in the book from an opposition who had emerged from a cloud of skunk from the changing rooms pre-match. Moaning at the ref, fighting with each other when taking a corner, mouthing off at our players and finally picking a fight - ironically with the one Oakhill player who shared their ethnicity and sense of cultural injustice, Beigeinho. This only served to galvanise our team spirit and the icing on the cake came when yet another dangerous cross was helped into the mixer on the volley by Johnny H to where Neil Carnt was waiting to place an overhead kick into the bottom corner with all the power of a handshake from Graham Norton. 2-4.

Cue delirium from the loyal Oakhill support, whose numbers were swelled by some High Bust players wanting a taste of that unquantifiable thing - togetherness. However, Greenside aren't top for nothing and they too decided to show some cohesion. Oakhill cleared a series of dangerous corners as a team and were further pressurised by the loss of their Captain Fantastic, who hobbled to the sidelines with calf muscles full of lactic acid and eyes full of tears, so desperate was he to contribute to the rearguard action. This effectively meant the Oak had to survive the final 20 minutes with ten men, despite Hughesy bravely returning up front. With Carnt dropping into the back four, Nathan replaced the tiring Harris and continued the work ethic, even putting in a slide tackle in his own area! Alas, the opposition finally pinched another consolation, capitalising on an error from an exhausted Neil and outpacing his equally exhausted defensive colleagues to round Andy. All that remained was to fight tooth-and-nail till the final whistle. 3-4.

For those who claim my match reports are too long, I'm sorry, but this one was well worth it. The best team performance of the season came courtesy of quality performances everywhere you looked throughout the side - especially Joel and Hughes winning every challenge at the back, ably assisted by Kev and The Beige One who dealt briiliantly with the pace and power they faced on the wings. Special mention to Andy who was a commanding presence and made several cracking stops. The Holt Brothers provided the platform for Neil and Mikey D to stretch a decent opposition defence who were terrorised by the pace of Harris all afternoon. However, Man-of-the-match goes to Elzie, who produced a display of surprising stamina, unusual speed and precise tackling, along with a couple of goals for good measure.

Man of the match: Eric 'Elzie' Hewlett

Scorers: Hewlett 2, Harris, Carnt

Team: Redmond, Francis, Beigeinho, Hughes (c), Mitchell, J.Holt, D.Holt, Hewlett, Doran, Carnt, Harris(White 75)