My name is Mike, I am a semi-pro footballer and this is the story of the final we played last year in our league . As it turned out we played it twice because the first game ended in a nil-all draw .

It was a rugged , defensive slog most of the way through that first game and scoring chances were few and far between . I play on the right wing and I have a good double-act going with Reg, the centre forward ; we work the old one-two on the right wing and have scored many times in the last couple of seasons. It was mainly down to us that we made the final that year .

Anyhow, the best scoring chance that came up in the first final came in the very last minute of the game ; the other side had been packing our penalty area, trying to get a break and their half of the field was empty except for their goalie and their right back .

All of a sudden one of our defenders intercepted a pass and cleared to Stan, the centre-half . We were in a fantastic position, because their dopey right back had got himself caught way too near the corner ; I was on the other side of the field from him , just past the half-way line , and he could never intercept me or put me off-side before I had a chance at goal , as long as Stan worked it out in time.

I heard Stan call out "left shoulder Mike, go!" and hared off down the touchline. We had been working these plays all year and I knew when to look over my shoulder for the ball ; sure enough it floated past me at just the right moment and I gave it a nice tap down the field, right towards their "D".

I was concentrating on keeping the ball under control and just at the right distance from me for the  set up to shoot in their area and I had no doubt that their goalie was  maybe 10 yards from their goal..in the orthodox position, trying to narrow the angle; I could see the right back rapidly approaching me on my left but he was no problem as he was out of position to tackle me, we had really caught them on the hop .

I glanced up at that point and was bloody shocked to see their goalie...a good 5 yards outside their penalty area sliding in studs up, I hadn't checked to see what he was doing, being too busy watching the back and  keeping the ball under control .

Suffice to say that he got the drop on me, kicking the ball into touch a split second before taking me off at the ankles . Instead of being the hero of the hour and having a final-winning goal to show for it, I was now a nobody with 4 nasty stud marks on my shin , great .

While I was picking myself up their goalie went back into his goalmouth, with a hasty "sorry pal" over his shoulder and the final whistle blew shortly after we took  the throw-in .

Two halves of extra time still brought no score so the officials called for the game to be replayed the following week .

  The fellas weren't too angry with me for blowing our one shot at winning, and they all agreed that their goalie had played a blinder . What he had done was risky and unorthodox, but it was probably the only thing  that would have saved us from scoring .

I had to agree and when we shook hands after the game I gave him a grudging "nice game" as we went off . He was a short, wiry type of guy, wearing one of those "old-man" flat-caps that goalies like to wear .