It was an early 9 a.m. kick off for Spartak this morning. Fortunately, it was only a short hop to Bletchley to face familiar foes in Stoke Hammond. As the players began the match they knew that the pitch with its long grass was going to be tricky and it immediately became clear that the conditions would slow down the play somewhat.

The first half was probably 70% Galaxy possession and 80% Galaxy attacking. In the first 14 minutes alone Spartak generated 4 corners. One led to a turn and shot in the box from Dylan. In these early passages of play it certainly looked like Dylan was the most likely to score as he also had a 20 yard effort saved by the diving goalie.

Midway through the first half Linslade's pressure paid off, though ironically it was the result of a counter attack. At the other end of the pitch Thomas made a great sliding tackle outside of the box and Spartak broke quickly. Niall pushed the ball forward and Luke W rounded the keeper and got a cross in for Matthew to head home.

After 26 minutes there was another good moment from Spartak as Jack R skipped past the defender on the right and his cross skipped through the box just out of reach of the incoming strikers.

Right at the end of the first half Spartak doubled their lead. This time a lovely ball was played through the Stoke Hammond defenders. Jack R outpaced everyone, including the out rushing goalie to slot the ball passed him and double Spartak's lead.

A few seconds later the ref blew to end a first half that was dominated by Galaxy. There was some lovely passing, particularly from Dylan, whilst Jack R and Mail on the right showed some lovely touches. The defence had not been busy but had tidied up nicely when required.

Spartak were again immediately on the attack in the second half and Mali showed some lovely footwork to get passed two defenders, but he couldn't quite get his cross in before the ball went out of play.

8 minutes into the second half Linslade had another attack down the right. Jack R fired the ball across in the box low and hard and Kiro slid in to send the ball into the back of the net and give Spartak a three goal advantage.

Then, just three minutes later, a lovely pass forward from Tycho quickly turned defence into attack. Jack R was just too fast for opposition goalkeeper. He got a little lucky with the ricochet that headed in the direction of the open goal, but it was just rewards for his run and it gave Spartak a comfortable four goal lead.

In the final quarter of the match Stoke Hammond picked up their play just as Linslade dropped theirs and this led to a 10-minute period when the home team had a 10-minute period of sustained pressure and won't quite understand how they didn't manage to score.

Firstly, there was a good passing move that led to a shot across the goal in the box which Thomas just managed to stop with his foot. A few minutes later Thomas again had to make a save down to his right. The resulting corner came in and a fierce header hit the post and the rebound was hit over the bar from 6 yards out. Then, a minute later, another shot was fired in which Thomas saved with his feet.

Overall, a very positive performance from Spartak as they battled hard and also still managed to play some nice passing football on a difficult playing surface. There is no doubt Galaxy will need to keep up these levels of performance if they wish to continue their climb up the Division 1 table.