With Christmas only three days away, it was a surprise to learn that we had a game today - and what a game it proved to be! Having turned over the previously unbeaten league-leaders last Sunday, it was time for us to travel to theirs today and we knew that whoever won this would end the year in the best position. For them, it was chance to avenge the humbling seen days ago and the chance to go seven points above us - but we were also acutely aware that a victory here this morning would put us in a commanding position - one point off them with three games in hand and an unblemished record since the season began. All to play for then...

And when we arrived at Harper Green, the pitch was in pretty good nick considering the horrendous weather we'd seen all week. And were seeing again this morning as the rain was whipping the faces of the gathering crowd and with the wind blowing a hooley, it was going to be difficult to play football out there. As the lads warmed up, there were plenty of faces missing from the squad for this one as well - but as always, the strength in depth was there for all to see. We elected to go with the 4-3-3 shape that has served us so well over recent months and that meant that once again, Lee-Max took his place between the posts. Our back-four was made up of Craig and Macauley in at full-backs - with the pairing of Curtis and Johnny B in the central-berths - and the midfield trio for this one were to be Taylor, Connor Bowling and Chaddy. Ellis - in hot form of late - took his place in the middle of our attack and with Tommy and Liam either side of him, we knew we had the ammunition to hurt these again. The bench consisted of Ethan, Dylan and Kingsley and as the heavens continued to open, the message from the coaches was clear - dig deep, work hard and make sure we go home with the points! News had filtered through that the hosts were informing the match-official that they had struggled to raise a squad as they believed the game would be 'off' (it was their home game after all!) That wasn't the end of their upset so make sure you read on to find out more...

Back to the action though and right from the off, it was our boys that looked the hungrier - and with some great football across the pitch and back again, we were making it hard for them right from the start. And within 3 minutes, we had taken the lead. The ball was fed down our right and Connor Bowling latched onto it in a flash. He swung a delicious ball into the box and there was Tommy to get to it before their defender and smash it into the bottom corner leaving their No.1 absolutely no chance of stopping it. 1-0 and we were off - already...

Talk about strike whilst the iron is hot! Six minutes gone and we won a corner on the left so as Tommy went across to take it, our players looked huge as they lined up ready to receive it. The ball was floated in expertly and there was our midfield general Taylor to head it hard into the ground and as their keeper went to clutch it, he had no clue where the ball had gone as it flew past him and into the back of his net. 2-0 and we were flying! Wink and Dunc were urging their lads to keep focused as nothing was won yet but if we're being truthful, the league-leaders already looked as though they didn't want to be here...

We were playing with a confidence and a swagger now - and why not? Unbeaten, conceding the least amount of goals so far and already firing here, we were knocking the ball about well and more good play in the middle of the field saw the ball played out to the overlapping run of the warrior that is Craig McClelland - and he drilled it across inch-perfectly to find the run of Tommy. And he did the rest as he nipped it around his marker and slammed his shot low and hard past their keeper and inside the far post. A great team-goal and at 3-0 up, the hosts didn't know what had hit them. We weren't finished yet either...

16 minutes in, we made it 4-0 and this was another fantastic all-round effort. Johnny Birchill picked the ball up on the left-hand side just inside his own half and as he strode forward, he spotted Macca making a great run inside. Johnny sent an inch-perfect pass in that meant Macca didn't even have to break his run and as he sprayed it into the danger-area, there was the marksman that is Ellis to smash it home before their keeper could even react. What a finish! What a goal! This wasn't even in our wildest dreams when we awoke this morning - but it was important we kept driving forward now...

Then came the first blemish to proceedings as Liam took a nasty knock to his back and having to come off, it was time for Ethan Fletcher to get a slice of the action - and within 98 seconds, his name was also on the score-sheet. We had won the ball in the middle of the park but as it bounced around, nobody knew where it was going - until Ethan connected with a peach of a shot that rocketed into the bottom corner of the home team's net and as their keeper bent down to pick it out for the fifth time already, we'd only played for 22 minutes. Crazy stuff and as the Breightmet fans danced in the rain over to the right, this was more than we could have expected...

To their credit, the hosts did manage to get themselves a goal when a neatly worked free-kick gave Lee-Max no chance of keeping it out but at 5-1, all that did was rile us even more - and before the whistle went for the break, we managed to grab three more goals to add to the tally. Firstly, Ellis easily out-muscled his marker to spot Tommy in space and feeding him the ball exactly where he wanted it, Mr Ward made no mistake in rifling it [past their helpless keeper and into the back of his net. 6-1. And that soon became 7-1 when Tommy then became provider as he played Ethan in with a glorious pass that cut their non-existent defence in half and Mr Fletcher arrowed his shot into the back of the net. There was still more to come before the break as well - as Taylor played a great ball into the space behind them and Ellis raced onto it before picking his spot and nearly ripping the net as the ball slammed into it. 8-1 and that was that for the first-half. Amazing...

Half-time: Be The Change 1-8 BREIGHTMET UNITED

What could the coaches say to that? We had been dominant in every area of the pitch and we'd made these look like the bottom of the league side rather than a team that had aspirations of being Champions come May. We had to keep going though as this was the chance to make an even bigger statement than we had already - so it was about concentration now and going back out there believing it was 0-0 and doing it all again. A couple of changes were made but we wanted to get back out there and get this back on again quick-sharp - as the weather was still being really horrible to us...

As with most teams all over the world though, when you are 8-1 up at the break, it's difficult to motivate yourselves to go again with the same rigour and determination as when the first whistle went. Sure - we were still very much on top and all of the good chances were falling our way - but we didn't seem to have the same urgency to punish them now. Our football was good - crisp passes and good movement on an awful playing surface now - but we were lacking that cutting edge at the right moment now...

That said, we did grab our ninth goal of the game when once again, Taylor played a defence-splitting pass that saw Ethan between their centre-halves - and that's never a good sign for defenders. Mr Fletcher did the rest - holding off the meek challenge that came in - before ramming his shot hard and fast into the back of their net. That was his hat-trick - from the bench - and at 9-1 we were all celebrated out with the lads simply patting him on the back and getting themselves back into our half to face their tenth re-start of the game...

And they had to do it one more time before the game ended as well! This time it was our big No.9 that was the provider as he won the ball well and as he held off their centre-half, he played a glorious pass inside their full-back that saw Tommy onto it like a whippet and as he rounded their keeper and tucked it home, that saw the score now standing at 10-1 and the hosts had seen enough. With approximately 75 minutes on the clock, they decided to walk off the pitch and starting taking the nets and goalposts down! We'd never seen anything like it - and neither had the referee in truth - but with the result obviously out of doubt, that was that for the game and for 2024 - and we'd come here and achieved what we'd set out to achieve. Good job very well done...

Macca was awarded the Man of the Match today and all the lads can go home knowing they played their part in one of the best and biggest results we've had as a squad. Not only do we remain unbeaten going into the second-half of the campaign - but we really showed a team that had hopes how serious we are. We dominating them all over the field today and whether they wanted to be there or not, we had a mission - and we accomplished it!

A massive hats-off to those of you that braved that weather out there this morning and we are so thankful for your continued support wherever we go. We're sure you'll agree that we did good out there - especially in those conditions - so now it's about resting up and preparing for the visit of Fox & Pine Villa on 5th January. Have a great Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2025 and hopefully we'll still be saying we're unbeaten come the end of the season!

21 points out of an available 21. That will do nicely thank you...

#OnceUnitedNeverDivided