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Jimmy Campbell celebrates Matt Jaffrey's winner

Matt Jaffrey is the toast of Tigertown after he scored off an injury time corner to seal a 3-2 win for the Tigers over Gazy Lansvale. The match began poorly for Balmain with a Lansvale striker latching onto the end of a route one long ball and smashing it past keeper Matt Mulhall after only 10 minutes. The rest of the first half degenerated into a bout of aerial ping pong, from which Nick Flower was able to bundle home an equaliser, again after chasing down a massive hoof straight up the middle.

Coach Campbell's half time talk seemed to do the trick as Balmain came out and dominated the second half, showing the quality they are capable of. Julian Bracewell produced a baby-salmon-like leap to head home a corner for the Tigers to take the lead midway through the second half. With only a couple of minutes remaining and Lansvale hardly threatening the game looked all wrapped up. No-one told Lansvale though and they rammed home a rare corner that wasn't cleared properly to make it 2-2. A desperate last 3 minutes saw the Tigers gain a corner and there was Jaffrey lurking at the back post to seal the three points. Some rugged defending on the right side of defence earned Gavin Buddis the man of the match award.

Words can't really do justice to the demolition the Balmain reserves handed out to Lansvale in a club record 18-2 victory. That's eighteen in case you thought I mis-typed or something. Five goals each to Honza Mutu and Paul Ritchie, hat-tricks to Dylan Zammit and Jem Richardson, and a double from Grant Burgess took care of the scoring. Mutu took the man of the match and Paul Ritchie became the first player in the history of the game to score 5 in one match and not win an award.