GU14 Eagles 0 - 2 Beeston (H)

At this stage in the Supra League, every game is a cup final and the victor of Eagles versus Beeston would almost certainly take the spoils with a place in the coveted national finals.

Fittingly, the fixture had headline billing and a primetime slot, the crowds filling Sugden Road - the Surrey San Siro - enthralled with the possibility of the mighty Eagles making history. Beeston, knowing victory would secure their own progress, had brought their own large contingent of travelling fans down the M1/M25/M3/A308 and so creating a carnival atmosphere in the amphitheatre of dreams.

Alex had treated the fixture like the cup final it almost was, leading the players down the tunnel in a designer three piece suit, and belting out the National Anthem accompanied by the Eagles' marching band. Okay, his self-penned cup final song hadn't landed with the players in the way he'd hoped, but there was no way that his thunderously Churchillian pre-match speech would not have them fighting hard from the whistle.

"We are in the preliminary stages of one of the greatest battles in history," Alex roared, fists clenched white as the players crowded round, "and I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat". "We shall fight them on the beaches", he cried, perhaps forgetting that the playing field was now a water-based Astro, before finishing with a rousing "This shall be our finest hour!"

The Eagles certainly responded, giving their all from the word go, defending hard and launching some menacing counterattacks. Alex, like a general surveying the battlefield, pulled out the tactics from his warcraft manual, changing formation to counter the Beeston high press and doing all he could to blunt a powerful opponent.

The match wore on like a war of attrition, with both sides taking casualties, however it was the visitors who took the lead in the final quarter. Each second thereafter ticked down agonisingly, and the tension was almost too much to bear for Alex, his fingers gnawed to the bone as he frantically attempted to propel the Eagles to an equaliser.

With his players pushed forward, the final whistle coincided with a second Beeston goal, effectively ending the Eagles' Supra League dreams, and, completely spent, an exhausted Alex collapsed onto the hallowed Sugden Road turf.

Coming round thirty minutes later, the scenes facing Alex were not those of Armageddon, but rather celebration, fireworks and ticker-tape as the Eagles' soaked up the applause. It had, of course, been a fantastic season full of high performance, drama and success exceeding all expectations and nothing would defeat that.