Usen Udoh and Danny Peters scored the crucial goals at 'The Crewe Do'.

The 1998-9 PSINet League season ambled into life for the Cybury Gooners with a disappointing 6-2 defeat at the hands of defending league champions QPR in November. The game started brightly with the Gooners going 2-0 up, but it couldn't last. Five players made their debuts that day: we didn't know it at the time, but those debutants would play a big part as the season unfolded.

The Irish duo of Des Kelly and Kev McCarthy became the mainstay of the midfield, with Greg Dyer playing an important role in a variety of positions. The next game in December against Luton - a morale-sapping 2-2 draw - saw the Gooners say farewell to Usen Udoh, the Nigerian striker who had scored 7 goals in the last 4 games. However, he was to return later that season, with more telling goals...

The Gooners waited until February for their next game, and a remarkable run of form ensued - eight wins from eight games. A tough battle on the legendary Hackney Marshes saw the Gooners triumph against West Ham 1-0, followed by an 8-0 hammering of Leicester in Regents Park: debutant Pete Gentle scored twice, as did Paul Lowry who thus became Cybury's all time top scorer, overtaking Darren Skeels. Another important player in the months to come also made his debut, Martyn Sims, effective on the wing or in defence.

Cybury games then developed a nasty case of Bus Syndrome: nothing for two months, then six games in thirty days. Des Kelly and Paul Lowry were in fine goalscoring form as Spurs (twice), Bournemouth, West Ham and Charlton capitulated. A morale boosting win against QPR was also (finally!) notched up. The most pleasing aspect of the run was that only 3 goals were conceded in the eight games. In June, a trip to Birmingham yielded a hard fought 4-4 draw against Aston Villa, with the Gooners coming back from 4-0 down in a remarkable fightback.

Then on 26 June came the Cybury Gooners' finest hour in their 4 years of existence, as we won the 'Crewe Do', organised by Crewe Alexandra but held for some reason at our home ground, Market Road. Celtic, Reading, Spurs, Crewe and Charlton were defeated without conceding a goal in the build up to the final. From 2-0 down, Cybury banged in three goals in three minutes, and held out to win their first piece of (proper) silverware. Another amazing fightback - you have been warned.

With a final league game planned against Reading, preparations for Worldnet 99 are almost complete. The Gooner squad will amass and go to Leicester with a taste of victory already in place. Now for the big one!