Nnamdi, Schmidt (Buckley), Binns, Street, Shaw (Leci), McLaren, Childs, Townsend, Pinz, Poutakidis, Sejdic.

The less said about this game, the better. 600 words should suffice.

Hotspurs were pretty woeful throughout, only occasionally showing glimpses of the excellent football that characterised last weekend’s win against Ubin. Most of the time we were scarcely capable of stringing three passes together in a performance that lacked passion, commitment and intensity.

It was as though most of us pitched up, expecting the win and only prepared to go through the motions, and that’s almost exactly what happened.

Unfortunately, this shows a lack of respect to the opposition who gave their all on the day, and were always in the game.

It could all have been a lot worse.

In the first half, Gaulois missed an open goal, and 45 second later Hotspurs scored – Sam converting after good work from Jamie.

Hotspurs made it 2-0 before the break – Florian getting in at the far post after Esad had retained possession in the penalty box (for about 15 minutes) before deciding to unleash a shot…that was going wide.

It was hotly disputed – by a couple of loquacious Gaulois players and their ‘manager’ - but then so was every decision that went against them over the course of 90 minutes.

Let’s be charitable and suggest that a level of paranoia is perhaps understandable for a side that had picked up 2 points out of a possible 81 heading in to this game.

The Gaulois centre-back was all over Esad (in every sense) throughout the game, and it was only a matter of time (despite a deal of leniency from the referee early on) before he was penalised for the blatant nature of his physical approach. Sam converted a penalty from just such an incident in the second half, although the award was hotly disputed by Gaulois players (and their ‘manager’), and obviously there was something wrong with the colour of the penalty spot as well. And the grass…

Poor defending then let Gaulois back in to the game, as Hotspurs dropped the intensity to almost negative levels. Two quick goals for the French and Hotspurs were looking at dropping points in a game that should have been put to bed inside the first half hour.

Fortunately a modicum of sanity was restored after Brian fired (floated…) in a free-kick (yet another foul on Esad – yet more warm disputation from Gaulois players who must have been very relieved that the referee wasn’t conversant in French) and it ended 4-2.

Unfortunately, the scenes at the end will be to the eternal discredit of Olympique Gaulois and their ‘manager’, as players rounded on the referee, hurled abuse that needed no translation, and gave full vent to their unjustified and disproportionate fury.

It was a sad way to end what must have been a sad season for OG, although I would imagine that like Portsmouth in the Barclays Premier League, their performances have warranted better results than were produced.

There are, however, no excuses for deplorable behaviour and an exhibition of recalcitrance that is completely antithetical to the spirit of the Cosmoleague.

To be fair to certain members of the OG squad, not everyone behaved like 7 year-olds, and we extend our collective sympathy to those who were embarrassed by, and apologetic over, their colleagues' antics.

The only measure of comfort that Hotspurs took from the match was the 3 points safely in the bag from a game that for the most part is best forgotten.