Mill Hill 3-4 Wallingford Mill Hill have calculated that they need fewer than 43 points to escape promotion and they took another valuable step away from that target on Saturday with their second defeat of the season.

The game had a number of similarities with the earlier loss to Marlow, not least that the opposition scored more goals than Mill Hill. Both opponents also managed to arrange for more than 11 players to turn up before the match began, a tactic of such devious cunning that it caught Captain Pete off guard.

Compared with the synchronised parade-ground warm-up of Wallingford, Mill Hill's rag-tag bunch resembled the people's army of northern Djibouti training alongside the SAS. The apparent inequality of the two sides continued after push-back with the visitors earning a string of short corners.

But the Millers gradually got their game together, beginning to show confidence in their passing moves and earning a short corner for Ryan Schlanders to flick into the net.

The lead didn't last as Wallingford applied the pressure, splitting the centre-back combination of Dave Evans and Duncan Hooper for a simple equaliser. A second followed soon after, following a couple of contested decisions. In fact the umpires' rulings were so gravely erroneous that they will result in millions in compensation as the biggest miscarriage of justice since OJ Simpson was acquitted when Mill Hill's appeal reaches the High Court.

Still, the home side's grounds for complaint were diminished by the fact that many of those wearing blue jersey's performed far worse than those in the pink. Wallingford capitalised on errors in the defence and midfield to tally up four and despite another mandatory (and to be honest they're getting rather boring) Schlanders flick and a clever finish from a short corner rebound by captain Pete the result was never in doubt.

Mill Hill's threat from open play was limited to a harshly disallowed hook into the goal from Dan Stockhill, who later departed from the pitch after a characteristic expression of pique.

The umpires should know by now that Dan, harrying and buzzing around in midfield, is more a little midge than a hornet. Though he likes to bite often, he's relatively harmless and easily swatted out of the way when he gets irritating. In truth the absence of Mill Hill's two genuine midfield hard-men Craig "Vinny Jones is a fat poof" McIntyre and Nick "I eat nails for breakfast" Warr left the home side without the aggressive edge needed to compete.

In the end, the result was deserved and allows at least a few games' breathing space before Mill Hill need to lose again.