After a night of heavy rain and a morning of snow flurries, it was no great surprise when Prime's Cadogan pitch was declared unplayable. With the backlog of fixtures getting ridiculous, the game was switched to Yalding's Vicarage Road - the scene of Prime's last match which ended in a disappointing 3-0 reverse.

Prime were missing Ellis, Walker and Westcott but they welcomed back Barker, Williams and Sykes to their starting lineup. With Sander moved to right-wing, Buckland filled the void at left-back with Sykes playing in an advanced position just behind Barker. Goldsmith, Davis, Flamank and Ferguson made up the bench.

The game started in light sleet and Yalding soon asserted themselves on the game and pushed Prime back into their own half and nearly took the lead in the first minute, but their striker pulled his shot wide after Buckland failed to clear Williams' mis-timed header clear.

Prime did gift Yalding the lead soon after. A long through-ball down the inside-right channel looked like rolling through to Balcombe who called for the ball which then held up in the mud and with a winger closing in, Buckland tried to pass the ball back to the keeper but only succeeded in rolling the ball into the path of the onrushing striker and he smashed the ball into the unguarded net.

Prime got back into the game after the referee awarded them a free-kick midway inside the Yalding half and Abu's curling delivery was flicked over the keeper and into the net by Sykes who claimed his first competitive goal for the club.

For 5 minutes or so, Prime looked dangerous with Sykes and Barker linking up well and Sander looking lively down the right - until the winger slipped comically when chasing a return pass - almost as if a sniper had taken him down!

The smile was wiped off of the Prime bench soon after when Yalding re-took the lead when the visitors half-cleared a free-kick to the edge of the box where an unmarked midfielder was given time to take 3 or 4 touches and then pick his spot before anyone even tried to close him down!

The next 25 minutes was without any doubt the worst period that Prime have produced since their first season back in 2006. Both centre-backs could arguably be credited with own goals as both tried to clear cross-shots, keeper Balcombe should really have done better with one shot from the edge of the box which he pushed into the corner of the net, Williams' rash challenge conceded a penalty that was converted off the inside of the post, Cary was badly at fault for another goal when a simple long ball over his head left the Yalding striker clean through to score and Buckland's nightmare first half was compounded when his failed clearance sent the Yalding striker on his way to their 7th goal before half-time.

The referee's performance was again questionable with several mysterious decisions going the way of the opponents and Prime players - especially Barker and Sykes were getting increadingly frustrated by this. But the fact remains that the ref was not the reason that Prime had shipped 7 goals in 40-odd minutes.

It was a muted half-time team talk where the manager told the players a few home truths and called their first half performance an embarrassment. The only thing that they had to play for in the second half was pride and Goldsmith demanded his players went out and competed and tried to win the second half.

The only change made at the break was Davis on for the hapless Buckland, but in truth over half of the XI were very lucky not to be taken off too.

The second half started in familiar fashion with a Yalding shot well saved by Balcombe, but the rebound was shanked into the net to make it 8-1 and Prime were staring at conceding double-figures.

With Nowak getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of any fouls being given his way despite some rugged challenges on him, Goldsmith decided to replace him with Flamank and soon after Ferguson came on for Sander who was rightly cautioned in the first half for a late challenge on the Yalding midfielder who had to go off injured.

Davis' presence seemed to steady the ship defensively and the other full-back Mazurkiewicz put in a much more assured 45 minutes. The centre-backs however continued to look shaky and somehow there seemed to be a massive gap between the two of them which the Yalding strikers roamed through with ease. Luckily for Prime, Balcombe made a couple of good stops and the woodwork came to their rescue on a couple of occasions.

Prime started to threaten a consolation goal in the last 15 minutes with Abu and Henshall seeing more of the ball. But with Barker well marshaled by the 2 centre-backs, Sykes' left-foot was by far Prime's biggest threat and he tested the keeper with a couple of long-range drives.

At the final whistle Prime were put out of their misery and the players headed home with plenty to think about.

The manager's mood was not helped by being called over by the ref at the final whistle to hear that apparently his players had been moaning at his decisions too much during the game. When Goldsmith queried this and said that in fact in his view his team had been very well restrained considering some of the decisions made, the ref decided to threaten sending in another report about APFC to the league. It seems obvious that this particular referee has a grievance against myself and my club and I will be asking the league to avoid appointing him as a ref for any of our future games. We have never had a problem with any other referee in our history and in fact we normally enjoy friendly banter with most of our refs who on the whole do a difficult job very well and help to make Saturday afternoons an enjoyable and fair experience for all concerned...this is yet to be the case with this particular referee.