Having experienced football urban street-stylee at Croydon last Sunday, it was back to the more calming surroundings of Crawley Leisure Centre for tonight's eighth week of New Year Fives 2004. Tonight's opposition may not have had the baseball caps, designer earrings or be at the stage of life to be biggin up the West side massive, they would however represent a far greater footballing test. Jiggle have shown signs of improvement of late, not least in the second-half comeback which gained a point against Brazil Almighty last Friday and then at the Joiner's Cup on Sunday. It was youth versus experience. It was Jiggle's 6th meeting with Caledonian and youth hadn't emerged victorious yet. Would that change tonight?

Caledonian Old Boys 1 FC Jiggle 0

Jiggle's winless run against the old masters of Crawley 5-a-side continued as they were defeated by a goal four minutes from time. As ever it was a tight game. Caledonian enjoyed most of the possession but Jiggle remained resolute. Jiggle had two or three very good positions but failed to make it count. Caledonian as you would expect were not similarly wasteful.

With Stuart MacPherson and Nick Rapley enjoying a taste of Spanish hospitality, Jiggle were operating on a small squad tonight. The best news of the week has been the return of Andy Li Chong and he lined up for his first league game of the season. Aside from Andy the first five had a familiar look with Phil Laker, David Leake and Sam Cohen all ever-presents this campaign, joined by Dave Carling, himself making his seventh start in a row.

After a cagey opening the match sprung into action in the third minute with the Jiggle keeper called upon for the first time, diving away to his left to pluck a well-placed shot from the bottom corner.

The match was taking the pattern of previous encounters as Jiggle defended well and by and large made it hard for the opposition to get a sight of goal, notably after the first half last week defending was done in the right areas, in the middle third, not too deep. Andy Li Chong was working to particularly good effect breaking up the play in the middle of the park and was at the heart of much of what Jiggle did create in attack.

Jiggle had reason to be encouraged as a few Cally passes went uncharacteristically astray and other than one block most of Phil's duties were of the routine kind. In fact Jiggle had a fine chance of their own as Dave Carling latched onto a long ball and flicked it over a defender's head only to make only half contact with the finish which the keeper gathered comfortably.

It had been a tight half but Jiggle would need to improve after the break to claim a result as it was a certainty the opposition would raise their game.

As expected Caledonian moved up a gear and seemed prepared to take a chance or two to get the win. In a frenetic first two minutes of the half Phil had to be sharp in producing a couple of good stops and Dave Carling made another of the last ditch tackles that are fast becoming his trademark.

But as sure as Caledonian were looking more dangerous, there were opportunities to be exploited at the back. Such occasions have to be maximised in games like this, against leading sides where counter-attacking is the order of the day but tonight Jiggle couldn't take advantage. First chance saw a neat exchange between Sam Cohen and Andy Li Chong which led to the latter firing over the bar. The best opening however came in the fifteenth minute as when a Caledonian attack faltered, Sam and Dave Carling were released two on one, but Sam couldn't find the final ball to provide Dave, in time and space with a great chance of scoring the opening goal.

As if to emphasise that these openings cannot be passed up Caledonian then struck the killer blow. Andy's attempted long-ball was intercepted near half-way, the ball played to the attacker on the left. He created a yard away from Dave Leake's challenge and struck the shot which Phil despite getting a good hand on couldn't keep out.

With two strong defences on show the first goal was always likely to be decisive. Caledonian looked for a killer second but were unable to find the desired opening. Jiggle hoped for a breakaway strike but it didn't look like occuring. So, it was out of the blue when with almost the final kick, Andy found a good yard of space in sight of goal and drove in a shot which the keeper managed to poke behind with the top of his boot. Very close, but Andy has since confirmed it was probably hitting the post.

The end of the game and probably the end of realistic hopes of making the top four, but that has been said already this season so nothing can be counted out in such a tight division. This was a sound Jiggle performance and this result could have been 0-0 or 1-0 the other way. Caledonian however are the market leaders in taking the chance when it comes their way and when the few opportunities to strike arise they must be seized upon. All in all a very similar game to the recent Autumn match with unfortunately the same result.

Next up for the Jigglers are Maidenbower Rejects next Friday at 9pm, a side Jiggle haven't faced since a friendly at Broadbridge Heath which ended in a 14-14 draw, back in 2001. What price a repeat next week?

Team: Phil Laker, David Leake, Andy Li Chong, Dave Carling, Sam Cohen.