With the sun beaming high in the sky today, I was reminded of some words of wisdom that former Reading manager, Rubén Sellés, imparted when my co-coach, Harry, and I attended the FA's Coaches' Conference last summer. "The best thing a manager can do is to let players shine."

Funnily enough, Harry and I have recently been through a period of self-reflection with the team. Although we were getting results and still remain unbeaten in our division, the buzz we'd had at the start of the season wasn't there anymore. Wanting to be kind, whenever a player was available to play, we took them to the game because we wanted to give as many players football as we could. As well intentioned as this was, in an effort to manage the army of subs, the matches became a bit too choppy, a bit too blinkered in who should play where and when, and nobody was (quite rightly) satisfied with their time on their pitch. To refer back to Sellés, chances to shine were limited and the buzz we had at the start of the season had dulled.

If ever there was a reminder of how good the team could be, it was today. It had been a bit of an epic getting there, and it was touch-and-go for a few days whether we could even get 11 players together and, indeed, lifts for them on the elongated journey through the many road works and road closures. Fortunately, we managed to sign Max as we became short of a centre-back late in the day. And, with no subs, everybody would get their chance to shine.

And shine brightly they truly did.

You can obviously see from the headline that the game ended 6-0 in favour of the Pumas. Despite the fantastic result, the game was only at 1-0 at half time and although the Pumas were the more obviously dominant side, getting close enough to the Claygate goal to be a threat was proving to be a challenge. To add to that challenge, Mark, playing left-back, was injured only 10 minutes in, so we were down to 10 players for the rest of the half. Having coached the team to find its own solutions to its problems, they recombobulated and opted to shuffle Will FN into the back four and out of midfield.

Despite being down a player, we only had a couple of moments that half that gave me the heebie-jeebies. We had a free kick to defend, which went momentarily unchallenged before being cleared away, and a second moment towards the end of the first half when a forward broke through for a one-on-one against Stef. Stef went to ground, and palmed the ball from the feet of the forward, not once, not twice but three times, writhing around on the floor as he threw his arms around to swipe. He reminded me of one of those magic fishes that you get out of Christmas crackers, that flip and flop on the palm of your hand. On the fourth go, he flopped onto the ball.

Our goal started with Max, who floated the ball from the back of the pack forwards. It found Adam on the left wing, who took a touch to bring it down. He passed it to centre-forward Owen, who drove forward momentarily and shot it forward, left foot I believe, to find the inside of the right post! An excellent strike and an excellent goal. We had two other standout opportunities that half, both from centre-midfielder Patrik. The first, straight out of our training, was to launch the ball from the edge of the 18 yard box. It was tantalisingly above the bar. His second shot, of a similar format, was saved by the keeper.

At the half time break, Patrik had wise words that the game could easily go either way – it could and Stef had only a minute earlier miraculously kept us in the lead. The team had to remain focused and not switch off for a second. Indeed, with Mark able to come back on, the team decided to keep Will FN at left back. For a centre-forward, you would never have known that this wasn't his regular position but why change what's clearly working? Installing him there was also necessary, since Claygate were playing two very wide forwards, both with some skill and speed on them, and I guess with the idea that their midfield would break through our middle two. For a defender, you wouldn't have known Mark doesn't often play on the wing! He made some good contributions, including almost helping Owen score an early second, as he thundered down the line with the ball to put a cross in.

In dealing with just two forwards, rather than the usual three of recent games, right-back Ethan was freed up to make some quality moves up the pitch. He took a powerful shot from the edge of the box but it went left of the goal. He also advanced up the pitch, overlapping with Owen (now right-wing) but his shot found the side of the net. Similarly, Will FN made a run up the left hand side of the pitch and, cooly displaying his skills usually deployed as a forward, beat a player before taking a shot from afar with ferocious power. The keeper pulled off a great save but couldn't hold it. Fortunately, Owen had also raced up the pitch, ready for the rebound but the keeper scrambled and scooped it up just before he arrived.

Goal number two finally came courtesy of a cross in to the box from Ethan at the edge for the final third. It looked speculative at first but I'm sure he saw midfielder Isaac sprinting through Claygate's players, emerging goalside from seemingly nowhere. He connected well where it landed and ninja-ed the ball into the net with a deft tap in, totally befuddling the Claygate defence. An excellent goal!

Two goals up was a good place to be but a third should make a win a certainty. The Pumas were clearly feeling confident and our style of play became like some kind of high-stakes mega Rondo i.e. lots and lots of one and two touch passing, drawing opposition players in before moving the ball on again and so on. Again, I got the heebie-jeebies when this was happening on our defensive line, but the ball would eventually break free and either get switched to the other side of the pitch or back to Stef, courtesy of Captain Jack and Max, or start its journey towards the opposition's goal.

It was incredibly effective too, because goal number three came via of this kind of movement, especially with Ryan (DM), working the ball forwards in a series of one-twos with Ethan. Ryan took it round a final player, squared up and accurately booted the ball into the right hand side of the goal. Quality. 3-0!

Adam, now centre-forward, scored our fourth and possibly the best, sweetest goal I've ever seen him score – chasing the ball whilst it's sailing above over him. It bounced once, and with the keeper running out to grab it, gave it a nice gentle tip, catching the poor keeper out completely as it arced over his head and into the net.

Five minutes later, Owen pulled off the same trick, taking his tally to two as he lobbed the hapless goalie. Finally, our last goal came courtesy of Patrik, deploying our training once again, finding space and floating the ball into the back of the net. Special mention has to be given to Will FN for creating this chance. He desperately wanted to get on the score sheet and charged up the pitch with the ball at his feet, possessed in a frenzy of skills, beating several players before eventually being dispossessed. But he wasn't done and he charged his assailant down, passing the recovered ball to Patrik, now shouting his head off for the pass as he was perfectly placed for the aforementioned goal.

That was quite a game and the buzz is definitely back. Now we need to keep it! The team shone through with their confidence, borne of encouragement and excellent communication and coordination. Newcomer Max had instance chemistry with Captain Jack in defence and both played some incredibly mature football at the back. This was the Pumas at their absolute best today and we're back at the top of the table, still unbeaten, and still with two games in hand against former table toppers Windlesham. COYP!