A most agreeable warm-up

1st XI 2 Mid Sussex 2 A very useful and enjoyable warm up match against a friendly and competitive Mid Sussex side. No question that we would like to make this an annual fixture and perhaps on a home and away basis in September and January in each year. We sincerely hope that the MS young defender who received a very nasty injury to his finger makes a quick recovery.

We welcomed Paul Arcott into the team for the first time with Rob Merry also stepping in due to the vagaries of availability and could have won by a few but for some profligate finishing and James Myers in the MS game who was outstanding and showed to us all that he has not lost his edge over the period since he played a handful of games for us. Indeed, Robbo had little to do but in the end made one excellent save to prevent us from losing 3 – 2. Knapp and Rippers scored our goal, the former a tap in following a deft pass from Rippers and the latter a superlative solo goal – the best we are likely to see all year. Paul will be an asset for us in a wide midfield role the having played for Epsom in recent years with his reading the game very well and making the right passes and runs even if they are not always recognised by those around him.

The game highlighted what it needed to highlight with our attacking in too narrow a fashion in the first period and not making passes early enough when coming out of the back. We spread the ball wide via Rippers but failed to use Cato in a similar fashion that would have caused the oppo serious problems. Had we won by a few our problems would have been masked and so the match achieved what it was meant to other than the loss of Gavin Adair to a twisted ankle.

Thank you to for the umpires who at the cost of 2 Mars bars umpired the game straight after they had umpired UCL v Guildford and umpired extremely well. League action this coming weekend against Walton and Weybridge and so we must look to put into practice the lessons learnt in the game against Mid Sussex.