Match reports - January 31, 2009

The 1st XI continued their promotion bid with a 7-0 drubbing of Walton & Weybridge Hawks, while the 2nd XI battled to a 0-0 draw with UCL Academicals and the 4th XI drew with Barnes Beavers 2-2. The Ladies remained bottom of the league after another 0-1 loss, this time at Old Kingstonians, the 3rd XI crashed to a 1-8 rout at Leatherhead while the Veterans were well beaten 0-4 by Southgate

Walton & Weybridge 0-7 1st XI
One thing may cost us this season, lack of personal discipline. I do not only mean the bad tackles leading to a short corner and an equalising goal a few minutes from the end but the whole concept of our approach to the task in hand. This starts on a Wednesday night and turning up to training, to being sensible on a Friday night, respecting those in the team who are sensible and on match days to ensure we all meet on time as requested by the skipper. As soon as these things go wrong or are lacking the 70 minute game goes wrong.

Not only does it affect the rest of the team who are then affected by an unnecessary distraction but it winds up those who put in so much effort to pull together the team. There is then discord on the bench, wrong substitutions are made and the structure falls down with disharmony the product.

Fortunately this weekend's game was against a poor Walton and Weybridge side who put up little resistance with us scoring three in the first 15 minutes and four in the last 20. In between there was a sterile 35-minute patch with us taking the wrong decisions in crucial areas. The defence held firm as a unit with the back five including Trickster and the bulk of the midfield barely allowing the host side a sight on goal. The two Woods were especially effective and Cookiey could not be faulted for the amount of leg work he put in.

Gavin scored our first hat-trick of the season finishing his goals extremely well, Ed B scored two corners, Eds swept home a loose ball in the D and Chris Brewer notched his first for many years when picking up the pieces from our final corner. Up front we have to perhaps be a bit more selfish on occasions in the sense of having an early shot on occasions rather than teeing up a tap in.

This season will go down to the wire and ultimately the most disciplined side who gives no margin of error will win the league. There is no room for sloppy preparation "just because it is a side at the bottom" as we have to approach every game as if it is a cup final. Each team in our league has something to play for with the next season's change in the league structure and we will be kidding ourselves if we think we can just identify three or four games as key games that we have to win. Remember London University two seasons ago ... David Knapp

2nd XI 0-0 UCL Academicals
Given that we have have by far the best defence in the league but only two teams have scored fewer goals than us, you do not expect goalfests when we play. Allied to a defence that a couple of years ago would have been gracing the 1st XI - Robson, Heard, Stephens, Duff and Khurshid - then getting Stephens to buy a drink would be an easy steal. As it was, a draw was just about a fair result. We created only one half-chance and what some might claim was a shot in the entire game, while UCL managed a few shots but surprisingly decided on four three-on-ones that dribbling through Duff was the easy option. He made sweetly timed tackles on each occasion. UCL did have the ball in the goal only for the short-corner strike to be harshly disallowed. The decision did not justify the "f***ing cheat" comment aimed at the umpire by one of the UCL players and the refusal of most to shake hands. UCL, who share our ground, are a club we feel close to and who we spent the evening eating curry with.

Leatherhead 8-1 3rd XI
Not much to say. The consensus of the survivors drinking in the bar and downing some utterly vile Austrian Butterscotch paintstripper provided by Jock was that we deserved to lose but not by four goals. Preston netted our one goal although we gave up in the second half, Jock insisting that one of the Leatherhead goals was via a foot. That only left seven to account for ...

4th XI 2-2 Barnes Beavers
A great game all round with some well worked passing and strong team work - 2-2 probably being a fair result in the end. The highlights were Bertie Bance's two wonder dribble goals ... two slower-paced shots have never before crossed the line in one match - nice one Bertie.

Old Kingstonians 1-0 Ladies XI
We played Old Kingstonian’s this week and with OK’s also being towards the bottom end of the league we had hoped to take some points off them.

With a slightly depleted squad, as many people were away for the weekend, we started strong even though a number were playing out of position and Rossy P was still trying to navigate her way through traffic mayhem! However we were caught on the break in the first couple of minutes and a goal mouth scrabble led to OK’s taking an early lead – bugger, bugger and bugger! Sorry for the swearing but we didn’t deserve it!

With this we didn’t get downhearted but took the game to them. Our attacking play and determination to make the fifty-fifties meant we were controlling the game and getting opportunities on goal. Whilst this sometimes left us open to OK’s catching us on the break again, as most of us were up in their half, the defence of Tux, Lucy, Ros, Mez and Jax were able to cope and if not then Steph cleared any loose balls hard out to the sidelines. As we came into half time an OK’s forward decided tackling with a shoulder barge was the way forward (we were beginning to get under their skin) and promptly got a green card from their umps … only to be followed 2 minutes later by a yellow as Goalie (“I have never given a yellow before”) simply had no choice! Okay so now we had the advantage … but then someone blew the damn half time whistle, not helpful!

The player advantage didn’t last for long in the second half as she was back on in four minutes – I ask you! That said we continued our attacking play with good drives up the midfield by Viks, May, Anna and Niks which meant we had opportunities on goal but just couldn’t find the final touch. Snoops, Ems and Lucy continued to hassle the OKs forward line but as the ball glided across the goal mouth attempts to drive it home were dashed as the OKs keeper put in a last ditch save. Injuries meant that for a while Snoops had to play in defence but ‘Psycho’ and the rest of the defence were able to clear the shots on goal with Steph covering behind.

As the last two minutes came we kept pushing but it just wasn’t happening and the score line remained 1-0 to the end. A good game and certainly our determination to get ourselves out of the relegation battle is coming through – we just need to get some goals!!! Well played guys. Next game 10am @ home this Saturday – club support would be good if anyone has a spare morning! And lastly thanks to Goalster who has helped us out a lot this season – cheers. Helen Hawes

Veterans 0-5 Southgate
Report to follow.