Winning messy

The 1st XI returned to winning ways after two draws with a 3-2 win at Old Midwhitgiftians in a game David Knapp admitted was “our worst performance of the season”. The 2nd XI turned the form book on its head with a battling 2-2 draw against league leaders Old Whitgiftians, our first points of the season. The 3rd XI overcame the almost forgotten fun of playing on grass to beat bottom side Spencer 1-0, the side’s first back-to-back wins in more than two years. The 4th XI beat Leatherhead 3-0 with all the goals coming in the first 20 minutes. The Vets beat Cheam 2-0.A diving Chris Porter nets our first goal in the 2nd XI's 2-2 draw with league leaders Old Whitgiftians
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Old Midwhitgiftians 2-3 1st XI
Our worst performance of the season but three valuable points against OMW's who have always made life difficult for us.

A few shuffles of the pack gave us our starting line up and as with the last few weeks we played well for 20 minutes, poorly for the next 20 and then regained our momentum for the last 15. Two goals to the good early on courtesy of two sharp finishes from man of the match Gavin should have been the platfrom for a convincing win and but for one smart save Trickster had nothing to do in the first half where we had been pegged back to 2-1 following a crisp strike from the OMW's only short of the half and indeed the match.

In essence we lost our pattern and played the ball long instead of keeping it short and sharp as we had done when on top. The home side also pressed more having gained considerable confidence from their strike. We missed chances to wrap up the game and paid the penalty when a stroke was conceded and the scores were level, Trickster unlucky to see the ball dribble home after guessing right.

Fortunately Dan P was on hand to nudge the ball home with 15 to go and although hanging on at times again, had bags of chances to kill of the game but making bad choices and suffering as a result of some bad basics. A couple of professional tackles went unpunished by the umpires in our ranks although Rippers took a yellow for the team late on and we came away with three valuable points to put us right back in the mix.

Excellent game from Gavin and another good performance from both CV and Dan which will make selction interesting with CB, Cato, James W ood and Jonny H back next week. David Knapp

2nd XI 2-2 Old Whitgiftians
This week's match photos
Yet again we found ourselves playing the league leaders – that’s 3 times out of our first 4 games (and before they picked up points against us!!). We welcomed back our old friends Old Whitgiftians. They moved up the 2 leagues with us and last year saw 2 epic games against them – coming back to gain a draw after being 3-0 down after 15 mins at home and then beating them by a couple of goals at their place later in the season.

We had the advantage this week of a reasonably settled side (by our standards anyway) – not that you would have known it in the first 10 minutes when we invited them to repeatedly pour down our right hand side. The pressure eventually led to a well struck short corner which the skipper missed on the post. 1-0 down after 10 minutes was not the start we had hoped for. This did seem to galvanise us though and we started to string some passages of good hockey together. JP Davidson replaced Rob Merry to play in his favoured position of right back and did a fine job throughout. We played some good hockey but once again gave the ball away too much in their half and rarely entered the d – which continues to put us under unnecessary pressure. It has to be said that they were putting in some fairly average tackling which they were lucky to get away with (more of that later). A quick transfer round the back (probably for the first time in the game) provided some space down the left. Several quick, precise passes cut them apart and Porter did the rest.

Half time at 1-1 and things were looking good. Unfortunately we got the second half of to a disastrous start – Jon Heard, who up until that point had had a fairly faultless game, had a wobble to many in the middle and their striker duly accepted a very kind gift – the result a three-on-one and ultimately a goal. At this point our heads could have dropped but encouragingly we picked up the pace a bit and started to attack more. Austin Vowles, a late replacement for Bruce who had been pinched by the 1st XI, working hard to create something. A rare trip to the d led to a short corner and Rob Merry, who had come on up front, was on hand to blast the rebound in from the penalty spot – 2-2.

What followed was a real battle, reminiscent of our tussles with Old Whits last year. A bad tackle or nine too many from them led to the first yellow for them. We failed to really take advantage of this and almost inevitably started to put in some bad challenges ourselves – leading to a yellow for Chris Porter. The backs worked hard – Chris O’Neil-Dunne making an excellent save on the line form a short corner and Ross Kingsnorth making several other fine saves. When we did pick up the pace and really attack them we looked dangerous. A long run up the left and through the middle from Rob Merry drew a foul just in front of the D – nothing much but then it had been one of four committed in the same passage of play. The result was a short corner and another card to their player – perhaps a little harsh but consistent.

Even with a man down they continued to press. We still looked dangerous on the break but lacked the penetration to get into their d much. A clash of sticks in an otherwise good tackle by James Bents meant he saw yellow with about five minutes to go, the result of us once again needlessly loosing the ball in their half. So we had to play out the last three minutes a man down. Unfortunately we conspired to concede a short corner with a minute to go but Ross made another fine save. The whistle was in truth probably a blessing for both sides and certainly the umpires!

2-2 was probably a fair reflection of the game – resulting in Old Whits dropping their first points of the season and us winning our first points of the season! The next four weeks see us play three out of the four bottom sides – which have become must-win games for us, even at this early stage of the season. With decent availability and hopefully a player or two from the 1st XI we should be ok and hopefully we will be able to provide some players to the 3rd XI to aid their important quest for promotion. Rob Merry

Spencer Harlequins 0-1 3rd XI
Congratulations to us all on grinding out another win by managing to beat Spencer Harlequins 1-0. This may not sound the most amazing win, but to take any result where we score more than the opposition whilst playing on grass is good enough for me. The game this weekend felt as much of a lottery even though I feel we would have wiped the floor with them on Astro.

Our Third win of the season has taken us up to the heady heights of 5th in the league. Congratulations to new recruit Ed Brown for scoring the all-important goal. Nigel Hawes

4th XI 3-0 Leatherhead
The prodigious 4’s turned up to a cold & damn OC ground somewhat down on the numbers readied for battle on Friday evening, (various dubious reasons ensued!) Thanks go to stalwarts Andy “the Duracell Bunny” Eve and Howard “the Interceptor” Cruthers for stepping in to boost the squad.
Tactics were set as we studied an oppo with only three goals conceded in four games, whilst they sat in third place with us in fourth.

Play started on a slick & greasy surface with some good pressure and fast runs from Leatherhead for the first ten minutes. There somewhat immovable king-pin hogging the top of the D, looking to provide some deft touches to fast young oppo running in from deep. A strong defensive line from Kevin “the Power Tackle” Smith, Robin “Longarms” Crumby and “I’m not Nasty” Nick Aston, quelled most of the early pressure.

In a break from our 16, an irrepressible Grant “Dodgy Chicken Legs” Archer carried the ball quickly with James “Slick” Bish to bash the Oppo D. Eventually the ball was passed from the right, for Archie to finish neatly across the keeper at the right post. Whether this galvanised us even more, or Leatherhead head’s had dropped who knows, but we continued the pressure with some fantastic running up our right flanks from Dom “Skin’em Gonzales” Tucker!! Perseverance was rewarded as we set up for a shortie which ran right to Dom who slotted it deftly into the corner. 2-0.

As the oppo rallied slightly, moving on by him there was a loud memorable guttural sqawk as jetsetter Stevie “Ohhh Nick Griffin!! I will NOT be beaten like that,” Harmer sped earnestly back across the pitch in a resplendent effort to get the ball! He did. More resilient pressure in Leatherhead's D saw an Archie nutmeg go just wide. Another shortie resulted in a foot stopping save, and a P flick was duly awarded. Step forward Chris “I did miss my breakfast with my delightful conquest from Friday nights night out” Bents to power home a delightful stroke to the top of the net! Some post goal sloppiness saw the Oppo in our D for a shortie, strongly blocked by Power Tackles. Four or five first half attacks were stopped dead due to the new rules not quite sinking in just yet.

The second half resumed with the oppo applying good pressure, but perhaps they had a little more wind as we struggled to regain the control we had for the last 20 minutes of the first half. Great link up on the right with Chris, Andy & Dom to set us up for another shortie, but alas we could not convert. A nose-bleeding run from Longarms Crumby, linking up with Gonzales and Nick “Ever-ready & Roaring” Jocelyn saw a decision of question, as a possible shortie transpired to be an Oppo 16?
It must have been correct though as Martin “I’ll only umpire if you bring me cakes!” Williamson took his legendary firm control!

The last ten minutes of the game saw a fairly even match, with our last action coming as we took another shortie, which found Chicken Legs heady with excitement as he struck for the left corner, but forgetting to move his right foot, yelped in sheer pain as a his calf spasmed in anger with all that running forward. Or maybe it was just cramp!

An excellent team performance providing solid midfield link-ups, strong rearguard defence and superb speedy attacks. Monday Stats see the OC4’s sitting second.
Smithers. Nigel Cakeman Smith


Veterans XI 2-0 Cheam
So we are at TD on a very mild, overcast afternoon to take on a good Cheam side. Tommy sets up the side as a fairly rigid 442. Cheam start well, maintaining possession without really hurting our stout defence (can use any interpretation here). Cheam did however create a number of short corners but these were well defended (more of this later). We finished the 1st half with a few good moves and half-time came along with a scintillating 0-0 score-line, fairly reflecting the play.

The sun came out during the half-time chat and Tommy/Andy correctly assessed we lacked width in attack and were consequently playing to Cheam’s strengths - so they changed the formation by playing two left-halves. I know this sounds rather strange but it worked – Cheam’s most effective attacker was their ‘right-wing’ playing high up – so the 1st left half man-marked this player while the second maintained width. I think we ended up with a sort of 352 which would sometimes be 3142 or 361 or 3241, Benitez et al - eat your heart out.

The result of this tactical masterstroke enabled us to take more control of the midfield and put together some nice passages of play. This was assisted by Myles being able to find space and get on the ball to hurt Cheam as second forward with the tireless Judge Sleeman

To cut an already long story short – we managed to score two goals from open play by picking up loose balls in the ‘D’ and firing home – Myles & Clive – the best of pals. Apart from everyone putting in a good shift, we should not forget the passage of play where being 2-0 up, we decided to run the clock down by conceding a number of short corners in succession – all of which were ‘run down’ by the amazing Jon Gray– in total he must have done 10 sprints to the top of the circle – outstanding effort.

However, there was one champagne moment when the Cheam striker having again been ‘run down’ by John hit an absolute screamer past the excellent Shanks – going at shoulder height into the net when Matt produced an amazing save by upper-cutting the shot over the bar.

This led to the main debating point in the bar – the decision by TC was a 16 – due to this being the first shot, there is an argument that the striker had attempted to get a form of shot away which was stopped by Jon and also - due to the defence having touched the ball in the ‘D’ – first shot rule is eliminated? As you can see the writer hasn’t a clue and would like clarification.

To sum up at last – an enjoyable game against a good opposition played in good spirit where I suppose the result could have gone every which way. And a final note of admiration for two fine demonstrations of CF play where late on, the Judge ran ~ 50 yds on two occasions to beat the Cheam full-back and get shots in. Andy Eve