Match reports February 5 2011
The 1st XI produced their performance of the season to win 3-2 at Southampton with ten men, ending a run of three successive defeats; the Ladies remain second in Surrey Division Two with an excellent 3-1 win at Merton, avenging their only pre-Christmas defeat; the 3rd XI eased into mid-table comfort with a 7-2 victory at Barnes, but the 4th XI's relegation worries continue after a 2-4 loss at home to Woking.
Southampton 2-3 1st XI
Without a doubt, the best result for many years and character by the bucket loads.
Due to injuries and three unavailabilities for other reasons Tim Thorpe stepped up along with Ross Kingsnorth and Tissy to give us a mere 11 players - or so we thought. Sadly we had a no show, second time this season, and not a word of apology to any of us.
Be that as it may and putting the disappointment to one side we outplayed the home side in the first half, who had 13, to sneak a 2 - 1 lead. Hunts slotted a stroke after 15 minutes following a magical run by Woody who won the stroke as his shot entered the goal, were pegged back by a well taken reverse stick shot from Southampton's only attack in the first half and snuck ahead when man of the moment Cookiey cleverly deflected the ball home with the last touch of the half. I never thought I would use the word clever when talking about Cookiey. He showed us the meaning of commitment, playing through the pain of a hernia or pregnancy without a grumble and was once again up there challenging for Man of the Match.
No question we tired in the second half but although we were pressed deeper in our half, Southampton were unable to make the most of some really good chances although Ross made a wonder save when faced with 3 on 1. What we thought was an unlucky award of a stroke against us with eight minutes to go, following Tissy's unnecessary, but have to say, deserved yellow card, was put home and Southampton sniffed victory. Remarkably we stepped up a gear on empty tanks, Tissy came back on, we forced a couple of half chances and then a short corner that was the last play of the game. The German worked again and we took the points.
The last few weeks of the season have to see us at the top of the club change our level of commitment to ensure players do not drift away over the summer. A task force will be set up to hit this face on and ensure that we do not go into games with 11 players per side, but in our case only 10 ... David Knapp
Merton 1-3 Ladies XI
I think it’s fair to say there were some nerves ahead of our Merton re-match. These weren’t calmed when a garbled phone call from Philly 40 minutes before push back lead to Goalie rushing off to rescue her from ‘somewhere on the roadside in Tooting’ after her car broke down!
Despite these distractions, we had a good warm up and Philly/Goalie appeared with minutes to spare. We started off brilliantly, pushing up against the oppo with the first 10 minutes or so spent solely in their half, it really looked like this match was ours for the taking but then something happened and our nerves kicked in & Merton picked up on this. They got some good passes through, leading to several straight runs into our D. There was even a one on one with Jules but she kept her cool and the shot at goal went wide.
With Goalie barking at us from the sidelines, we got our heads back into the game. A rebound shot in the D from Emma and an unlucky deflection from the oppo lead to an own goal on 27 minutes. This gave us the boost we needed and seemed to shake the oppo with the last few minutes of the first half spent back on their side of the pitch. We really wanted to win this one and it began to show.
The second half was full on from the start. Despite some physical tackles we didn’t drop our guard this time and Nikki scored a fantastic second goal, aided by some great passing between Philly and Michelle. The oppo were really hot on taking their free hits very quickly so we had to stay switched on the entire time, despite beginning to flag towards the end. We won a short corner and Philly made a quick deflection in from beside the goal post (something that is drummed into us at training!) taking us to a well earned 3-0. In the last few minutes the oppo got a goal back but thankfully the final whistle blew soon after.
Merton were a tough but fair team to play, they don’t hold back on their hard tackles (with one player even taking out Jules!) but we had a really good game against them.
Emma Varley
A footnote, more of a question. Given Tooting & Mitcham FC, the home for Merton, is in what might be described as a built-up area, how come the whole place smells like a farmyard?
2nd XI 4-8 Bank of Boks
With success comes confidence, but when you're struggling then it's hard to turn the tide. Suffice to say we were 3-2 up at half time and had created enough chances to have had a much bigger lead, so much so Eds Copleston, in town from new York for the day, was already taking the plaudits for the win. Then the nerves set in and it all went pear-shaped and we collapsed. There were enough signs to suggest all is not lost, but the revival is likely to be to enable us to play in the division below. Andy Selby said on Thursday we had 15, and so he released two to the 1st XI. On Saturday morning he had two cry-offs, albeit with good reasons, leaving him with the bare XI. Our visitors had plenty in reserve, so much so at at one point is was rumoured there as many as two non South Africans on the pitch.
Barnes Beavers 2-7 3rd XI
Report to follow
4th XI 2-4 Woking
Report to follow
Southampton 2-3 1st XIWithout a doubt, the best result for many years and character by the bucket loads.
Due to injuries and three unavailabilities for other reasons Tim Thorpe stepped up along with Ross Kingsnorth and Tissy to give us a mere 11 players - or so we thought. Sadly we had a no show, second time this season, and not a word of apology to any of us.
Be that as it may and putting the disappointment to one side we outplayed the home side in the first half, who had 13, to sneak a 2 - 1 lead. Hunts slotted a stroke after 15 minutes following a magical run by Woody who won the stroke as his shot entered the goal, were pegged back by a well taken reverse stick shot from Southampton's only attack in the first half and snuck ahead when man of the moment Cookiey cleverly deflected the ball home with the last touch of the half. I never thought I would use the word clever when talking about Cookiey. He showed us the meaning of commitment, playing through the pain of a hernia or pregnancy without a grumble and was once again up there challenging for Man of the Match.
No question we tired in the second half but although we were pressed deeper in our half, Southampton were unable to make the most of some really good chances although Ross made a wonder save when faced with 3 on 1. What we thought was an unlucky award of a stroke against us with eight minutes to go, following Tissy's unnecessary, but have to say, deserved yellow card, was put home and Southampton sniffed victory. Remarkably we stepped up a gear on empty tanks, Tissy came back on, we forced a couple of half chances and then a short corner that was the last play of the game. The German worked again and we took the points.
The last few weeks of the season have to see us at the top of the club change our level of commitment to ensure players do not drift away over the summer. A task force will be set up to hit this face on and ensure that we do not go into games with 11 players per side, but in our case only 10 ... David Knapp
Merton 1-3 Ladies XI
I think it’s fair to say there were some nerves ahead of our Merton re-match. These weren’t calmed when a garbled phone call from Philly 40 minutes before push back lead to Goalie rushing off to rescue her from ‘somewhere on the roadside in Tooting’ after her car broke down!
Despite these distractions, we had a good warm up and Philly/Goalie appeared with minutes to spare. We started off brilliantly, pushing up against the oppo with the first 10 minutes or so spent solely in their half, it really looked like this match was ours for the taking but then something happened and our nerves kicked in & Merton picked up on this. They got some good passes through, leading to several straight runs into our D. There was even a one on one with Jules but she kept her cool and the shot at goal went wide.
With Goalie barking at us from the sidelines, we got our heads back into the game. A rebound shot in the D from Emma and an unlucky deflection from the oppo lead to an own goal on 27 minutes. This gave us the boost we needed and seemed to shake the oppo with the last few minutes of the first half spent back on their side of the pitch. We really wanted to win this one and it began to show.
The second half was full on from the start. Despite some physical tackles we didn’t drop our guard this time and Nikki scored a fantastic second goal, aided by some great passing between Philly and Michelle. The oppo were really hot on taking their free hits very quickly so we had to stay switched on the entire time, despite beginning to flag towards the end. We won a short corner and Philly made a quick deflection in from beside the goal post (something that is drummed into us at training!) taking us to a well earned 3-0. In the last few minutes the oppo got a goal back but thankfully the final whistle blew soon after.
Merton were a tough but fair team to play, they don’t hold back on their hard tackles (with one player even taking out Jules!) but we had a really good game against them.
Emma Varley
A footnote, more of a question. Given Tooting & Mitcham FC, the home for Merton, is in what might be described as a built-up area, how come the whole place smells like a farmyard?
2nd XI 4-8 Bank of Boks
With success comes confidence, but when you're struggling then it's hard to turn the tide. Suffice to say we were 3-2 up at half time and had created enough chances to have had a much bigger lead, so much so Eds Copleston, in town from new York for the day, was already taking the plaudits for the win. Then the nerves set in and it all went pear-shaped and we collapsed. There were enough signs to suggest all is not lost, but the revival is likely to be to enable us to play in the division below. Andy Selby said on Thursday we had 15, and so he released two to the 1st XI. On Saturday morning he had two cry-offs, albeit with good reasons, leaving him with the bare XI. Our visitors had plenty in reserve, so much so at at one point is was rumoured there as many as two non South Africans on the pitch.
Barnes Beavers 2-7 3rd XI
Report to follow
4th XI 2-4 Woking
Report to follow
posted by Admin at
18:35
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home