Match Reports - October 13, 2012

Reigate 1-2 1st XI

After two games OC’s were sitting pretty at the top of the table with bitter competitors suspecting something a bit fishy in light of Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace this week. Whilst the OC performances have shown signs of athletes pumped full of testosterone, steroids, cortisone and displays only thought possible with persistent blood doping. However, recent testing have confirmed the OC’s are just an unnatural breed of athletes who defy science altogether and this news has left rival teams choking on their sour grapes.

Though just like Lance Armstrong we had to ensure we were relentless in our quest to win and this week our quest led us to the Reigate ‘ice rink’. A game, which if form was anything to go by should be another three points. Yet before the game even commenced this weeks challenge was looking increasingly difficult as Sam ‘Whizzer’ Wiseman’s car was anything but whizzy and had overdosed and passed out on the hard shoulder of the A3. This meant the Ripley brothers and Whizzer could not make the start of the game and our entire starting midfield from last Saturday had been wiped out. This called for an emergency tactical rethink by Coach Gary.   

This clearly caught OCs by surprise and nerves were beginning to jangle. Sam Carne took matters into his pasty, freckly hands and attempted to quash all pre-match nerves with some musical notes selected from his iPhone. Unfortunately Boy George and Wheatus did little to give the boys a lift before the game and sadly there was no access to Lance Armstrong’s stash in a time of need. The effects of this were evident when the umpire blew to get the action under way. Reigate making the sharper start, firing the ball across the rink with plenty of venom and barely letting the OC’s sniff the ball in the first five minutes.

OC’s crawled their way back into the game and began to sharpen up, however, a couple of short corner chances went begging and a third short corner was quickly charged down and led to a speedy counter by Reigate. Before OC’s had the chance to blink again the ball was in the back of the goal. Shock was painted on the faces of the visitors. The first time these men had been down this season. Could they climb themselves out of a hole they had never been in before?

A spark ignited, like an addict suddenly hit with a craving, leading to a frenzied search for his crack. This frenzied search epitomises the OC’s hunt for a goal, persistent and relentless. Bodies were diving, tackles were crunching and balls whizzed once more. Chance after chance was created, but chance after chance was squirmed. Yet just before half time Jay Harman converted from close range to take his tally to 3 for the season. The half time whistle blew. Deflated yet upbeat the score 1-1. Spirits were boosted by the arrival of Whizzer and the Ripley brothers who marched in with sticks over their shoulders, like soldiers going into battle.

The chances continued and the introduction of the new men ensured fresh legs remained on the pitch. That was until Whizzer was sent to the stands for 10 minutes for a controversial yellow card. However, Reigate barely saw the ball and chances flowed and flowed, a neat finish from Chris Valentine saw OC’s take just one of these chances. A deserved lead and goalie Captain Dan ‘Mowgli’ was left swinging from his crossbar in delight. OC’s continued to create, but continued to waste. No more goals followed and shooting practice will be top of the agenda come training on Wednesday. Final score 2-1 to Old Cranleighans.

Smiler update: Still no smile from Coach Gary. Simon Connolly

Ladies XI 1-0 Croydon

After last week’s trek to Crystal Palace, a home game was massively welcomed this week. It was another close match, resulting in a solid second win of the season for us OC Ladies. We’re definitely getting into our stride this season and this week, we absolutely hit the ground running from the word ‘go’.  A great strike at goal from Manny in the first half gave us the 1-0 lead that we deserved. Croydon were adamant to make our lives a bit tricky with a couple of great tough tackles and we had to work hard to keep the lead. With perhaps a bit too many missed chances at goal from us, it was a close game.

However, despite a couple of chances from Croydon and an absolutely spectacular save from Michele whilst flying through the air, stick extended, ensured we remained 1-0 up. Bets on whether Michele can top that save this season?!

Strong work from all of the team this week. Man of the match was split between Georgie up front, Ana and Jax in the middle, and Michele in Goal. Job done. Fletch

2nd XI 3-0 Reigate
Another great win for the 2nds. We had a great start to the week when we knew we had 21 people available to play so we were always going to have a strong game this week.

Watching the 3rd XI wasn't the best warm up and focus was lacking a bit but as soon as the match start we came out the blocks quickly. After about 10 minutes we were getting quite settled and Gav had a good shot from top of the D which was well saved but the goalie kicked the ball straight back to Gav from him to reverse it neatly into the bottom right corner. Soon afterwards we won a shot corner and Lewi caught the ball about as life as you like and fired it into the bottom right corner as well.

We then took our foot off the pedal and were taking a bit of pressure from the opposition and conceded a couple of shot corners. The newly married Paul Watson made some great saves and from one such save we broke away combining fast and fluid passing and carving up the defence for CB to draw in the keeper and slip it back perfectly for Guessy to put it over the keeper to score his second in as many weeks just before the half time whistle!

Being 3-0 up we felt like we could run away with it and really get the goal tally up. We put some good passage of plays together but all in all we were a bit sloppy and didn't take our chances in this half. Nick Lewis smashing post and Gav missing when he had drawn the keeper and just a hip over him was needed. Long story short the keeper saved it and then followed up by hitting the post as well. With some great defence from Ports, Cato, Heardy and Fez we looked strong at the back and JP, Grimer and Harry Morse all combining to keep the midfield working well throughout the game.

Another good win, however it could have been much better and not as clinical as we were the week before. Top of the table now and looking forward to staying there. Keep it up chaps.

3rd XI 1-3 Goan
A utterly bizarre game. The first half was as one sided as England-San Marino had been the night before and like the national team, we had almost all the possession but did little with it where it mattered. A nifty deflected goal from Dom ten minutes before the break was the only score of a half where Goan defended heroicly deep in their half by fair means and occasionally foul.

A minute into the second half and Goan levelled, their 64-year-old (yes, that's right) forward outpacing defenders who won't be named to fire home with precision.  What should have been a blip turned into a pivotal moment as we threw more people forward and allowed Goan to hit us regularly on the counter.

Ten minutes into the second half Goan were awarded a dubious short corner. Regardless of the correctness of  the decision, our arguments left us with a goalkeeper in the naughty boy corner and the defenders drawing lots for the unenviable job of kicking back. No messing about from Goan -the short-corner was thumped straight back at the goal and they had the lead.

Again we pressed, dominating the midfield but failing to prise open the defence or pressurise the keeper. Had there been stats then they would have showed we had 75% of the possession and yet Goan probably had more shots.  Almost inevitably Goan sealed the game three minutes from time from yet another well-worked counter.

Goan's average age was 55 and the strongest side the 3rd XI have fielded in years ought to have demolished them. That we didn't was impatience in the build up and a lack of a Plan B when Plan A failed. We will learn from this, but we also have to keep our heads and not look for excuses when we do lose.

The final word goes to Tom Merry, a man whose summer recruitment campaign has been outstanding, so much so he has lost his own place in the 2nd XI! "We were shocking," he said. "End of."