Match Report

A Lott to be Thankful for!

We went into this game on the back of some of the best form we’ve shown all season, so confidence amongst us was high. The pitch was a decent surface and we had been allocated three officials for this one.

We knew the opposition would be full of pace and movement and were prepared to deal with this threat. The 1st half posed little threat to our goal, Knights were limited and Burkett made a smart save with his legs to keep them at bay. At the other end we were guilty of some wayward finishing and squandered some good opportunities, Slade shot wide and on another occasion straight at the keeper, Graham curled one wide, Jarvis headed over, need I go on? Yes, a seemingly stonewall penalty after Nethercot was obviously tripped in the area, however the referee didn’t see it that way, how? - I will never know. We obviously felt harshly dealt with by the referee.

However, thankfully, Kevin Lott’s radar was fully up and running as he nonchalantly drove the ball into the corner of Knights’ goal from a free kick, a quality strike from the diminutive midfield dynamo. He really is a tribute to the amateur game and approaches every game with importance and boundless enthusiasm. You may not be surprised to learn that Kevin takes our pre-match warm up routine and our fortunes have looked much more positive since he has been in the team. Thanks Kevin.

That strike gave us the lead which we held at half time 1-0 up. Knights stepped up the pace in the 2nd half and at times we struggled to contain them. They equalised and then took the lead in dubious fashion, their striker adopting basketball tactics in controlling the ball before slotting home. Was this man Thierry Henry or Diego Maradona? He certainly provided a great impression of his hero's ball handling. Again the referee did not see any infringement.

Farnborough rallied, Graham was finding joy down the left channel with regularity and as he cut into the penalty box was sent hurtling to the deck by one of their defenders, this time surely the ref had to give it – no he did not! Disbelief and frustration abounded, for some reason he consulted the lino who was on the opposite flank to where the incident took place and ended up awarding a free kick outside the box. Quite frankly after that I felt like I’d seen it all. It just spoiled a Saturday afternoon for all us amateurs, the difference is the officials get paid, our players don’t. To miss one major incident is understandable but three is very disappointing. We couldn’t find an equaliser and even their manager and some of their players ‘apologised’ to us at the end, so they knew as well that Lady Luck had literally been wetting herself laughing on them – not just a friendly smile.

I cannot fault the performance of the players, it was a decent effort and in the same mould as some recent performances, on another day we may have had the benefit of some of those contentious decisions go for us but not today.

Man of the match was Luke Dunne putting in a solid display and providing some sensible no nonsense defending and getting his head on a lot of ball, on his return to reserve team duties. Well done Luke.

Next match is against Cray Valley PM at home, another one of those important encounters. If we are going to climb up the table, we’ve got to take 3 points from this one. I can’t wait for Saturday to come round again. Let’s all be up for it boys!!