Match Report

Four Goal Second Half Salvo Sinks Sanco

Another week and another major change to team line-up following a week of intense international negotiations which saw a number of rash promises made to a certain Toby Manchip in an effort to get him to fill the gap left by the absence this week of Gary Fentiman in goal. It probably helped that at the time of negotiating, the Clown Prince was ensconced at the Munich Beer Festival and liable to agree to anything having partaken of several steins of lager.

As a result of the cancellation of the Young Vets game against Maidstone the services of a few of their players became available and so I set about establishing where Compo was likely to be on Saturday night and what were the chances of him not only finding the ground but being vaguely on time. His response was “doubtful” and so I recommended that he take the day off and set about adding George Kleanthous and Robin Lipscomb to the squad.

With Sini’s No 1 Fan Club in tow it was rather apt that he opted to take a lift from the clubhouse with me rather than one of the two other cars that left at the same time. Truth was Isabelle and Thomas would not allow it and so we travelled up accompanied by an eclectic mix of dinosaur songs.

Having finally located the Griffin Sports Club in Dulwich we managed to rendezvous with the rest of the squad and lined up as follows:

Toby Manchip GK
Danny Winter RB
Steve Blanchard CB
Chris Webb CB
Colin Brazier LB
Mehmet Bozyigit RM
Sinisa Gracanin CM
Ian Shoebridge CM
Paul Bell LM
Mark Perry CF
George Kleanthous CF

Subs: Robin Lipscomb, Roger French

So from last week’s team we had a new keeper, two guest appearances from the Young Vets and a debutant in Danny Winter who also makes up the ex BOBFC contingent formerly managed by Statler nearly a decade ago. In addition we were missing co-manager Patrice Mongelard (an event that does not happen too often) hence the reason for me having to write my third report of the season.

The pitch at Griffin Sports is very similar to our own main pitch to look at in terms of size and lush green grass but on closer inspection it has suffered a bit from the alien markings that have been seen on our top pitch. However straight from the kick-off we made very good use of the space available and continued with our high tempo passing game.

The first 20 minutes of the half saw Farnborough pushing forward with good work down both wings – Colin and Paul linking up well on the left and Mehmet continuing to run at the Sanco defence fed by Danny on the right. If anything and as previously commented we tended to over complicate things with one too many passes at times.

The first clear cut chance came from one of Mehmet’s surging runs to the byeline where he cut an excellent ball back to Mark whose first time shot from just inside the box cannoned off the cross bar and out to safety.

Sanco did cause a few problems coming forward but our central defensive pairing of Steve Blanchard and Chris Webb were doing well to snuff out any real danger. Behind them stood the man of the moment and Manchip was called into action when a rare shot destined for the top right hand corner was expertly tipped over for a corner.

Shortly after this the ball was given away cheaply in our midfield and fed out to the Sanco left wing. The attacker was able to cut into our box and shaped up to cross the ball but appeared to slice it resulting in an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net. This rather took the wind from our sails and for the next 15 minutes or so we had to soak up a bit of Sanco pressure up to the half-time whistle.

So with the comments of Waldorf ringing in my ears whose expectations were nothing short of a victory in his absence only one change was made at half-time with Rob Lipscombe coming on for Paul Bell. My concern was could Waldorf cope with another 1-0 defeat where we had made most of the running. Judging by the tone of his last match report when this happened (two weeks ago) I would say not!

The half-time break had done us good as we resumed in full flow and back on top. Plenty of good attacking moves in and around the area but still we seemed afraid to shoot opting to do the Chuckle Brothers move instead…the one that goes to me, to you, to me, to you!

A number of chances went begging mainly because we tried to walk the ball into the back of the net rather than shoot. When we did have a couple of shots the Sanco keeper made a couple of good saves. As the half wore on it felt like another Erith game with the ball spending long periods in and around the Sanco penalty box but no end product.

Finally midway through the half following another surging run by Mehmet down the right and 5 or 6 passes in and around the box the ball fell to Shoey on the edge of the box and he decided to have a crack. And what a crack as he curled the equaliser into the top right hand corner to give us a fully deserved goal and renewed vigour.

With the bit well and truly between our teeth we continued to press for a winner with balls coming down the left flank courtesy of Rob Lipscomb who having seen what Shoey had done decided to have a go himself. As he cut inside he unleashed a fierce right foot shot that gave the keeper no chance as it flew into the top right hand corner to give us a more than deserved lead.

At this point I realised that I had not had a kick of the ball all morning even missing out in the warm up so with the hard work done I felt it was time to soak up some of the glory as former Sanco player Colin Brazier made way for me at left back.

Far be it for me to suggest that it was an inspired substitution but I will anyway….it was an inspired substitution as with less than 10 minutes on the clock we finally worked out how to put the ball in the back of the net. I probably touched the ball 3 or 4 times in that period so could almost get an assist somewhere down the line!

First Sinisa scored a carbon copy of his first goal of the season against Orpington by picking up the ball just outside Sanco’s box, drifting left and on my command hit a low left foot shot just inside the bottom of the post.

No sooner had Sanco kicked-off the ball was heading back towards their keeper and luckily for us George beat the keeper to it and managed to poke home number four. Shortly after the ref blew for fulltime and out turnaround was complete.

Once again the man of the match votes were not surprisingly close with Chris Webb and Shoey both in the running despite Isabelle and Thomas offering to vote for me. When all the votes were gathered the clear winner was Steve Blanchard for the second week running.

So another fine performance to continue our best start for years. Next week will see more changes to the team as we take on Old Albany Park who put 8 past us when we last played.