Match Report

Another good performance boys, well done again for another week. 3 valuable points puts us up to 3rd in the league where we know we belong and 5 points behind Peckham Town, whom should be our main focus now and which is not unachievable especially going on recent performances. It seems we have now got over our troubled ''slow start'' and are firing on all cylinders once again. And it is good to see.

Upon initial viewing of Eltham during their pre-match warm up I must admit I was slightly concerned. Their preparation looked in order and they looked like a strong professional outfit. This I mentioned to Couch at kick off. How wrong again I was. I became aware that they had only brought a bare 11 men and could not support a linesman which I knew would work in our favour and when one of their fullbacks pulled up with a hamstring not 20 minutes into the game reducing them down to 10 men I became confident of a foregone conclusion.

From the off again we drove at them relentlessly, not giving them time to settle on the ball. It was something that I had mentioned before the match and something we all picked up on, continuing from where we left off from last week. Jay Hardy hit the bar within 5 minutes and Bazza started causing them all sorts of problems running at them with the ball at his feet. We rose to Eltham''s response and faced them head on to combat what they were throwing at us. We continued to play football which was superb under the circumstances. We battled and played some good football. When Kirky rocketed in the 1st goal (his first for the club) I knew it would settle us.

The heavens opened and the rain turned to hail, but none of this seem to affect our desire to win. When Barry got his first of the day just before half time to take us two up Eltham started allowing us to fully take control. It was a shame half time came when it did because a third before the whistle would have settled it there and then. But it wasn''t to be which meant the next goal upon starting the final 45 minutes would be crucial and it was essential that it came from us.

Again and for another week, we couldn''t get that all important goal within the first ten or fifteen minutes of the re-start and this is something that we must improve on as it is allowing the opposition every week to start believing in themselves again which puts us under pressure. It is there for the taking yet we always seem unable to finish the job off until the last 10 minutes of the game, giving ourselves 30 minutes of unwanted grief. It is not that we start playing badly, more so that we cannot capitalise soon enough upon the re-start. It is talked about at half time but doesn''t seem to click upon kick off. Think about it again please boys for next week. BUT when Bazza got probably the goal of the season so far the 3 points were in the bag.

Eltham were reduced to 9 men with a sending off with a few minutes to go and left the pitch somewhat annoyed, especially with the referee. Well done lads for keeping our discipline in some testing circumstances. Man of the match for me went to Daragh for his overall display over the whole 90 minutes.