Match Report

A Harsh Result

Unfortunately our ‘management’ were absent from today’s game. Pat was on holiday celebrating his Birthday and ‘retirement’ from a tough civil service job where he now gets to ‘work’ from home every day, so nothing has changed there. Mick O’Tool had a family thing he ‘couldn’t get out of’, on a Sunday morning !! Maybe, as they knew the strength of our opposition, they thought it was best not to be there. Responsibility was left to Colin Mant and yours truly. ‘Sausage boy’ dropped out on Friday with food poisoning, maybe he shouldn’t eat uncooked meat. That left me in charge, amusing for some within the team.

We had a late drop out Sunday morning, as Sini pulled out with, and I quote, ‘a locked neck’. Maybe this was an injury sustained from riding a bike unsuccessfully without stabilisers, as seen by many, as he rode home from training on Wednesday. After a lot of reorganising and reprinting of team sheets Sunday morning we arrived at the club on a very warm Bank Holiday Sunday. The pitches looked immaculate, much to the hard work of Jordan (and others?), who also ran the bar for us after the game. We welcomed two new debutants to the team, Mark Hendrick and Tom Naughton and we were helped by two young vets Jon Redman and Jay Hardy.

Starting XI:
James ‘Flapper’ St. Cottle,
Mark Hendrick, Steve Blanchard, Ian Coles, Jon Redman,
Simon Thomas, Dan Mullins, Obi Ugwumba, Jay Hardy,
Peter Harvey, Tom Naughton.

Substitutes: Des Lindsay, Ian Shoebridge.

Supporters: Luke and Joseph Redman, The Thomas Family and Neil Connelly.(and others, they may have been passing dog walkers though).
Referee: Paul Parsons (must be a love child of Mick Gearing as he gave me nothing !!).

We won the toss and swapped ends to avoid the low hot sunshine. We started well, lots of good passing, communication and hard work. We kept Orpington and our Nemesis, Kevin very quiet, with Steve and Colesy working well together. Mark looked accomplished at right back, after getting over his first ever touch for Farnborough which went back twenty yards for an Orpington corner. We dominated large parts of the first half with Farnborough having the best of the chances, we hit the bar twice, Dan bossed the midfield and we should have been ahead before half time. After thirty minutes we made some changes and a welcome drinks break. Des came on for Tom and Shoey for Simon. Shoey slotted into left back with JR moving to right midfield. It was unfortunate that Orpington took the lead. Jumbo, who had been very dominant with any cross into his area, mistimed a punch and through a crowd of defenders an Orpington player slotted them into the lead. ust before the half time whistle, frustration broke out between a couple of the Farnborough players as the ball was not played fast enough to players in acres of space. We all need to move the ball quicker rather than trying to show off when we are on the ball, we look dangerous when we move it quickly and we will all benefit. The situation was calmed at half time by some strong management. The half time team talk was easy, let’s just keep doing what we did in the first half, it was difficult to find any negatives.

The second half started as the first had finished with lots of sustained Farnborough pressure, we were peppering their goal, two more woodwork shakers, some good saves by their keeper one from a Des one on one where you would have put money on Des finishing. They were limited to hopeful long balls which were dealt with easily by our defence and keeper. After 60 minutes Tom and Simon replaced Mark and Michael, with Jay moving to left back, Tom upfront and Peter left midfield. With about twenty minutes to go a rare corner from Orpington led to a looping header over Jumbo and into an unprotected rear post. We did not get despondent and we were pushing for that elusive goal that our play deserved. The heat was taking its toll and with our continued pressure holes were appearing in our defence. With ten minutes to go, just as I was writing my match report in my head, Kevin latched onto one of their hopeful long balls and expertly slotted the ball past an advancing Jumbo. To add insult to injury, with almost the last action of the game, Kevin smashed a header from a corner onto the underside of the bar and the injustice was complete.

It’s not often you walk away from a 4-0 defeat and think you were unlucky not to have got something from the game. Some great performances and hard work were not rewarded, those couple of inches always make a difference, and I mean the difference between a crossbar and a goal. Overall a good team effort, good to see sustained pressure, commitment and passing. If we play like that for the rest of the season we will get the results we deserve. Unlucky lads.

As always, the usual suspects took down the nets etc, guys it’s a team, let’s all help with the things that need doing before and after a game and not just leave it to the few. Mind you, the guys that this is aimed at probably don’t read the match report. Thanks to Mrs Shoebridge and Mrs Colesy for the buffet after the game.

A deserved MAN OF THE MATCH for DAN MULLINS.