Yet another bright sunny day greeted the Chawton Athletic players as they gathered expectantly at Alton Station.
Deemed by the league to be our home game;despite taking place at Farnham College, Morley Road;the Chawton boys were a little surprised to find no changing facilities and even more surprised to find no referee either. A few telephone calls later revealed the worst and that the league knew we did not have a referee but seemed no to think it useful or important to mention it. Mind you having no referee would have been better than having the one we had last week.
Discussions we taking place as to how to get around this minor problem when a Morley Road squad player accepted the challenge and took up the whistle (more on this later)
Shaun had linesmen flags and a whistle, and we were under way, albeit slightly late, with Bob taking the Captains armband.
Alex had instilled a drive and determination into the Chawton boys and after twenty minutes Chawton were easily passing their way round their opponents. Chances were hard to come by i the opening quarter, Matt doing well to tip over from a powerful drive, getting hands to the subsequent corner before smothering the resulting effort on goal.
Bobby was vocal and controlling the midfield and was looking instrumental in Chawton's forward play and it was the Skipper whose excellent one-two almost fell back into his path.
Chawton were first to the ball all over the park, but it was Morley Road who made the break-through against the run of play, as the right midfielder dribbled and dribbled his way into the box, before cutting back inside and firing past a helpless Matt. It did nothing to dampen the Chawton boys and they immediately went back to the sparkling passing game that had lit up the first half forcing a couple of corners.
As the Chawton midfield took a stranglehold on the game the defencive line squeezed up and a long ball found Matt in no-mans land, misjudging the through ball. The Morley Road attacker did well to lift the ball over the stranded Keeper before passing the ball into an empty net.
Chawton continued to repel the Morley Road attacks with ease, the best half of football the newcomers had put together so far and boding well for the future. The half-time whistle went, Chawton 0 - Morley Road 2.
Alex had nothing but praise for the boys. they knew they were not out of this one and just need to press home the footballing advantage they had felt in the first half.
The second half started similarly to the first, Chawton controlling the game and passing the ball around, but lacking cutting edge and a quality final ball. Lee, Ben, Bob and George all giving their all to push the team forward from midfield. Liam had a couple of snapshots, but Chawton were still failing the test the Morley Road Keeper.
As Athletic pushed on, another through ball caught the back four slightly high and as the attacked honed in on Matt's goal from the angle the square ball found a free man at the back post whose slotted shot just evaded a scrambling keeper. 3-0 to Morley Road.
That strike was difficult to take, Chawton felt that they were only a slice of luck or a a good pass away from registering on the score sheet instead they found themselves a further goal behind.
George was replaced by Paul, who immediately had an impact on the left midfield, YES, the left midfield. Doing well to dispossess the Morley Road midfielder, Paul set off for the byline before crossing inside, sadly the chance melted away.
Matt was untroubled in the Chawton net, confidently collecting corners, crosses and shots, and immediately releasing another counter attack.
Bob let fly from distance then saw a free kick safely gather by the Morley Road Keeper, Si and Liam swapped positions for a while and new Shaun, playing out of position at right back, found himself pushing up to support a very hardworking Ben on the right hand side.
Alas, it was another through ball down the Cawton left that found Morley increasing their advantage as the square ball was deftly lofted over Matt from close range.
Though only 4-0 down the heads had dropped a little and despite more good passing and football, Ben and Paul involved in separate forays forward, Morley Road had time to add a fifth near the end as a misplaced pass led to Matt being rounded and the scoring was wrapped up from close range.
So yet more improvement on last week's performance by the Chawton boys, a 5-0 defeat but probably a slightly unfair scoreline on the balance of play.
There were only a couple of mistimed tackles of any note on the whole game, it was possibly the most sporting game I have played in, a real challenge of two fairly evenly matched sides, refereed excellent by a player. Respect for the "official" was abundant throughout and it is a credit to him and the two sets of players.
Blog man of the match was Bob, an excellent, vocal, calm and influential performance by the Skipper in the middle of midfield.
Apparently no fixture this coming Sunday 5th October, it is hoped, if agreed at Tuesday training, that all of the squad available should meet up at say Anstey Park for a full pitch, grass training session. More details to be announced shortly.
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