Chawton Athletic's innaugural season in the Farnham and District Sunday league got off to a shaky start as the new boys were dealt a harsh lesson at the hand of CSL Hartley Wintney.
Buoyed by having persuaded 13 players to be available, sadly Vinny, Phil and Clark were unavailable; the convoy set off from the French Horn in a positive mood and; after only a slight hiccough; found the ground.
Seth named the team, with Shaun and Paul warming the bench, and there was a mad scramble for kit.
A short discussion followed and the honour of captaining the side this week fell to Matt. A slightly ad-hoc warm up followed and then the toss, which true to Matt's cricket captain form, he lost. Chawton defended the goal up the hill in the first half.
From the very early stages, it seemed apparent the CSL were a well organised outfit and their passing game and attacking speed soon had the Chawton defence on the back foot.
Matt saved well early on narrowing the angle and turning a powerful shot round the post, the subsequent corner was dealt with well.
CSL were pouring forward, Si and Seth at left and right back were fighting a losing battle as the CSL wingers constantly attacked the flanks and it was a passing move down the Chawton left that game CSL the lead as a one-two released the ball through a slightly static defence, a square ball found an unmarked forward who swept the ball home passed a stranded Matt, who did well to get enough on it to almost push it onto the post.
Sadly almost straight from the kick off CSL had doubled their lead as a raking ball to the back post saw a superbly struck side-footed volley rifle into the roof of the net, Matt having no chance.
Rich, at centre back then saw the lenient side of the referee as chasing back as the last man he brought down the CSL forward on the edge of the box, a stern talking to only, much to the surprise of everyone, including Rich. Matt organised his wall and waited and held on confidently as it was fired low round the wall.
CSL ominously attacked and after having squeezed another attempt out for a corner, a superb last ditch tackle from Jimmer, CSL benefited from some slightly hesitant goal keeping as Matt half came for the ball, only to miss his punch and the ball ricochet into the goal off of Jimmer for an unfortunate own-goal. 3-0 to CSL.
Bobby and Robbie then both were booked for slightly late challenges as CSL pressed home their advantage.
Si then had to leave the field to be replaced by Shaun as the sheer amount of pressure up the CSL left wing left him exposed time after time.
Chawton, although 3-0 down, were still trying to play football, but were struggling to break down a well organised and much fitter CSL midfield and defence, but were encourage as a good move lead to George bursting through one on one with the keeper only steer his shot wide.
CSL added two more before half time as time and time again the Chawton defence were caught short of a defensive midfielder, Matt having managed to block another two shots. 5-0 at half time.
A rallying call during what seemed to be the shortest half-time I have ever experienced as a player, stirred the passion of the Chawton players but despite having identified several key areas for improvement in the second half the slope only added to their problems as the back four defended higher and higher up the pitch the CSL attackers were released beyond them time and time again.
Chaos rained as the referee started to ignore Si's linesman's flag and CSL added to their tally with more than one generous offside decision to play despite Si flagging furiously. Always a lesson to learn is to play to the whistle, which a couple of times Chawton did not do.
Some better play in the second half saw Chawton manage a couple of good attempts on target, the keeper making a smart save from Robbie's pile driver.
Matt did well playing further from his line, sweeping up any over hit passes, but the pattern of the second half very much followed that of the first, as Chawton pushed on in an attempt to get their passing game going, they were caught up the pitch out of position and unable to assist an already tiring back four.
The goals rained in from all angles, including a very well taken lob that found Matt just slightly too far off of his line, the majority of strikes in the second half seemed to end up being two against Matt and all to easily CSL started to rack up a cricket score, capped by an audacious rounding of Matt which lead to an amusing exchange of views between the disgruntled keeper and the forward (understatement). Rich was fortunate to get away with bringing the very same forward down as he picked his way into the box, the referee either unsighted or taking pity on us waved away the claims.
And so the final whistle, CSL Hartly Wintney 12 - Chawton Athletic 0, not quite the start anybody was really expecting, but then I think that we very much mistook how good the opposition were and more importantly did not quite expect us to require that much improvement to be able to compete.
Plenty of things to work on in training on Tuesday and hopefully a few more players available next week, Vinny, Phil, Clark and Skilts should make for a more balanced squad for Seth to choose from.
Blog man of the match was Jimmer, despite normally being a goalkeeper and despite the scoreline, Jimmer did well at centre back alongside Rich and several well timed tackles saw him take the accolade.
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