The curtain finally came down on what could have been deemed to have been a disappointing debut season for Chawton Athletic Sunday as they faced up against fellow strugglers Morley Road at Farnham College.
Athletic riding high on a wave of enthusiasm and confidence after last week's deserved victory against the Royal Exchange hoped for an unchanged side for the first time all season, but were again left scraping around at the last minute for players.
Rob, Jack and Scott dropped out Sunday morning and Si H did not make an appearance and with Si E already unavailable it made things tight for numbers yet again. Carl had been in touch and was bringing his boots as back-up and very thankful we were too.
Thankfully Rob did make it along and brought Jack and Si with him, though unfortunately they did not arrive until 15 minutes into the game.
By which time Chawton had seen their original starting line-up of 9 drop down to 8 as Matt picked up what could very well be the quickest injury in footballing history, pulling a thigh muscle just 35 seconds into the game, the misplaced pass which resulted in the injury fell to Morley Road who promptly waltzed up the other end and scored, a terrible blow for the now 8 men of Chawton.
Chawton fell further behind very soon after as the sheer weight of numbers started to tell. Chawton barely had time to regain their feet when Morley Road added a third, this time; make-shift Centre Back Pat; under pressure from the Morley striker; slotted a backpass past the helpless Martin for an own goal. 3-0 to Morley Road.
Rob, Jack and Si turned up and readied themselves in the car park, no changing rooms at Farnham College, and entered the fray.
Chawton immediately started to take a grip of the game, and their composure on the ball was rewarded as a clearly flustered Morley Road started to lose their normally cool heads. It finally looked like a football match as Chawton's footballing efforts made light work of the Morley midfield with Si, Jack, George and Bob all heavily involved in the middle of the park.
Chawton struck back as Bob cut inside from the left to unleash a 30 yard effort which sailed over the Morley Keeper's head and into the net. A deserved goal as Chawton were clearly in the ascendancy now.
Athletic kept pushing forward and were creating chance after chance with very little if anything coming back the other way, Sam going close with a great turn and strike.
Athletic narrowed the deficit further as good work from Si saw him finish well (apparently, I did not see it as I was getting re-changed at the time damn car park!!).
And so it remained 3-2 to Morley road the rest of the first half, Chawton still doing all of the pressing and playing all of the football, Morley Road looked dumbstruck; there surely was only ever going to be one outcome from here on in. The whistle went for half time with Athletic surely feeling the happier of the two sides.
Chawton started the last 45 minutes of their league campaign in determined and confident mood, the win was there for the taking and Rich P's rallying cry was seen to visibly inspire the Athletic team. Sadly it was Morley who were lifter early in the second half as the Striker stole in to score and stretch the Morley lead.
Athletic could see their chances slipping away but were still very much in with a shout of earning a result and again good work by Jack and Si created opportunities, but sadly they were not taken.
Morley fortuitously extended their lead when a cross the far post was nodded in after a shove in Martin's back prevented him from cutting out the danger, Athletic were disappointed to have been on the receiving end of the decision and were quick to point out where the official had gone wrong.
A spell of ten minutes further cost Athletic; as the midfield took further control of the game in the Morley half, the Athletic defence pushed higher and higher up the pitch and were caught very square and very high, Morley adding another goal to make the score 6-2. The referee had started to lose control of the game a touch, what had been an excellent game so far was turning into a heated exchange and the referee was at the centre of some of the main talking points.
Bob eventually went into the book after another reminder to the official as his questionable parentage and so the tackles were getting more and more tasty. Thankfully it calmed back down shortly after.
Chawton clawed their way back into the game and a shot well saved was followed up by Si who was unlucky not to be able to keep the difficultly bouncing ball down and swept his shot over from 6 yards. A ball inside saw George roll the ball into Sam's path and his lightning finish high into the net (the goal of the game surely) saw a deserved third for Athletic.
Sadly that was the last strike for Chawton as Morley road went on to add a 7th and 8th for what was an undeserved drubbing in the end.
Blog Man of the Match in the final league game of the season goes to Jack, who looked a danger throughout and could easily have unlocked the Morley defence on many occasions, well done Jack
A fantastic effort by the lads all season was celebrated in style by some as we headed to the Weybridge to experience their hospitality for the remainder of the afternoon.
Training starts on Sunday 22nd March for around a hour each time, from 10:30am at Anstey Park, we hope to see you all there.
There are many aspects of the game that we could all work on to improve, (availability being one of them), but obviously fitness and organisation are two others. Hopefully we will be able to start competing with our opposition increasing our enjoyment of the games we play and rewarding those able to commit to playing week in week out.
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