Hartley Wintney 5 - Chawton Athletic 0

So a brand new Farnham and District Sunday league season kicked off yesterday, with Athletic facing a familiar foe in Hartley Wintney, the side they opened their inaugural season against last year.

Chawton, who's side boasted some new faces, started brightly and were working hard across the midfield and were restricting their opposition to more speculative long range efforts, most of which were off target but those on target were safely dealt with by new keeper Lee P.

Athletic, though on the back foot for lengthy periods, were able to make inroads into a Wintney side that were being caught going forwards and an early snap shot from Sam nearly lead to the deadlock being broken. Si E was particularly energetic as Athletic's forward efforts stemmed from the right hand side. But it was Wintney who finally took the lead cruelly just moments before half time as finally Athletic were opened up down the left hand side Paul I being left with two men to mark and despite Lee narrowing the angle the ball rifled it's way past him. Still 1-0 at half time was a superb effort and Athletic were well in the game still and had ambitions of snatching an equaliser as they kicked off for the second half.

Sadly the early season energy levels favoured Wintney who had managed a handful of pre-season friendlies to Athletic's none and they soon began to take control of the game. Athletic kept plugging away, Pat worked very hard throughout the whole game and was unlucky not to prevent a goal when he harried and chased back all the way to the edge of the box, but a little misfortune saw the ball ricochet to the feet of a Wintney striker who made no mistake.

Nothing really went Athletic's way, Paul I was caught late on the edge of the Athletic box as he intelligently turned his man, only for the referee to wave play on, collect the loose ball and finish well.

Lee had little really to do other than collect the odd cross, but did do well to close the angle and save well as the Wintney striker bore down on goal.

A quick throw on and great work from Pat saw the ball cut back for Sam, but his close range snap shot was saved by an under worked Wintney keeper.

So the final score was 5-0 to Wintney, possibly a little flattering as although they dominated possession and looked the better side, Athletic doggedly hassled and harried them and were perhaps unlucky to lose by such a big margin.

Blog man of the match was James on debut, who had a great game at right back, well done James.

Next week's game sees Athletic visit their new home ground at Binstead as they plays hosts to Royal Exchange, a side that they beat twice and lost once last year. 10:30am kick off.

Up the Chawton!!