Whyteleafe Res  1 – 2  Leatherhead Res

The first thing that happened was Greg Andrews was handed the captain’s armband. A managerial master stroke as for the first time all season, he didn’t give the ref any bunny. The next thing was John Heath took so long saying what he had to say, that by the time Barry had finished, the bell rang. Well, I didn’t have much to say anyway. Nice one John.

So on the back of a 2-week break, with players playing out of position and with a couple of new faces it was always going to get off to an uncertain start. And the first 15 minutes or so were a bit untidy but we’re not second in the league for nothing and once we started to get to know each other, it picked up.

With the two of Snow White’s little mates playing upfront against the Goliath twins, we started to play the ball into feet and supporting from deep with some success. The two wide men attacked from deeper but worked hard to get back and the two central midfielders quickly built an understanding on supporting and holding. Not holding each other, I hasten to add.

The back four started as steadily as usual with whoever wasn’t attacking the ball instinctively getting the cover on and Superglue started well between the sticks only spilling the ball when nudged unfairly.

Despite some lunges from the opposition which fell somewhere between dangerous and a Jet Li impression, we kept our composure and concentrated on playing football. Even Grumpy Greg !

The breakthrough came on 24 mins when Elliot Ness proved he was untouchable, dancing past his marker, playing the ball into Grumpy Greg’s feet, receiving it back on the edge of the box and going on to slot home. 0-1 to us.

But they say you’re most vulnerable when you’ve just scored and within a minute their GK launched a long one down the middle. In response, Sacha and Antonio were ever so polite to each other (in a pantomime sort of way).
“You have it”  “No you have it” they seemed to say as they stood side by side watching the ball dissect them. “Ok, I’ll have it” said their striker as he bombed on for a one-on-one which he slipped tidily past Superglue. 1-1.

But it wasn’t long before we got the lead back as Antonio made amends for his part in the Xmas panto. Having got over the half-way line (without incurring a nosebleed) he found himself wide on the right and struck a beautiful diagonal ball into the channel behind their right back to Matt (do I ever look as if I fancy it?) Francis.

17 shimmies later, Francis got onto his right foot and struck the ball as clean as a whistle across the goal into the far right corner. It was nothing less than we deserved and we went in at half time leading 2-1.

The second half was a fairly tight affair with chances at each end, which could have been taken but it was one of those games where you just knuckle down and grind out a result. Our discipline in the face of a few late tackles (one of them didn’t hit the ground until Wednesday) was outstanding and the maturity shown in seeing the game out by not charging forward late on was superb.

One notable factor of the second half was just before Jon Dale replaced Elliott on 65 mins. He set of for his warm-up down the line wearing one of those blue all-in-one padded suits. The last time I saw anyone like that, he was sitting on the roof of a yellow van with ‘Michelin’ written all over it. Does anyone need tyres?

Anyway, well done boys. The truth is we were technically the better side and showed that in hard conditions or a physical game, we can still compete. An opinion graciously seconded by their Manager Roger Hoyte after the game.

Brett Walker
(Reserve Team Coach)