Football is back after the winter break. A more competitive Division 2 awaited Bexley Athletic as they begun their fourth season with indispensable Peter Baulsom at the helm. Good-byes had been said to Josh Davenport Braes and Calum Heard, with John Church making his competitive return. As usual, the 17 man squad quickly became 11 during the week with Sam playing wide left.
Goals Eltham would be a new away venue for Bexley. Thankfully, 11 players were available at about 10:15. Bexley were understandably cautious going into the game knowing opponents FC London Boys had demolished their opponents 10-1 last week. From the kick off it was clear they were a footballing side; short passing with players peeling off to open up space. With Bexley showing their opponents far too much respect London Boys capitalised to score an early goal. A sharp attack negotiated the ball into the danger, with a snap volley around Lee beating Dan.
Bexley found their way into the game and played some decent football of. Mark’s possession philosophy begun to pay dividends. Elton did well to set up James Hall who unfortunately couldn’t find the target. Elton would fashion a chance of his own at the near post, with Matty B going for it from long range later in the half. It wasn’t long before the good football produced a well deserved equaliser. Elton obviously meant to air kick his left footed volley, and it was this unbelievable bit of skill which confused the defence opening up the space to chip the ball onto Laurie’s head for the goal.
At the back Bexley controlled the threat well with both the defence and midfield making valued contributions. James Hall put in a decent shift tracking back as well. A ferocious shot wide, and Kev’s suicidal header the only real worries of the first half. Bexley edged in front ten minutes before the break. Lee cleared/passed the ball towards Elton who nicked it off the nearby defender and struck a fine effort through the keeper. Bexley went into half time 2-1 up, and relieved captain Mark Baulsom emerged uninjured after being cynically hacked down by the corner flag.
The message was driven in at half time not to get complacent. However, the referee had obviously got bored and wanted to take centre stage. A series of questionable minor decisions earlier in the game was compounded by a ridiculous decision to award a penalty after a perfectly timed tackle from Kev. Fortunately, Pete flagged and convinced the ref to take a dose of common sense and overturn the decision. This reaped its benefits as Bexley got the crucial third goal. Mark’s much improved corners led to a scramble and an own goal of an FC London player.
The home side appeared somewhat hard done by to be two goals down, but Bexley had clearly stepped up a level from last year, maintaining the good defending, physically dominating the midfield, and creating chances. Two of these chances were from Dan setting up Elton, but the striker couldn’t live up to the distributional ability of his keeper.
More dismal refereeing would follow. James was given a massive 2 seconds to take a free kick before getting booked for time wasting. Then, Laurie touched an attacker in the box resulting in a penalty; which was dispatched well low into the corner. The show wasn’t over. The referee decided he wanted to caution someone else for no reason, it was a tough choice, but Rob was the lucky who apparently verbally abused the poor man.
3-2 and the pressure was back on. Credit to Bexley, they did not melt. Matty and Laurie continued to dominate the midfield, the FC London captain spending much of the game in Laurie’s pocket waiting for the final whistle. Aside from the penalty, FC London Boys achieved zero shots on target in the second half, with one long range shot of note, a yard wide. The final minutes were made easier as EGL sealed the win with a pea roller at the near post. Having made a brilliant double save from Elton and Laurie earlier, the FC London keeper revealed he was too intoxicated to save Elton’s late strike .
Opening day, fifth place. More importantly, New Eltham next week with a different referee.
