Clapham Alexandra pulled off one of the results of the weekend on Sunday, thrashing then top of the table Llamas FC 4-0 in a classic encounter on the common.
What was most satisfying was the manner of the victory, rather than the result itself with Clapham playing a fluid, slick, and dynamic style of football throughout. At times, The Alexandrians were simply irresistible finally given the opportunity to play their trademark brand of incisive passing football with the pitch going good to firm and a light rain falling.
The game started brightly with Clapham dominating the early exchanges. In attack, Mantell and Wardle looked bright, and White and Lavery both made telling contributions, fed by the industrious Mountain and Black commanding the centre of the park. At the back, some much needed firmness was being achieved, with the back four holding a tight line and taking the opportunity to get the ball down and retain possession.
The Alex looked capable from the off, and tested the Llamas' defence with some early set pieces. Then, in the 12th minute, a passage of flowing play emanating from the back saw the ball break to Mountain, who threaded it through to Wardle to touch on to the advancing Black, who supplied Mantell with a sumptuous through ball which sat up beautifully for last season's top scorer to open his account for the season with a crisp finish into the bottom right hand corner.
It looked as if the floodgates had opened, as Clapham streamed forward, creating further chances, notably with Mountain feeding Lavery through only to see his effort well saved by the onrushing 'keeper in the 17th minute. Mountain himself then saw a daisy-cutting effort from the edge of the box low to the 'keeper’s right pushed wide in the 21st.
Clapham were very much in the ascendancy, and were winning everything, with Mountain building the foundations of his man of the match performance with a domineering aerial performance coupled with some real strength and quality distribution on the ball.
The first real test of the Riley, Templeman, Cheesman and Moore's defensive nouse came from a Llamas corner in the 25th minute, from the left side of the Alexandra box, an outswinger went in deep to evade every Red shirt only for the unmarked Llamas centre half to crack his header off the crossbar. A shaky moment, but the only effort of note from the boys in yellow.
Clapham continued to dominate and it was a moment of inspiration that saw them further their lead in the 28th minute. Wardle, in for the bang-in-form Miller, who injured himself in the warm-up came up with one to tell the grandchildren about.
Rolfe gathered a loose ball from a tame punt forward by the Llamas' back line, and fed it along the ground to Cheesman at right full back, who spotted the run of Wardle along the backline and found him with a glorious 45 yard pass delivered with pinpoint accuracy. In one fluid movement, Wardle controlled the ball expertly with the outside of his right boot, bringing it down to bounce up at the perfect height for him to smash a spectacular volley over the keeper and into the roof of the Llamas' net from all of 25 yards. He doesn't score many, but when he does - they're a bit special.
Clapham were 2-0 up and in some style, playing an attractive passing game and dominating proceedings. The Llamas looked a broken and beaten team, but The Alexandrians were not going to let this lead go, and looked in fine shape to continue to increase their stranglehold on the game.
It wasn't long before they did, with another slick passing move involving all of the attacking players being flicked on by Wardle into the path of his strike partner Mantell, who hammered the ball goalwards only to see it stopped by the Llamas goalie. Mantell's momentum carried him forward and the ball rebounded back off the Llamas' stopper to hit him plum in the, shall we say, plums, and trickled into the empty net. As they say - they all count. 3-0 to Clapham Alexandra.
As the half-time whistle went, Clapham left the field to widespread applause, and could go in for their half-time oranges extremely satisfied with a performance with all the hallmarks of their ethos.
The second half continued very much in the same vein as the first, with The Alex completely wiping the floor with the opposition. Lavery from close range, Mountain from the edge of the box, Black who was put through after a delightful move involving the frontmen, and Wardle from range all had chances to increase the lead, with the defenders doing a commendable job at the back as the Llamas tried in vain to mount some sort of comeback.
The final goal came when a right sided corner was drilled in low to the near post by Wardle, bobbling around in a scramble where Riley, Mantell and Moore were only just beaten to the ball by a combination of the Llamas defence, who managed to clear only as far as Mountain, who capped a classy personal performance by cracking it in low from 18 yards into the back of the Llamas net via the faintest of unintentional touches from Riley.
4-0 the scoreline after 80 minutes. The game was wrapped up and despite the Llamas' best efforts in the final 10 minutes, and a couple of Alexandra half-chances, that's the way it finished.
Great to see the Alex fulfilling their potential, and in what fashion as well. They have shown with this performance what a good side they are, and if they can maintain this, they should, by rights, be challenging for honours come the end of the season.
Mountain took the man of the match gong, and rightly so, but this was all about how well the Alex can play as a team as much as anything else.
