On the day that Lionel Messi hit his 86th goal of the calendar year to beat Gerd Mullers 40 year old scoring record, there were whispers of even greater scoring prowess occurring down on Wandsworth Common. Matt Wood, Clapham Alexandra captain and stalwart continued his golden streak in front of the old onion bag with his first ever hat-trick for the club, despite playing on the wing and fully hungover.
But this story is not just about individuals. As Messi himself responded, it was more important that we continued our winning run to stay in front of the chasing pack. And this is exactly what the mighty Alex did...
In front of a packed out bench of 2 (a couple of gorgeous Irish girls), the Clapham Alexandra started and finished this game in a solid and regimented fashion which resulted in a flattering 5-0 scoreline to the home team. The Alex set their stall out early with a 4-5-1 formation expertly marshalled by the ever-vocal Allcott and his willing partners in crime Stroud and Dey in the centre of the park. Tireless, relentless and inspiring, the 3 middle players set the tempo for the game and drove the Alex backwards and forwards with the natural ebb and flow of the game.
Gandy, best goalkeeper in the league was in typically imperious form. Fingertip saves over the bar in the first half led to him telling the ref that it was indeed a corner when no-one else believed this to be so. And this continued into the second half with a couple of fine one-on-one shutouts.
The defence, an ever-changing, malleable, organic machine saw new partnerships formed and miracles happen. Cheesman, Riley, Sanders, Simpkins. Legends.
Miller and Wood on each wing, prongs to Mantells blade cut through the defence with SWAGger Jagger. And it was indeed this combination of players which proved decisive in the battle of the final thirds. Whilst the opposition stubbornly stuck to their attractive passing game, the Alex forced them to wobble and mistakes cost them dearly.
Miller and Mantell set the tone with early volleyed strikes after melee’s in the area - important goals to put the Alex in the driving seat. Woody added a third just after half time when their keeper inexplicably passed the ball to him. Big mistake.
Allcott’s wise words at half time rallied the troops and a calmness descended over the players. But there were 45 big minutes left and the Alex had to step up to the plate.
SWAG continued to press with impressing total football style, but in the end substance won out. A throw-in on the right hand side fed Mantell for a flicked header into the box. Woody read the situation superbly and pounced with a header past the keeper from 6 yards out.
10 minutes later, Woody smelling blood with hints of hat-trick pounced on the opposition’s defensive frailty and passed the ball into the net from 8 yards. 5 goals were notched and the Alex march on triumphantly in the lead-up to the Christmas break.
Alex walk on water? I think you’ll find they’re now running...
