***Article written by Ian "EB" Gascoigne***
Guildford United Versus FC Shepperton pitted last season’s Div One winners against the runners up, adding a bit of spice to an otherwise unglamorous mid table clash. Shepperton’s recent league form has been up and down like a whores draws and this match was a good opportunity to get three points. Much of Shepperton’s recent poor form has been due to fact we have been unable to field our strongest team with 10 first team regulars missing the recent away loss to Guildford Rangers. The players were thus enthused to field a decent team with a welcome return for Tom, Burkett, King and Evo. We even had class on the bench in the form of Steve ‘I’m in love and away for the weekend’ Carter and Al ‘fashionista’ Durrant.
The first half was a gritty affair with the best chances falling to FC Shepperton. Leighton went closest to scoring but after selling their centre half a dummy he sold his talent short by dragging a left foot shot just wide of the far post. Another good opportunity was missed after EB played a sublime ball through to Scott which had the Guildford players checking the back of EB’s head to see if he had a second set of eyes, unfortunately Scott was unable to keep his shot down. Despite this Scotty was causing Guildford lots of problems on the right wing and the impressive trio of Callum, Aaron and Burkett were dominating the midfield battle. The back the three were more solid than Stone Henge but despite the pressure the first half finished without score.
At half time Denneh gave his usual speech of how we are the best footballing team in the world and if we continued to play the way we were not only would we win the game but we’d soon be in the Barclay's Premier League. Maybe more importantly King had a quick word with the Big Man above and asked for the chances in the 2nd half to fall to the old man up top. Would his prayers be answered? The confidence felt through the team soon took a dive as poor defending from a free kick allowed the ball to drop into our six yard box and the outstanding but unlucky Callum could do little but deflect the ball past King into his own net.
On 65 minutes Shepperton almost equalized after some great passing between the midfield trio and the big lump up top allowed Callum to release Leighton whose shot was well saved by their keeper. Unfortunately Shepperton had over committed and Guildford broke at speed to score a sucker punch of a goal on the counter. At this point King was starting to doubt his faith but despite the setback Shepperton didn’t let their collective heads drop and as a team continued to push. On 70 minutes Leighton broke clear, beat the last man, beat the keeper, ignored the screams of EB who was 10 yards out and unmarked, went back and beat the last two men, dropped the keeper to the floor, did a line of K, beat the right back, kept ignoring the SCREAMING EB’s pleas to square the ball for a tap in, beat another defender, did a keepy up then dropped the keeper to the floor one last time before finally shooting. Unfortunately the shot was blocked on the line by the two Guildford players who had strolled back to take up defensive positions, so close yet so far! However, all was not lost as the ball rebounded to Leighton who, sensing his strike partner was about to inflict a serious criminal offence on him, finally crossed the ball to allow EB to rise like a salmon and thump a powerful header home. Shepperton were back on top and the midfield five were causing all kinds of problems for the home team.
Carter, who had replaced the hard working Scott, was showing his skills and working well down the left flank with Leighton and the much improved James was doing well down the right. On 80 minutes Shepperton were level. Some lovely football played within midfield gave Aaron, surely the best player in the league, the ball 25 yards from goal where he picked a great ball to release young James. James used his pace to get goal side of the left back before pulling the ball back to the ever young and mobile EB to smash a finish into the near top corner for his 13th goal of the season. The celebrations were wild and it was no less than Shepperton deserved. By now the movement of EB upfront was too much for Guildford and on 85 minutes we nearly had a mass conversion to Christianity. It appeared Kings prayers had been answered with the old lad up top finding the back of the net for the 3rd time in 15 minutes. Some great work by Carter on the left created a chance for Leighton to whip a cross into the Guildford area where the movement of EB had left him with a free header 12 yards out. As per usual the big man was clinical heading the ball down and into the far top corner. Devine intervention had prevailed, Shepperton were ecstatic, King was looking to the heavens, EB was wheeling away arm raised like a young Alan Shearer only for disaster to strike as their manager raised yet another late flag to signal a very dubious offside. That was the last chance in the game and Guildford walked off feeling lucky to have got a point.
As with all things spiritual this left everyone with a degree of doubt and wondering if Kings prayers had really been answered? One player noted that as the lino raised the flag he saw horns coming out the top of his head. Were we part of some spiritual battle with EB as God’s messenger and the lino a conduit for the devils work? What is not in doubt is that 3-2 would have been a well-deserved result for a very good FC Shepperton performance. Let’s keep that team together and watch the points add up over the coming months.
