A huge league game this week for the 4s could not have begun worse with player dropouts galore ensuring that George spent the morning frantically looking for players for an away game in Dorking-no easy task. After a morning cry off from Neil, the 4s were temporarily down to 9. Thankfully, a very charitable Dusty was willing to let two players leave his 5s squad to join the 4s for the afternoon. The two lucky people able to switch a home game for an away game in the middle of nowhere were Tinashe and Joel, who must recieve great credit for agreeing to play for us so far away on such short notice.
Travelling down to Dorking with a bare 11 was not ideal and it turned out to be the case when Kev got himself injured inside 15 minutes and Owen got sent off with 35 minutes to go. To meads great credit, goals from Sam, Owen and George in the first half were enough for Meads to hold on for the 3 points, which they needed to give their league campaign a much needed boost.
With a bare 11, another new centreback pairing of Joe and Andy, a new right back in Craig and Joel having to play in an unfamiliar left back position, the defence was very much new in the making. This may have contributed to the slightly shaky start that Meads made, with Dorkinians taking an early lead after a good run down the left from their pacy winger. Meads were lucky to not already be behind when Dorkinians' striker bundled the ball home after Jake's fumble but the ref saw an infringement and disallowed the goal. The goal was the wake up call that Meads needed and they started to show some glimpses of recovery. Attacks were showing incision and Meads were getting joy going forward.
With attacks becoming more threatening, Meads felt the equaliser was soon to arrive, and it duly did, when some nice play down the left resulted in george getting the ball with his back to goal on the left hand side of the box. George turned his defender nicely and fired the ball across the goalmouth where Sam, who had made a typical poachers run, made decent contact to divert it goalwards and Meads had their equaliser. With some renewed confidence Meads grew into the game. The back 4 were now settled with Craig also proving a threat from right back where he was ably supporting Matt up the right wing.
Meads soon took the lead when a nice ball from Joe over the top was well converted by Owen, who waited for the keeper to come out before slotting easily past him into the corner. The ball was stopping up quickly on the stodgy pitch, something that was inhibiting play early on but, as evidenced by Joe's pass for the goal, was now being used by Meads to good effect. With Meads now in confident mood, they took full control of the game after some good play down the right from Matt, Sam and Craig. Sam got a freekick on the right hand side and Owen's outswinger was headed expertly into the far corner by George, with the ball looping out of reach of the keepers dive. 3-1, in the space of 15 minutes, Meads had turned the game on its head. There were a few scares and similar half chances for Meads as the half was seen out. HT 3-1.
Meads started the second half as brightly as they had finished the half and another chance was created after only a couple of minutes. Some more good work down the right resulted in Craig finding himself on the byline with time to make a cup of tea. Taking his time, he decided George was the best option. Unfortunately, Craig did not know George as he had never played with him before, so he didnt realise that even if George was 4 yards out with an open goal, he was probably not the best option, Kev on the halfway line was probably a better option. Craig, however, did pass to George and George somehow managed to miss from 4 yards out with whole goal gaping. There was a collective sigh from Meads as George trudged back head in hands. Knowindd g that there must now be a Dorkinians revival to make us pay for the miss we thought we would let them score to make the game intresting; a good through ball was nicely finished by their striker, leaving Jake with no chance.
Not satisfied with missing an open goal to seal the game, and then conceding to make the game intresting, Meads (or more specifically, Owen) decided to really add some drama to the occassion. Annoyed by another poor decision by the ref Owen lost his cool somewhat and swore at the ref. Whilst the ref was within his rights to send Owen off, it seemed harsh and I would suggest that only 1 or 2 refs out of 10 would have taken such action. Owen, rather than being the villain of the piece, was more the "straw that broke the camels back" as Sam suggested afterwards, with the ref becoming increasingly frustrated with both teams for chatting back.
Meads needed to hang on for 35 minutes with 10 men, which also included Kev, who would have gone off with a hamstring injury if we had a sub, but valiantly carried on. Despite only having 10 men, it was actually Meads who created the better chances in the last 35 minutes. The game could have been sealed by both George and Matt; George poking wide of the target and Matt firing his shot at the keeper. With the game in the balance, Meads needed everyone to be switched on and Jake showed he was with a great save from a shot. The ball seemed to ricochet and Jake threw himself to his left and tapped the ball post the post with a fingertip save. Apart from that and a few good puches, Jake was relatively untroubled. This was largely down to a good performance by the back 4 who had settled into their new surroundings quickly. Tinashe and Joe were also working well in tandem down the left with Tinashe providing good cover as well as good cover for Joel.
Meads managed to hold on to secure the 3 points and make the long journey back home happy. It was a great team performance with everyone working very hard. Sam and George put in a great shift up front, troubling their defence throughout and creating chances for themselves and others. But, MOM went to Craig for his debut performance at right back. Vocal, strong in the tackle and composed on the ball, he deservedly took the MOM award for the week in what may transpire as his only performance with the 4s.
