Despite 2 easy victories for us over the opposition last year they showed on the opening day that they are much better this season so we prepared as such and produced an assured, comfortable victory. We put the pressure on very early and straight from the off we managed to score when Mikey whipped a corner in which was fumbled by the keeper against the post and in. The next half an hour was full of Reigate domination and chances but we failed to convert until about half an hour in Brock played Mikey in one on one and he made no mistake to make it 2-0. We were attacking with all sorts of threat with the pace of Smith and Mikey terrorising the defenders and the balls in were coming from all heights and angles with the boys up top chasing them down and forcing a lot of pressure helped by the wingers giving the full backs a lot of trouble. We nearly made it 3 when Brock hit the bar with a header and unfortunatly his goal drought continues but continues to provide a serious engine and quality in the middle. We were comfortable at half time but we needed 1 or 2 more goals to put the match to bed.
As per usual the 2nd half started and the standard 20 minutes of opposition pressure after going ahead ensued and Charlwood really took the game to us for the first 20 mins of the 2nd half but the defence were equal to absolutely everything with the whole back 4 making no mistakes and when the rare mistake went in Damo was there to easily cover and Charlwood had no real chances to trouble us with. The game looked done and dusted 70 minutes in when the referee pointed his arm in the direction of the penalty spot when Rob was brought down on the edge of the box. After spending years doing the damage at the back Rob is now on the recieving end of a torrent of tackles from full backs that can't get near him and it's providing dividends with penalties week in week out. On this rare occasion though the keeper made a fine save and Charlwood still had belief that they could get back into the game but that was switfly swatted away when a couple of minutes later Rob put the full back on toast once again and a poor clearance from the keeper saw the ball fall to Alex Smith on the edge of the box for him to score his first goal in the red and white and will certainly be the first of many! The rout was finished when club hero/legend/lemon drizzle connoisseur John Gillett peeled off the defender and tapped in a superb Rob Wigley cross to finish off the rout to wild celebrations from the Reigate bench.
Overall an excellent performance with the defence unbreakable and getting a deserved clean sheet, Damo excellent when called upon, Midfield running the show with plenty of turbo charged engine and the strikers causing absolute chaos and then the subs made an impact when coming on. Excellent performance, excellent attitude and an excellent result.
Joint Managers/Twitter Fan Club Operator Comments -
Cracking performance today gents. Excellent performances all over the pitch every one of you stepped it up a level today! Excellent football, great chat, attitude and ultimately an extremely clinical performance. Lovely to get our first clean sheet of the season as well.
Defensively very strong today. Damo had a cracking game and the defensive pairing of Woodman and Lewy is really coming along. Smith and Chuck assured at the back. Both wingers were dangerous all game, Tulleyand Brock excellent in the middle and both strikers terrorised them all day. Subs came on and made a real impact. So many positives out of today's game.
I went for stuart tulley today, it's not easy playing 2 in the middle against 3 for the opposition. His tireless running all day which often goes unnoticed meant the defence had that extra support and gave both wingers and Brock a license to go forward. Real team performance today from tulley. So many others could have got the nod so challenging to give honourable mentions without naming our other 12 players , that's the way it should be ðŸ˜Â
The key is to keep this momentum going now, we know we have and extra couple of gears so back to the drawing board training Tuesday and another great game next Sunday.
Once again well done gents!!
