The Lions' season is truly up and running after a hard fought win against a team we failed to beat last season and who finished above us. Definitely a morale-boosting victory this, as we held onto a slender one-goal advantage for much of the game and only made the points safe late on in the match.
Line-up
Phil (GK)
Adam (RB), Matt R (CB), Simon (CB), Julian (LB)
Dale (CM), Lee (CM), JP (CM)
Nathan (RF), Scott (CF), Gary (LF)
The last time we played this lot at their ground, our players complained at length about the state of the pitch, mainly down to the grass being far too long. Tis time around it seems as though it had been cut to a decent length, but that was frankly the least of our worries. The Indian summer we'd enjoyed this month - right up to the day before the game - was well and truly washed away by constant rain that was never less than heavy and was frequently awful, more so towards the end.
Again it has to be said that the oppo had a lot of the ball early on and they were the ones getting the passes together and made an early threat on goal when their player went clear with the goalie to beat. Said goalie made the save, but the oppo did get an even better chance to go ahead but their player managed to spoon the ball over from a few yards out.
We weren't putting enough pressure on the ball up the pitch to begin with, but when we did, it paid off big time. Lee got hold of the ball on the left and got a shot away across the goal that the goalie could only scramble away into the path of Scott, who had a simple tap in to put us ahead. Against the run of play maybe, but the second was all down to fine work from Dale who closed down their right back deep in their half, got the ball of him and strode forward before unleashing a fierce shot into the top far corner.
It was all fairly even from that point with Dale repeating his robbery on the full-back and was unlucky to see his shot this time cannon back off the upright. At our goal, the conditions made the ball hard to handle and a goal was almost gifted to the oppo when a free kick was palmed away into the path of an attacker, but the shot just curled away from the far corner.
We weren't so lucky late on in the half, though, when a low free kick was again palmed away and this time their player slotted it into the corner.
A cold, rain-soaked team talk later and we were out for the second half that went much the same as the first. The other team seemed to dominate possession, moving it around very nicely but very rarely having the telling shot to show for it at the end. We defended well, with the back four of Julian, Matt, Simon and Richard doing superbly to clear our lines with some crucial headers and tackles. We had chances at the other end but the rain was becoming a real factor as puddles in the penalty box got larger and deeper, passes on the deck threw up more and more spray and making goal kicks with waterlogged boots proved nigh impossible. The longer the game went on, the more pressure we came under and the more tenuous our one-goal lead looked.
Up stepped Scott then to bag the two goals that made the game safe. His second of the day was the culmination of a great passing move involving Kris down the right, working the ball to Dale on the left of their penalty area. He then squared it to Scott for another simple poke past the keeper. His hat-trick was completed in style a couple of minutes later after Kev made a great run down the left and got a cross in to the forward. Scott deftly chipped the onrushing keeper to finally break Reigate's resistance.
In amongst all this, the oppo did get the ball in the back of the net from a corner but it was ruled out for a foul by one of their guys as he jumped for the ball in the area. They also tried to get the get game abandoned due to the state of their penalty area as the ball was hardly moving on the ground. Can't see them complaining that much if they had been 3-1 up, though.
As it was, it was a good 3 points earned against a quality team and Scott can say that for this week at least, he is top goal scorer for the season.
