The Lions finally got the chance to avenge the only League defeat inflicted upon them this season and took it in fine style, running out 3-1 winners in difficult conditions. Rain and wind lashed the inclined pitch at Bookham's home ground and the Lions used every advantage to score two late second half goals to seal the win.
Line-up:
Paige (GK)
Kyle (RB), Simon (CB), Matt R (CB), Julian (LB)
Lee (CM), JP (CM), Nathan (CM)
Gregg (RF), Scott (CF), Gary (LF)
The Chrystie Rec pitch is never a pleasure to play on but despite being cut up in the middle and in the goal areas, it had stood up surprisingly well to the constant rain over the weekend. We started off playing uphill (anyone who's played there will know what a difference this makes) and despite a scrappy first half characterised by wayward passes and weak challenges, both sides created good chances. If anything Bookham slightly shaded it as they seemed to be able to find each other better with their passes, though they didn't help their cause by constantly straying offside. That was also down to us having a much better defensive line than last week.
Gary, Nathan and Scott had some sighters at goal, but none of them really required a save from the keeper. It was the oppo who took the lead with a ball through the middle that beat the offside and left their man one-on-one with Paige who was beaten by the low shot.
We kept our heads up this time and got the reward when Gregg chased down a long ball down the right and fired in a low cross that Gary managed to get to. It took a couple of attempts, but he finally managed to poke it into the net. Paige had to produce a good one-handed save low to his left to keep things level before half time but we went into the interval feeling the stronger team.
We were much improved in the second half and started testing their keeper in earnest. He made some good saves from Gary cutting in from the left and Scott (a little hungover on his birthday) and made a great save first from Gregg running clean through on goal then from Dale on the follow-up.
We defended well with Kyle doing an exceptional job on the right making some good interceptions. Gary was getting wound up by the number of times he was being flagged for offside and finally lost it enough to have to be restrained by Nathan and received a caution for his trouble.
They went very close with a shot that just went wide of the post, but almost immediately after that, Gary slotted in a low shot past the keeper to takes us ahead. We continued to defend stoically and in the last minute got another one through Nathan following up a shot after the keeper scrambled away an effort from Dale.
So 3 more points, crucially picked up against on the teams around us and a fine way to bounce back from the disappointment of last week.
