A tight game between well-matched teams was decided by goals late in the second half, with the Lions holding on to claim their first clean sheet of the season.
For the first time in 5 seasons, a Lions home fixture fell on on Remembrance Sunday and on arrival at the ground, it became apparent why this day is usually avoided by the Elmbridge pitch allocation staff. The war memorial that is right next to the ground becomes the destination for a full on parade complete with marching band and the central location for the population of West Molesey to gather to pay their respects at the open air service. Bit awkward then to have 22 grown men running around shouting at each other in the background of a minister solemnly going through his reading.
Thankfully, every man and his dog kindly dropped by before and during the game to remind us what day it was and that it would be nice if we could stop running around at 11 am for a bit. The teams needed no such persuasion to do this and we observed the silence impeccably. I will also add that given the large numbers of people around and near the ground (did wonders for our attendance figures!), including lots of little kids, the players on both teams were amazingly restrained in their use of loud colourful language. Who says football is the gentleman's game played by thugs?
Anyway, back to the actual point of this report, which was a game that for a long time looked as if it was going to end in a stalemate. It was our usual story of us creating so many chances that we just couldn't put away. Max hit the post early on, Nelson skied one over the bar after being nicely set up in the area by Max and the opposition goalie pulled off a couple of excellent saves in the first half. He tipped over a hefty drive from Rob I think, then was lightning quick in coming off his line to deny first Max then Nelson. The closest we came was when a corner whipped in by Ben was headed out only as far as Nelson hanging on the edge of the six yard area. He struck an instinctive low volley back across the face of the goal that was somehow diverted away by the keeper for another corner.
Old Boys hit the bar with a header from a corner and had a couple of potshots from range, but the more clear-cut chances were definitely falling to us: we just weren't taking them. Even the half-chances were stacking up on our side, although some of the shots were definitely leaning on the speculative side as the half came to a close.
After last week's alarming second half dip in performance, we came out strong after the interval this time and we dominated the game, putting some sustained pressure on the Old Boy's goal. But still the chances went begging. Rob had a point blank effort saved by the keeper. Max, Nelson and Ben saw efforts go agonisingly wide. From one of our corners, Ahmed made great contact with a stooping header from the edge of the area that beat everybody except the guy doing his defensive duty on the post. The more chances that were missed, the more that nagging feeling grew that we could end paying badly for them.
So the eventual breakthrough was greeted with an overwhelming sense of relief, even if was harsh on their goalie, who had an otherwise excellent game. On a counter-attack, Ben slipped a through ball to Max who hit a low shot that 9 times out of 10, the keeper would have stopped. Luckily for us, not so luckily for Old Boys, this was the 1 time when the ball went through the keeper's hands into the net.
No more than we deserved for all the pressure, but now we were anxious to get the next one for some breathing space. Old Boys came close with a curling shot from a tight angle that kissed the face of the bar with Paul beaten. Their keeper made another great save low to his left to keep out a sidefooted shot from Harry. Nelson had the opportunity to double our lead after seeming to be through on goal, but he missed the target and would end up goalless in a game for the first time this season.
Our killer goal came late in the game and was a clear penalty won by Max, tripped in the area as he tried to do another of his twisty little runs. Harry had the ball in his hands and on the spot before the ref's whistle had finished echoing around the ground, but to his credit his penalty was put solidly past the keeper and left the Lions breathing a little easier.
Old Boys weren't done though and tried hard to get back into the game. Paul had to use his full height to tip over a goal bound header from a corner late in the game. He hadn't had too much to do up to that point, but this bit of goalkeeping magic ensured that after leaking 10 goals in our last two games, we achieved a first clean sheet of this campaign. A very different sort of win from the previous week, but one that we'll gladly take.
