Surbiton came out on top in the battle against their namesakes from Ewell to finally move out of the bottom three. Another great performance from the team as we came back from a goal down at half time to take the three points.
Line-up
Paige(GK)
Phil (RB), Simon (CB), Matt R (CB), Ollie (LB)
Jon (RM), JP (CM), Dale (CM), Kev (LM)
Scott (CF), Gregg (CF)
After a slightly delayed kick off - not sure if that was down to us waiting for Gregg and Kyle to eventually turn up - the Lions from Surbiton and Ewell got the game underway. We were having one of those days where for some reason, we just seemed flat and not really with it. That's been the case before and we've paid the penalty for not getting out of the blocks, sometimes for the whole of a first half.
Having said that we almost got the spark we needed when a good spell of pressure in the first minute almost brought about the first goal. Their keeper made a hash of a clearance under pressure and the ball came out to Jon who took a touch and sent the ball over the keeper's head towards goal. Time seemed to stop as the ball approached the goal then almost unbelievably, pinged off the top of the cross bar.
So no early goal for us on this occasion then and the game settled down into a series of exchanges with neither side getting too many shots in on goal as both defences held firm. We weren't playing that well though and we were having trouble clearing our lines and getting the defense up the pitch to work the offisde trap. Their goal came as a direct result of our inability to get the ball away from danger despite several opportunities to clear it out. The ball was bouncing around our half and despite us almost falling over each to clear the ball, we just couldn't get it away. It came out to their player on our left who ping over a cross which was met by their tall forward for an all too easy unchallenged header (my fault as I should have gone with him) into the net.
They had a free kick just outside our area which was dealt with easily enough by Paige. He kept us in the game when one of their guys was clear through on goal and his fierce shot was just diverted over the cross bar via Paige's wrists. At the other end Gregg, Ollie and Dale had shots of varying accuracy at goal, Gregg had a goalbound header tipped over the bar and Jon sent a first time volley wide of the right hand post. Gregg also got sent through and it needed a good save by the keeper to deny him.
We were starting to get into the game after our slow start and we finished the half strongly. As JP noted at half time, we had played pretty badly for most of the half, but we were still only one goal down. We really needed to lift ourselves for the second half if we were to get anything from the game.
To be fair, we did just that. We pressured the ball and started creating more and more chances. Kev had a great game on the left, skinning their right back at will and pinging in several crosses. Scott got on the end of one of those and shot just wide. Kris who'd come on for Jon, also had the measure of his marker down the right and the game was opening up for us. Our equalizer came from Gregg being sent through by Scott and this time he buried it past the keeper. We were on top and the tackles started flying in and the chances kept coming. Scott was frustratingly denied when he met a low cross from Kev with a shot that beat the keeper but was then cleared off the line by the recovering defender.
Ewell's discipline started to crack in the face of our onslaught , but they almost got back into the lead when their nippy little striker drove a first time volley that pinged off the inside of our right post with the ball going right across the face off the goal to be picked up by Ollie who got it away down the field.
I think this actually led to our second goal as the ball found it's way to Kev, who got it down the wing and into their penalty area. The next couple of seconds saw shots at goal by Gregg, Scott then Dale in quick succession but it was left to Kris to poke the ball home from close range despite the efforts of the defender on the line trying to palm it back out.
Ewell were really on the ropes and starting to argue amongst themselves. We were more solid in defence for the second half, with Paige was relatively untroubled and we always looked more likely to score than they did. So it proved, although there was a bit controversy about our last goal. The ball went down the left and was picked up by Gregg close to the touchline. A couple of the Ewell players claimed it had actually gone out, but play went on. Gregg passed to Scott badly miscued his shot but then showed enough presence of mind to recover the ball and pick out Gregg who turned it in for his second of the match.
Ewell's misery was completed by their forward walking off about 30 seconds before the ref blew for time and throwing his shirt to the ground in disgust. We didn't care, we'd come from behind to win a game for the first time this season and shown spirit and quality in doing so. Big date next Sunday as we take on Epsom Rangers, the team with a 100% record so far, in a double header. If we keep this form going, who knows where it'll take us...
