The Lions achieved a record score against the 10 men of Royal Oak as they hit double figures in a match for the first time. The previous best was 9-0 against Castle Hill (a very, very long time ago, because that certainly wouldn't happen now) and it could well have been more, though we'll get to that later.
Though Royal Oak could only muster 10 men for the whole game, we ourselves were forced to start a man short as well. In fact, at the designated kick-off time, we only had 8 ready to play. We got the game delayed long enough for a couple of late arrivals to bring us up to match Oak and start the game. And before the really late arrivals turned up, we were already ahead.
An early corner caused all manner of scrambling in the six-yard area, which ended up with Nelson being in close proximity to the ball just before it went in. No-one seemed too sure how it got in apart from Nelson who obviously claimed the goal as any good striker would do. However it happened, we were off the mark.
Mussa slotted into the right centre-back position to bring us up to full strength and the stage was set for us to take apart a bottom-two team with our man advantage. Only we made it much harder for ourselves than we needed to throughout the first-half. Our passing was a bit lacklustre at times and needlessly gave possession and impetus to our opponents too often, who weren't bad going forward. In fact, if their main striker had made the most of his opportunities, we could have been pegged back or worse after our early strike. He volleyed a shot high over the bar after three Lions players converged on a long goal kick and Nick unfortunately headed the ball backwards into the Oak player's path. On another occasion, he again sent the ball over from a cutback, when he had time and space to place it. He did get a goal eventually but not before we'd already increased our lead through two excellent team goals.
Our passing was starting to click when we were going forward and our best work came from quick interchanges from our midfield to our strikers. Nelson got his second after being set up with athrough ball from Scott. His third goal started from an Oak throw-in by our own penalty area that Ed cleared downfield to Gary. He exchanged a nice one-two with Scott, before carrying possession down Oak's left hand touchline then squaring to Nelson to tap in for his second-easiest goal of the game.
Royal Oak came back into it with a decent strike from their main striker, who was left all alone on our left to bang one into the top corner that Jamie could do nothing about. He was covering in goal because all three of our (more or less) regular goalies are currently injured and did distinguish himself by tipping a hefty strike over the bar but was mostly well protected by his defence.
Harry hit the corner of post and bar with strike, a few other chances went close but we never really looked like we had a man advantage as we ended the half. We were maybe a little too complacent in the first half, so we stepped up for the second and reaped the rewards.
Nathan went in goal as Jamie had to leave and Ahmed took his place in defence. Royal Oak held out for a bit but once the goals started they became an avalanche:
Nick, who was making the most of the "winger" part of the wing-back role in this game, was getting the opportunity to put in lots of crosses from the left and one such peach was met sweetly by Nelson with a full length dive to head in for his fourth of the game.
Almost immediately afterwards, a Lions player got upended in the area and Harry as usual was on the spot to take the pen and again as usual, buried it past the keeper. Given previous problems the Lions have had with putting penalties away, a regular, reliable spot-kick taker is something to be appreciated.
Ben got his first of the day after a corner was half-cleared to him just inside the area and he showed a nice touch to set himself up for a half-volley into the bottom left corner. He got his second soon after (sorry, mind has blanked on how this happened, will add details later)
Our newest recruit, Fabion came on as a left-sided midfielder and set up a couple of chances with some quality crossing. Scott got his head onto one them to get the second of his two goals. His first was another nice bit of first time control with a single touch from a through ball before hitting a low shot past the keeper.
Our scoring was rounded out by another Fabion cross finding Harry who hit a first time shot high into the corner.
There were plenty of other chances for us to add to the scoreline, with Scott, Rob, Ben and even Ahmed (who was pretty much playing box-to-box in an effort to get on the scoresheet) going close. Their keeper made an excellent one-handed save to deny a certain goal as we pretty much dominated the second half.
Royal Oak had their moments to threaten us on the break and we did look slightly shaky at the back on a couple of occasions, including one where an Oak player somehow managed to get through two of our defenders, but fortunately couldn't find a finish. Nath, didn't actually have a save to make, so kept himself interested by taking the sweeper-keeper role to a new level, dribbling past a couple of players from inside his area and taking the ball nearly up to the halfway line before remembering why he was wearing those big white things on his hands and passing it on.
The game ended in bizarre fashion when the ref blew the final whistle after our last goal went in with about six minutes to play. Apparently, someone from Royal Oak asked if he could finish it early as they'd had enough. The fact that the oppo had asked for this was a bit a of joke in itself (maybe it was actually meant as such) but for the ref to actually do it was just ever so slightly annoying. In the argument that followed, Royal Oak contended that it was fair because we had delayed the kick off waiting for our players. B******s. Delayed kick off doesn't mean a shortened-game in a league fixture where goal difference can come into play (and whose to say they couldn't have scored in that time?) and they certainly wouldn't have asked for it if they'd been 10-1 up after we'd delayed.
Bit of a downer to end an historic day on. The hefty shift in goal difference and more importantly the three points, means that we end 2017 in second place, splitting the Albion teams for the first time. Both those teams lost today (first defeat for their first team all season) but it's still very tight amongst the top 5 sides. Our first game in the New Year is against Albion Reserves and this is where we really need to find the goals. Our record so far against the teams around us isn't great (played 2, lost 2, 0 goals scored) so we need to hit the ground running in 2018 .
But that is quite literally for another year. If you've made it this far through my ramblings, to all the players, past and present and anyone else who happens to read this, a Merry Christmas toyou and yours from Surbiton Lions.
See you next year.
