Squad:

 
Lawrence
Jim
Kevin
Grant
Rob
Les
Colin
George
Toony

Our second game of the week saw us travel to Ham Street to take on Ashford in a tricky away fixture. It’s always a difficult game not least for the travelling, the pitch surface and dimensions leave us out of our comfort zone, throw in 6 aside as well to give us an extra hurdle to climb. In an ideal world the same team would have started from the weekend but unfortunately this was never an option.

Having said that we started off pretty well, keeping possession and were quickly rewarded as Kevin finished with a well placed left footed shot that found the corner of the goal. Now for a bit of bad luck, it brought back memories of Shoreditch all those years ago, if you were there on the day you know what happened, if you weren’t then Lawrence loves retelling what occurred. Anyway back to the present, a speculative long shot thundered towards our goal albeit a bit high, the ball struck the metal fence behind the goal ricocheting off at an unusual angle rebounding off our surprised keeper and in to the goal; a complete fluke but nonetheless scores level. However, we were not to be derailed as we pushed the home team back and deservedly retook the lead through Les. The rest of the half was reasonably even as we had to adjust to our opponents who changed their shape to try and get back in to the match.

As with our last game all the goals were scored in the first half. It wasn’t for the lack of effort that we couldn’t make the score more comfortable as we had numerous chances to give our dominance the breathing space deserved in our performance, we either narrowly missed or found the home keeper in inspired form. Our overall team display was excellent, we kept our shape really well and on the occasions that we were pulled out of position that gap was filled by a team mate, our midfield four of Colin, Kev, Rob and Grant were the difference between the two teams as they controlled, tackled, passed and covered space that was the mainstay of our second victory on the trot. It goes without saying that despite his bit of bad luck Lawrence was his dominant self between the sticks.

So we then retired to the pub for some excellent hospitality for which we thank Ashford for as ever. It shows what a great bunch we have as it seemed no one could escape from Toony’s wit as we all had a good laugh; in the end a thoroughly rewarding trip.

Thanks also to the referee who although letting a few challenges go, mostly at the expense of Les, controlled the game in a fair manner. Also Tony Old for his work on the sideline and all the drivers.

To sum up, yes Colin we did win 2-1.