Epsom & Ewell Football Club

A five-star performance from the Salts was extremely welcome as we recorded our biggest win of the season so far by thrashing Dorking 5-0. But you wouldn’t have seen this coming after twenty minutes of a very even looking contest.

We were able to get a bit more balance back into our side this week, following the return to the starting eleven of Jamie Hatfield and Jamie Summers, after suspension and illness respectively. Alex McKay and Paul West were both out as were Ali Dewar and Sam Robinson, but in all honesty they weren’t missed as a pair of great performances in midfield from Nathan Ayling and Carl Downs handed us the initiative and never let it go.

We signalled our intentions with just 40 seconds on the clock when Matt Smith got away down the right and his shot across the goal was going in the corner but was tipped away by our former keeper Dan Coles, now enhancing his reputation at Meadowbank. It was just unfortunate for Coles that he was to be let down by an abject performance from the four defenders in front of him.

Ayling shot just wide of the near post on the twenty-minute mark, while a snap volley went straight into the arms of the grateful Adrian Jones at the other end. A few minutes later a deep corner had the visitors in trouble and a defender blocked Mark Jarman’s goal bound effort. There were significant appeals for a penalty, but the referee was in a poor position, the same side of the field as his assistant, and wouldn’t have been able to tell from where he was.

In the 29th minute we broke through. Or I should say, the excellent Jamie Cottee broke through. From out wide on the left he got to the touchline and just kept going. It was another mazy run and our decision to play two up front paid off as Jarman was on the end of his low cross for a classic close range poacher’s finish.

Jarman’s reward for this was to get kicked, earning the Dorking 7 a yellow card and a defender headed the resulting free kick behind. From the corner, Cottee just beat Coles to the ball, but the keeper still got a hand on it. The ball looped up in one of those slow-motion type of moments before Jamie Summers leapt in salmon-like, heading the ball into the net between static defenders who clearly thought they had time to let the ball drop first.

Another Cottee cross, this time from the right wing had Dorking all over the place as Jarman and the visiting number 9 both went in for the ball. The defender got there first and smashed the ball straight against the shins of his own keeper and away. A foot either side and we’d have had a great own goal to laugh about, but nothing was going to spoil the day for the Salts who were by now totally dominant against a side who knew the game was up.

Of course as supporters and players, you can’t relax at 2-0 and our players kept working. A looping Smith header from a Jarman cross was headed off the line at full stretch by a defender and the second half continued in the same fashion. Cottee being put through one on one and giving Coles no chance at all as he slammed the ball into the far corner in the 52nd minute.

Three minutes later we had a fourth goal to celebrate. A great low cross from Smith was about to be knocked in by Jarman but he was bundled over by the defender for a penalty. It is a mystery to me why the defender wasn’t sent off for this obvious professional foul, and even though you don’t like to see teams reduced from their starting eleven, it raises further questions about consistency. Smith buried the penalty and although Cottee had a goal disallowed moments later, he scored his second after Jarman’s shot was well saved but he tucked away the loose ball with defenders totally static in the 69th minute.

A foul on Downs on the hour that was quite clearly an accident earned a booking for the Dorking substitute but our player left the field a few minutes later and at that point the game became a little more even.

Cottee was ever so unlucky not to score his third with a glancing header that was inches wide of the far post, and the only question remaining was “could we keep a clean sheet too?” Well, yes we could, and we didn’t pick up a booking either, so all in all, a perfect day.

Team: Adrian Jones, Jamie Summers, Jamie Hatfield, Alex Rodrigues (capt), Anthony Panayi, Carl Downs, Matt Smith, Nathan Ayling, Mark Jarman, Jamie Cottee, Antony Myers.
Subs: Adam Goodwell for Hatfield (62), Tom Siefers for Downs (65), Kieran Lunn for Jarman (71)
Bookings: None
Scorers: Jarman (29), Summers (33), Cottee (52), Smith (pen)(55), Cottee (69)
Supporters Player of the Match: Jamie Cottee
Pictures by Gemma Jarman: Top: Mark Jarman opens the scoring from Cottee's great run and pass
Bottom: The flying Jamie Summers puts us two-nil up. (Tuesday's front cover)