RMFC

A rather hungover looking RM started slowly here, before really coming into their own and dominating proceedings. Chris Coppock was back in goal, with father and son Pat and Nick Wehmeier also involved along with the returning Tom Srawley. RM were probably expecting the worse, giving the state of half their side, and did indeed take a while to get going although they were never unduly worried at the back until a long range low strike beat Coppock after 20 minutes to put them behind. A lovely team move, with nearly all the team involved, switched play from left to right and ended with Andy Warmington putting in a great cross that Stu Coppock won in the air, but the ball wouldn’t quite fall to Srawley to be able to convert. And right on the stroke of half time, RM fell further behind when a long punt over the defence was allowed to bounce in the box, and a scramble fell to the feet of the Sutton forward who smashed home with RM appealing in vain for both a push and a handball in the build up – both of which were amazingly missed by the ref, despite the linesman flagging.

2-0 down at the break, and with the hangovers going, RM came out and played much better in the second period. There was some really good build up play from the back through midfield but the final ball was just missing. It took a piece of good fortune to start the fightback, Bobby Pearson’s shot was blocked at close range and some half hearted appeals for a handball were given. Srawley stepped up to coolly stroke home the penalty to put RM right back in it, and there followed another great passing move which ended with Nick Wehmeier smashing a low drive from the edge of the box. The keeper did well to palm it out, but Stu Coppock could only hit the rebound against the post before it was scrambled away. The resultant corner was half cleared to the edge of the box where Warmington was on hand to crash a stinging low volley through the crowd and into the bottom corner – great technique and a real goal of the season contender. There only looked one winner now, and Dave Humphreys was inches away from converting a free kick into the box but the keeper then launched a huge kick which again bounced over the RM defence and with Pat Wehmeier always struggling to clear the forward strode into the box and finished to leave RM staring down the barrel once more. But they grabbed a deserved equaliser when Ian ‘Gudge’ Smith played in Srawley, who turned neatly in the box and finished well at the near post.

Another slightly disappointing result though, in a game in which RM were clearly the better side. They will feel they really should be putting teams like this to bed, which explains the mid table league position.