Oxted United - 4 AFC Croydon Athletic Stars - 8

4th October 2020

Squad - Harvey, Leeboy, JDL, Louie D, Jamielee, Tom, Ronnie, Will R, Brody, Jedi, Elliot, Will M, Luis Don, Harrison, Bromers, Declan

United’s first home league game welcomed AFC Croydon Athletic, league leaders and top scorers. Another test for our lads in this league. AFC have obvious links to their senior team who play in the Southern Counties East League (tier 9) feeder leagues to Isthmian Leagues. We could expect a tough game with some good young talent on display.

The following 35mins of football was a joy to watch. We done to AFC what Skills School had done to us. An own goal from Elliot’s corner in the opening minutes gave us the perfect start. 1-0. AFC were to equalise when a long hit and hope saw their striker round Harvey and slot into an empty net. 1-1. We were to restore the lead immediately with some great work by Brody who crossed for Jedi to gamble and put in at the far post with his left foot for arguably the best goal of the game 2-1. More was to follow with Will R grabbing the third with a great drive from the edge of the box 3-1. Will R extended our lead just before the half when he found the bottom corner for his 2nd of the game. 4-1. HT

We had made this AFC side look extremely ordinary. Spirits were high, it proved to be a false dawn. AFC made some HT changes bringing on a right winger who looked as though he could sneak into a Vets team let alone playing with year 8.

Within the first 5mins we found ourselves pegged back to 4-3. AFC were quicker, and more aggressive. They controlled the midfield and managed to suffocate our supply line to our forward players. They only really had one or two good players and one exceptional forward (no. 77) who gave our back line a torrid time. They took their chances and 4-3 soon became 4-4 when we gave away a clumsy penalty. It was all getting a bit desperate. 4-4 became 4-6 reverse with two further quick goals and poor marking from a corner. Suddenly our boys were heavy legged - we made further changes to try and preserve the boys confidence and add some energy. We briefly threatened but was really restricted to trying to shoot from 35-40yards. Never troubled their goalie.

AFC finished the rout with a further two goals making the final score line 4-8. I don’t think it was a justifiable score line but based on our second half performance we didn’t deserve to get anything out of the game.

Still, it is a education. We have played in the nice parts of Kent, Sussex and Surrey, we play good football, but this is the next step in our learning. How do we handle the pace, power and aggression we will face this season, the answer is simple - match it. How we get to the answer is the journey that requires the hard work.

Play the way we did first half, add some spice and aggression into the mix and we will be unstoppable.

Until next week. #coyo