This was the opening fixture of the Div 1 league cup, already at the quarter final stage. With only six teams in the league, two had byes and Slayer, Chartham, Floorform and Minster battled it out for the other two spaces in the semi-finals.

There was more heavy rain during the week, but the day was actually the first relatively mild day of the year with little wind and clear skies. And with a perfect playing surface, it was ideal conditions for a game of football.

Late availability issues from both Clive and Joe Kennett stripped us of two of our most talented players in midfield but the strength of depth in the squad still allowed us to field man-of-the-match Simon Brown, Sam Denly and Russell Cramphorn, all of course top players themselves. Slayer had a regular and consistent looking back five with Tharpy, Owain, Ian, John and Matt Betts – a defensive line now boasting three clean sheets in the last four games. Kieron, Stacy and Wayne Fittall completed the line up in the attacking postions. Despite several key players who were missing today, this was nonetheless a strong line up.

Being the cup, this game was to be decided today and the league had declared, in a clear concession to ageing legs in the Veterans league, that there would be no extra time. The game would go straight to pens. And since Chartham managed a draw when they came here on the opening day of the season, Slayer were keen to get the job done in the 90.

Slayer started brightly enough moving the ball around in an attempt to find spaces for the willing front men who were interchanging and pulling the Chartham defenders around in a way that became a feature of the game. And it took just 9 mins for Slayer to open the scoring after Simon Brown received the ball from Sam Denly before rifling an unstoppable shot past Mike O’Neill in goal. Moments later Wayne Fittal, starting only his second game for Slayer, had a chance to slide the ball in to the back of the net after beating the offside trap, but opted to lob the goalie and it drifted just over. But it was all Slayer in these opening exchanges with the visitor offering very little in the way of attack and when they did, Tharpy was equal to it, coming off his line quickly to tidy up stray forward passes.

Slayer’s second goal came on 26 minutes following the introduction of Jack Delo and Will Greenham. Within minutes, Denly hit the bar with a thumping header that Wayne followed up and with his back to the goal hit an overkick into the far corner of the net.

Slayer were by now making all the running and with Jack playing at the base of the midfield he was able to pick passes as he did on 33 minutes when he hit a diagonal cross field ball and found Denly who controlled it and crossed to John who hit the bar and followed up his own rebound to slot home.

Slayer made it four at the break when Sam was hauled down at the end of surging run about 25 metres out. Chartham lined up a four-man wall that Sam curled the ball around in to left hand side of the net.

At half time Slayer was urged to maintain their intensity and keep pushing for more goals. The home team maintained the same shape and the same formation and went on to rattle home another five goals, only to be denied double figures when the referee missed a fairly blatant penalty as a defender clumsily bundled into the back of Sam Denly as he lined up to nod home a Will Greenham cross. A untidy challenge and a clear pen that the referee admitted he didn’t see.

But four minutes into the second half Slayer resumed their assault on the visitors goal when Simon Brown went on a penetrating run through the middle of midfield, and slid the ball to Wayne who, from the left hand side of goal, opened up his body and side-footed past the keeper to the right.

Two minutes later the combination of Brown and Fittal brought the score to 6-0 when another great ball from Simon Brown allowed Wayne to finish emphatically from a tight angle and complete his hattrick.

And just before hour mark, Wayne was hacked down in the area as he burst on to a throught ball and up stepped Simon Brown to thump the ball past Mike O’Neill.

In the closing stages, Simon Brown completed his hattrick with another powerful strike in to the corner from range and Sam Denly completed his brace after a pass from Will Greenham who was enjoying the space and time down the left-hand side.

Then came the missed penalty when Sam was bundled into from behind, an obvious infringement missed by the referee that the defender apologised for. The push in the back resulted in Sam turning his ankle and he was forced to withdraw with 10 minutes remaining. Back on came John in to centre midfield and a couple of good chances late on, firing on effort tantalisingly across the face of the goal.

So it finished 9-0, our third result of the same score in the last four games. Slayer seem to be in a moment where we are finding the back of the net regularly - and James Tharp, helped by those in front of him, has made it four clean sheets in his last four competitive games.

Overall, the performance was good, and Slayer played some neat passing football. Much of it revolved around the centre of the park where Jack Delo, again playing out of position, performed excellently and had a big influence on the game. Technically gifted and with a innate understanding of the game, Jack created and controlled our attacking, flanked as he was by willing runners. It was a great team performance with pretty much everyone performing at a high level today but the stand-out performance was Simon Brown who was simply unplayable and was deservedly awarded man-of-the-match.

So we go in to the last part of the season in good shape, and looking forward to being able to bring back in to the fold the likes of David Soutan, Joe Kennett, Nathan Eastwood, Clive Stace as well as players like (among many others) Mike Groom and Tom Powell when he recovers from his back problem. We have the league's top three scorers - Sam Denly, Joe Kennett and Simon Brown - all on seven goals a piece. And Wayne FIttall has an incredible five goals in the two games he has played.

I mentioned in the pub that we will do the tour on 12-13 September. I’m happy to go early on the Saturday and come back Sunday. It will be a good quality tournament with opposition from Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Wales and England. It will be a nice way to start the season and a good chance to refamiliarise ourselves with each other after the summer (I am planning just three summer pre-season friendlies for the first team – 25 July, 8 August and 22 August).

Here is how we lined up at the start:

James Tharp

John Atkinson Ian Banks Owain Williams Matt Betts

Russell Cramphorn Sam Denly Simon Brown

Kieron Turner

Wayne Fittall Stacy Davis

Starting from the bench: Will Greenham, Jack Delo, Mark Kidd, Steve Woollcott
Result: Slayer FC 9 – 0
Man-of-the-match: Player's vote: Simon Brown
Man-of-the-match: Opposition vote: Not declared
Referee: Warren Gardner (85)

Next fixtures
21 March league game versus Chartham (away)

Stato corner - seasonal stats:
https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/slayerfc/teams/116262/statistics?season=50517