A Win Is A Win

Having beaten todays opponents convincingly two weeks ago we expected them to be very up for this game and looking for revenge. They turned up with several new faces and a much stronger side, but for the first half it was the same story as a fortnight back.

We looked by far the more dangerous side playing some excellent stuff at times, often orchestrated by the impressive Adam Miles in midfield.

Our first chance came after about 7 minutes when Luca Mortellaro dropped deep picking up a throw in before lofting a superb through ball to Joey Stevens who was denied by the keeper. Miles narrowly missed with the follow up.

The opening goal was another wonderful team move - the like of which we have seen on numerous occasions so far this season. It started with Alex Palinski spreading the play for Lorenzo Favata down the left. He cut it back to Silvio Sorce who found Miles. Ads calmly flicked back to Ski and his expertly incisive pass set Joey in behind the backline. Joey cut it back to find Carl Sulzmann who continued his recent goal surge with a calm finish back across the keeper.

Our second showed the other side to our attacking prowess. Giles Smith's corner found Palinski who leaped majestically to power a header home.

Their skipper was adamant he was fouled and got booked for arguing his case. In fact he continued to argue his case over and over again for the next 5 minutes or so and despite several warnings from the ref he pushed his luck too far and got himself sent off in really unecessary fashion.

We made it 3-0 on 43 as Lorry skipped past two challenges down the left and was clearly fouled to earn a penalty. Joey stepped up and slotted into the corner with precision. That takes Joey onto 9 for the season - already one more than last season's mark for top scorer.

As good as our first half display was, we disappointed in the second in equal measure.

I am not going to talk about what went wrong, but am going to focus on the positives.

At 3-2 we got the winning goal. Luca surged forward from the right and played a terrific clipped pass through to Joey who feinted to shoot before smashing home a clinical finish.

It finished 4-3.

Sure it would have been great to put them to the sword and rack up some goals, but for whatever reason we weren't able to do so today. In the end we dug in and ground out the victory.

Addlestone emerged with great credit for fighting back in the second half, but we got the 3 points we deserved overall as we were the superior team. Credit or 3 points? I know which one I would rather have.

It isn't always easy playing against 10 men...

MOM - Ads - superb display in midfield, especially in the first half. Rarely gave the ball away in what was a bit of a masterclass for our central midfielders to follow. Mention for Joey for his brace and assist.

Big thanks to Elliott, Lorry and Nay for running the line and to ChairmanHarwood for filming the first half.

7 points from 3 games in November. We will have to improve next week against Wisley, but let's make it 10 from 4.