The Season Starts Here

Team News: despite entering the weekend with a full 16 we were forced into a reshuffle after 3 dropouts. We still named a strong 13 man squad with Ryan returning in goal and Trigg making his debut.

It had been a long week following the very disappointing loss at Bisley AS. This morning presented a chance to not only put that right, but to avenge a truly dismal semi-final defeat last season against today's opposition Abbey Rangers.

Where last week we were flat and off the pace, today we were fired up and played with intent from the start. We totally dominated the first 15 minutes and really ought to have scored at least 4 or 5 times before we finally did open the scoring just before the 20 minute mark.

Hard work from the front saw Ash win the ball and he supplied Grouty who beat the keeper with a good low shot at his near post.

After the early onslaught Abbey did begin to grow into the game with their dangerous strikers looking lively. They had a chance to level matters but scuffed a shot wide.

We then doubled our lead as Sam broke down the right and his cutback took a slight deflection that saw Ash bundle the ball home.

It was a first half where we had done everything asked of us pre-game, but we knew Abbey had a threat and only half the job was done.

The second half was a more even affair with chances at each end. Ryan was forced into action on a couple of occasions, whilst Grouty hit the post and we also spurned a few other chances.

Thankfully nearly midway through the half we killed the game off. Abbey had struggled to deal with our strength from the get go, but ironically it was Joey who nodded home neatly from Wicksy's long throw as Abbey afforded him too much space in the area.

We added a deserved 4th with 13 to go as Sam's long throw saw 3 of us queuing up at the back post and Joey volleyed into the empty net.

Abbey kept pushing forward and we did become a bit more open at the back, but we saw out the game for a clean sheet and the win. Again our finishing was somewhat erratic as we should have scored quite a few more this morning, but 4-0 was a fine result to kick start our season.

That said all 3 of our attackers were involved in 2 goals each, whilst the defence did a solid job and our midfield totally controlled the game.

This was a superb response to the opening day defeat. Now we must ensure that we bring this intensity to all our games as it is clear that this is going to be a very competitive League this season.

MoM: Trigg - excellent debut with an utterly tireless display in midfield. Did not stop running all game, won lots of challenges and distributed well. This could have been one of a number of players as it was a very good performance by everyone.