Sonning Mens 1's 3 - 0 Eascote Mens 2's

This week’s tilt featured a Sonning squad coming off a sobering loss last time out to Amersham, desperate to get back to winning ways against an Eastcote side also struggling to pick up wins early in the season.

Sonning have been unable to field identical line-ups in back-to-back fixtures so far this season, and this again proved the case with defensive stalwarts MIA. This led to some reshuffling and unfortunately an immediate recall to one James Lockhart, who at least provided some respite as a substitute for players actually able to influence proceedings.

The game started brightly enough for the men in yellow, passing the ball around nicely and fashioning a few early chances, all dealt with superbly by the Eastcote keeper. Time and again he smothered efforts from Sonning players breaking into the opposition D, with his defence on hand to clear away at the second attempt. Eastcote were mostly limited to long aerial balls forward, but unlike last week where defenders swatted at flies, Sonning’s back four showed composure and touch. If that failed, a trusty chest or arm was always on hand to ensure the ball didn’t get to its intended target.

Sonning’s consistent pressure did eventually tell mid-way through the first half, where finally a save by the Eastcote keeper rebounded to a Sonning player, and this time Matt Poulton made no mistake burying from close range. The rest of the half panned out as expected, with lots of Sonning pressure equalled by the Eastcote keeper’s smothering efforts to keep the score at 1-0.

Our coach’s half-time team talk revolved around the need to “bury chances” and “if the keeper goes to ground, lift it over him” chat, so naturally Sonning spent the first 20 minutes of the second half repeatedly hitting the ball low into the keeper. The lack of goals started to tell, as Sonning grew more and more frustrated, allowing Eastcote to grow into the game. The men from London enjoyed their best spell of the game at this stage, winning a number of short corners that were superbly dealt with by a combination of Alasdair Allan, Matt Sloper and more footballing skills from Ian Finlayson.

Fortunately, this period of Eastcote pressure was repelled, and Sonning scored their second goal to the relief of pretty much everyone associated with the club. This settled Sonning, and meant that Eastcote had to start chasing the game, opening up space for Sonning to take advantage of. The game ended on a slightly sour note, when after another period of bashing the ball into the Eastcote keepers’ pads, The Captain engaged the grey matter, held onto the ball and appeared to be hit by the keeper without the ball. After a period of consultation, the umpires concluded this was what had happened, and sent off the keeper and awarded a penalty flick to Sonning.

This incident induced a tirade of abuse from our penalty flick taker, who earned himself his own yellow card for his efforts, which enabled Matt Poulton to step up against a kicking back to complete his hat-trick. It won’t make any highlight reels and it didn’t trouble the backboard, but it did eventually cross the line to make the score 3-0. The game finished shortly afterwards and Sonning can be pleased with most aspects of their game as well as a solid win and clean sheet.

Next week is a visit to West Hampstead, and one suspects that shooting practice may be on the cards at training this week.

MotM: Alasdair Allan

DotD: Ian Finlayson

Written by Alasdair Allan