Old Whitgiftian AFC

1st HALF LINE-UP
HILLIER KENYON - BURNS - TARLTON - DENISON C AHMAD - STAFFORD-HILL (Capt) - TEGG - STURDY PHAN - REDLEY

Timeline

Kick off - 15:11
5 mins - First corner goes to Whits. Rich Sturdy lands it on the penalty spot as instructed... no one attacks it.
8 mins - Deja vu, second corner goes to Whits. Rich Sturdy lands it... etc.
14 mins - City of London swap goalkeeper with an injured outfield player.
21 mins - GOAL - CoL (new) keeper attempts to play a short ball to a defender, who is quickly closed down by Vien Phan and returns the ball from whence it came. As he does this the keeper is closed down by Darren Redley and makes a poor clearance as far as Daoud Ahmad. Daoud controls it and side-foots it into the net. 1-0 Whits.
22 mins - CoL down to 10 men as injured keeper / player substitutes himself. Original keeper back in goal... not seen that before!
26 mins - Christian Denison goes down with an injured arm. Its shaking a lot, but we can't work out if that is alcohol poisoning or a genuine injury. Fortunately, he is able to continue.
28 mins - A beauty of a low-on-the-deck-cross-ball from Robin Tegg finds Rich Sturdy in space. He takes it forward but blasts his shot across goal and wide.
29 mins - Nice interchange between Vien Phan and Darren Redley. The second ball from Vien is slightly overhit, but Darren does well to cut it back across goal from a tight angle. Unfortunately Vien is beaten to it by a defender who clears it off the line.
31 mins - Another injury - this time Vien Phan as he lands badly on his ankle. Again, he is able to continue as he sees the substitutes warming up.
32 mins - Christian Denison out-muscles their right midfielder and runs down the line. He passes to Sturdy, who cuts it to Vien, who twists and passes it out to a charging Daoud Ahmad. Daoud's shot is saved by the keeper's legs and cleared to safety.
34 mins - Chris Stafford-Hill wins the ball on the edge of our defence and passes it wide to Daoud. He passes to Sturdy, who shoots at goal only for the keeper to pull off a good save.
38 mins - In a very rare attack, City of London break down the right. Christian mis-times his tackle and is beaten. Luckily, Tim Hillier is equal to the task and racing off his line he beats the CoL player to the ball and kicks it in to row "Z".
39 mins - GOAL - Move of the game as Vien receives the ball from Christian and slows the play down before passing the ball 10 yards to Chris Stafford-Hill. With one touch Chris splits the central defence wide open with a perfectly placed ball to Darren Redley. Darren places the ball well to the keeper's right and into the bottom corner of the net. 2-0 Whits.
41 mins - Head tennis in another attack, which results in Vien heading just wide of goal.
42 mins - Lovely build-up down our right between Kris Kenyon and Daoud Ahmad. Kris collects the ball and shoots just wide of the keeper's left hand post.
45 mins - GOAL - Lack of concentration in seeing out the half sees CoL take a 'hit-and-hope' shot. Tim sees it late and gets a hand to it as it goes over the bar. We fail to get our act together for the corner and it is scrambled in from about 1 yard out. 2-1.

Half-time team talk was interrupted with a surreal moment as Darren Redley suddenly announced that he didn't like water and ran off to the Clubhouse for a Lucozade... meaning that we had to kick off the 2nd half with 10 men.

2nd HALF LINE-UP
HILLIER KENYON (sub 70 ISTHIKHAR) - BURNS - TARLTON - FERGUSON R AHMAD - STAFFORD-HILL (Capt) - TEGG - STURDY PHAN (Sub 60 FERGUSON M) - REDLEY

48 mins - CoL attack straight away. Their right midfielder causes Richard Ferguson a few problems, but is covered by a saving tackle from Joe.
53 mins - Vien receives a good ball from Richard Sturdy and spins to face goal. He opts not to lay the ball off to Daoud (the best option) and shoots. Keeper has goal well covered and saves at bottom left hand post to concede a corner. From the corner Mike Tarlton rises above everyone and heads for goal. Unfortunately it is straight at the keeper and is saved.
68 mins - Kris Kenyon has three snaps at goal which finally results in a shot that hits the post, before rebounding across the six yard box and being cleared for a corner. Darren Redley comes close from the corner with a back flick that is just the wrong side of the far post.
70 mins - CoL right midfielder again is given too much space and time. This time Mike Tarlton makes the saving tackle out by the edge of the penalty area.
72 mins - GOAL - CoL right midfielder beats Richard Ferguson and cuts inside, Tim saves his initial shot but the rebound is knocked in. 2 attempts all game and 2 goals. 2-2.
82 mins - GOAL - Scramble in the box (I missed the build up) and a couple of scrappy attempts is finished off when Michael Ferguson slams home from about 1 yard out. 3-2 Whits.

... and that's how it finished. I don't know how many more of these one-sided games I can take, where we have all the possession and too many chances on goal to count, but come away with such a close scoreline. It also needs to be remembered that CoL barely had 11 players on the pitch for more than 5 minutes.

Finally, the thing that stood out for me the most, was that the defence played so well, I still cannot understand how we conceded 2 goals!