Late Oakley Winner Downs Roffey

Report by Graham Harris
Godalming 1 (0) v (0) 0 Roffey
Great to get three points, keep a clean sheet and great to topple the league leaders. Great to see the lads enjoy their win.
The game at Roffey earlier in the season was a close affair, so I think we hoped we would push them again.
This was not a spectacle of good flowing football. It was a bitty affair with repeated infringements from both sides, which meant the referee was forced to blow his whistle repeatedly.
But, it was a great result for the Gs in their quest for a place in the play-offs. Neither side produced much in the way of clear scoring chances and in fact I don’t believe that Roffey produced a serious shot at all in the second half.
It was good to see that Cameron is getting back to his competitive best and he showed the determination that made him so dangerous early in the season when, after about 20 minutes he single handedly won the ball from the visiting defence, before getting to the touchline and then crossing into the 6yard box. Rob Parrott, Kurt Greenaway and Sam Boultwood all looked strong in the middle and stayed the course for 90 minutes plus.
A few changes in the line up again from the Tuesday set up.
Adrian Giles in goal, Myles Davidson (good to see him back), James Mariner, Luke Beale and Ollie McAleese (his first start for a while since injury) as the back four. Kurt Greenaway. Sam Boultwood and Rob Parrott in the middle. Connor Blanchard and Cameron Edwin as the wide players and Charlie Oakley as the number nine. On the bench Elijah Carter, James Frudd, Jahobi Maher and the two new signings in Ross Cheek and Jack Smith.
There was a strange incident when one of the Roffey management team appeared to interfere with Ollie Mc Aleese as he tried to take a throw in. The referee had a long debate and gave a yellow card. Not sure I have ever seen that before. The referee also later insisted that a spectator should move at the request of his assistant.
Connor Blanchard delivered a great corner that saw Ollie get a great powerful header in at the near post, but Roffey had a defender on the post who cleared.
0 – 0 at half time.
About 15 minutes into the second half the Roffey number 5 was given a straight red after the involvement of the linesman in front of the stand, who obviously saw something he did not like. Roffey down to ten men.
James Frudd came on for Connor Blanchard and delivered a great corner, which Ollie got on the end of but this time could not get his header on target.
The Gs were pressing and were awarded a penalty, which Charlie bravely stepped up to take. His shot was hit low and while he sent the Roffey keeper the wrong way the stopper managed to get a foot to it and his defenders cleared it.
But, Charlie had the last laugh as he managed to get in between two lofty defenders who appeared to have a long clearance covered, but as it came down Charlie split them and took it on his chest before just passing the ball past the visiting keeper to put the home side ahead. 1 – 0.
James Mariner went off injured to be replaced by Jahobi Maher at the left of the back four. Ollie Mc Aleese moving to centre back. Interestingly Jay’s brother was playing at right back for Roffey.
A great three points for the lads who all put in a really good shift and deserved the points for me.
COYG’s
What I really don’t get is why we are having to play two competitive games each and every week at the moment and yet there is a gap of a few days short of a month from 19th March to 16th April where we have not got a single game and then go into 3 League games in 7 days. Surely this could be resolved with a little forethought Or, am I missing something?

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