Godalming Town 2 (1) v (0) 0 Reigate Priory

The Gs scored a goal in each half, to take another three points, which was enough to see them advance up to third place in the table once again, with Dorking losing at Oakwood on the night. The Gs are also now at the top of the form table in the League.
There was a strange glow above Wey Court as we walked to the ground. Yes, the famous floodlights were up and running properly for the first time in a First Team fixture. Although we had seen a short flash of them a week or so ago it was great to see that that is one hurdle out of the way in maintaining the club facilities.
Ryan O’Sullivan was back in goal, with Malik Shittu and Jack Sherwood in the right and left back positions respectively alongside Rob Parrott and Ollie McAleese, the centre back pairing. Captain for the day was Ollie as James Mariner was being rested. So Conor Stillwell was in front of them, with Deji Adeosun in the middle and Cameron in the number 10 position. Wide players Mark Soares and Jonny Miller. Will May in the centre forward role.
Once again an exceptionally strong bench with Deji Alabi. James Mansfield, Louis Lindsay, Elroy Wealthyland and Shi Ndulia, all champing at the bit to get out there and feel the floodlights on their back.
For once the Gs were not the quickest out of the blocks as Reigate made a break down their left and a couple of Gs appeared to slip allowing, them a longish range chance on goal, which fortunately Ryan was able to parry away.
Straight away the Gs put pressure back on their guests, not allowing them any time to clear their goal, which saw the visiting keeper clear desperately ,only narrowly avoiding putting the ball out for a corner.
The Gs then created more pressure, attacking the goal at the road end. Then, after 18 minutes of play Rob Parrott delivered a great diagonal ball from in front of the stand, to the edge of the 6 yard box, where Will was waiting and he made a great contact, powerfully heading home to open the scoring.
Reigate had already been committing lots of players forward and once that they went behind they had no choice but to continue to do so.
Reigate were energetic and well drilled in defence with some physical tackles coming in from both sides. They made occasional forays forward and we saw Ryan make another dive to turn a speculative shot, from some way out, around for a corner where it looked to me that the shot was well wide, but he would have had a better view than me.
The Gs were also putting pressure on the Reigate goal and we saw a series of attempts from Cam and Will from the edge of the area blocked by defenders.
Mark created another of his trademark snaky runs, cutting in from the right, but he could not find space to get a shot on target. Moments later he was in on goal again, under the attention of a defender who was able to succeed in dispossessing him where many in the past have failed.
There were plenty of strong challenges coming in while the game continued at quite a pace.
Reigate won a corner on their right flank, which came in just under the crossbar and Ryan did well to keep it out. The Gs would need another goal to ease the nerves. At half time 1-0 to the home side. Interesting fact that so far the Gs have not been beaten at home all season.
With Saturday’s result still fresh in the mind, it was clear that the Gs needed another goal to make things safe.
Jack advanced from left back and delivered a cross to just beyond the back post where Cam had made a great run to meet it and was unlucky not to find the net as the visiting keeper managed to block his attempt.
The Gs were now becoming more and more dominant since the restart, as Deji Adeosun advanced into the area with some good footwork enabling him to beat defenders, but could not convert.
Deji Alabi came on for Mark on the right.
Jonny was taken out by a late tackle on the half way line, to see the first yellow card of the game shown by the referee to a Reigate player.
Deji Alabi took the ball to the goal line before driving it across the face of the goal ,where Will made it to the far post, but was just unable to capitalise.
Shi Ndulia came on to rest Will and within minutes he was chasing down a through ball, and with his pace beat the defenders to the ball, only to be brought down by a late tackle, which made the ref show his red card this time. As they already had had a player in the sin bin, Reigate were now down to 9 men.
Cam, who as always had given a great energetic performance, came off for James to join the fray.
Shi then used his pace to block a clearance from the visiting keeper that actually hit Shi’s chest before rebounding just wide of the goal.
Louis then replaced Jonny on the left flank and was involved in play straight away.
Another good break saw Shi get through ,before hitting a shot that unfortunately went well high. Not much in the way of a threat from the Reigate squad this half.
Then Malik made a good run before playing the ball into the penalty area from the goal line where the result was three or four blocked shots from Gs players before Deji Alabi found himself with the ball and managed to extend a leg to hit the ball into the net on the far side. 2 – 0.
A great relief for the lads and the supporters to get that extra insurance goal.
All that was left was to see out the closing moments before celebrating another three points and going above Dorking in the League.
Looking forward to another win at home this weekend against East Preston. Lets see another good crowd roaring the lads on again.

COYGs