Godalming Town 1 (0) v (1) 2 East Preston

Bar the game away at leaders Seaford, Godalming Town have purred their way through the early league games of 2025 but with a play-off place well within their grasp they stepped on a banana skin against East Preston.
That play-off place is still there for the taking but, hey, it’s The Gees, why make it easy?

Excellent programme notes from Mo again for this one. Maybe I should read them at the turnstiles and get up to speed with the players’ comings, goings and holiday diaries before going any further, but that would spoil the surprise of turning the corner and reading John’s live line-ups written on the Team Board. I saw ’17 – Ross Cheek’ straightaway but the missing ‘5 – Robert Parrott’, ‘6 – Oliver McAleese’, and ‘10 – Cameron Edwin’ didn’t register until someone said ‘holiday, holiday, suspension’. A big welcome back to ‘Cheeky’, but with the greatest respect to the rest of the squad, we all wondered how it would play out without three of the first names you would want on your team sheet.

The answer to one place was obvious. Shiloh Ndiulor at centre half and as the team lined up it was clear that Conor Stillwell was to partner him with Nana Afful at right back and Jack Sherwood on the left. Another work-related absence for Ryan O’Sullivan saw Ollie Ballum return in goal after Tuesday’s match. Right-to-left across the middle were Mark Soares, Skipper James Mariner, Deji Adeosun and Jonny Miller. Will May was up front, and it was pleasing to see James Mansfield given a start alongside him. Louis Lindsay, Deji Alabi, Charlie Welch, Elroy Wealthyland were on the bench with the aforementioned Ross Cheek.

From the whistle it was clear that East Preston were a physical side. If memory serves, we had a tight match down there earlier in the season. The Gees found it difficult to impose their presence on the match as has been the case in the last few matches. Conor Stillwell showed he meant business early doors as we saw the first clearance to sail over the roofs of the flats in a long while. On the 15-minute mark a Mazza free kick was deflected for the Gee’s first corner and East Preston won their first when they won possession from a poorly executed throw-in. Interplay between Mark Soares, Jack Sherwood and Jonny Miller gave Will May the chance to put the ball across an empty penalty area, and on the half hour Jack got down to the by-line and played in Mark, whose shot was unluckily deflected for a corner by the Keeper. Mark then had another shot saved; the ball having been laid into him by Will.

It went pear-shaped on 38 minutes, Conor was penalised for a foul some ten yards outside the area. Injured in the challenge; he was ushered to the touchline after treatment. An East Preston head rose unchallenged to the free kick and deposited the ball in the net over Ollie who had come off the goal line. As frugal as our defence has been, if this were Premier League stuff the stats would tell us to 4 decimal places the percentage of goals we have conceded, uncontested, from set pieces this season. I just know it’s too many. The particular annoyance with this one was that we didn’t pull the second man back from halfway to attempt to compensate for Conor’s enforced absence, but what do I know? Conor came back on but sadly couldn’t continue and was replaced by Elroy Wealthyland, with Deji Adeosun moving into the back four. Conor had acquitted himself well at the back; let’s hope he’s fit for next week, when we need more holiday cover. 0-1 at the break.

No changes for the restart and from a very early Gees corner Jonny Miller shot over the bar. Not much more of note occurred until the 58th minute when the score went to 2-0. A break away and run down our left saw a low ball into the area easily put away by an East Preston striker. Just after the re-start, Charlie Welch came on for Nana and a free kick saw Mazza’s claims for a push in the area turned down. A double substitution on 65 minutes saw Louis Lindsay and Deji Alabi enter the arena to replace James Mansfield and Will May. 3 minutes later and Godalming got the score back to 2-1 courtesy of Mark Soares again, with some help from a deflection enroute. Game on? But it just didn’t work out that way. Mazza, of all people, found the Gods weren’t smiling on him. He had no luck with a free kick which went over the bar and two headers which went wide, the second of which you would have bet your shirt on him converting. A good job you didn’t, as it was getting cold out of the sun.

‘Cheeky’ marked his return with a busy 15 minutes having replaced Jonny and, despite East Preston losing a man to the sin bin for what remained of the game, the score ended 2-1 to the visitors.

So that’s it then, the first home league defeat of the season. The only piece of good news is that finally my Division One Cup Winners tee shirt, worn unbeaten in the league since Mile Oak at home, can go in the washing machine.

Next up and with 5 to go, let’s see them get back on track next Saturday, 3pm at Oakwood.

COYG’s