Knaphill 1 (1) v (0) 0 Godalming Town – League
Welcome to a new season and the long awaited return to Step 5 Football. I hadn’t counted until I sat down to put this together, but it’s been a whole 8 seasons in Step 6.
Before we get into the action it would be very remiss of me not to pay tribute to Jane Phillips, a stalwart of Godalming Town, who must have held every role in the Club and even the League over the years. She will be much missed.
We didn’t get the result we wanted on our return to this level but there was enough in the game to take positives away from it. 16 players were named on the team sheet and a warm welcome to our 5 newbies, who were goalkeeper Theo Bromley, Evan Kelly, Shane Johnson, Jav Waugh and Dan Boyden. Alongside them we welcomed back Sam Thomas, returning after finishing his stint at ‘Uni’ and Ethan Fifield, who was with the U23’s last season. If I’ve added it up correctly that leaves 9 of last season’s heroes to account for. They were Deji Adeosun, Nana Afful, Danilo Carvalho, Elliot Creely, Cam Edwin, Sam Fernley, Jonny Miller, Rob Parrott and Mark Soares. To those who served last season and have moved on we wish you the best of luck (and we know where most of you are). To those signed up and unavailable for this one, we’ll see you soon. Finally, a welcome to Warren Le Page, joining Mo’s team on the bench.
Three O’clock came and the Gees lined up with Mr Bromley in goal. In front of him were Messrs Afful, Parrott, Creely and Thomas across the back. Captain Edwin, Kelly and Adeosun sat deeper in midfield joined by Soares and Miller in support of Shane Johnson up front.
Knaphill were fastest out of the blocks, Jonny Miller cut out a through ball to counter their first attack and on 4 minutes the home side won their first corner, a Knaphill head got up first and Theo Bromley did well to tip the ball over the bar. A tidy piece of play involving Shane Johnson, Mark Soares, Cam and Jonny Miller unfortunately came to nothing and on 11 minutes, after a short spell of Knaphill pressure, a clearance fell kindly to the foot of former Gee Ross Cheek, who scored from the edge of the box. Try as you might, you can’t dislike the guy. 1-0 to the hosts. Shane Johnson was given a yellow card for a decidedly 50:50 challenge at the other end and Deji Adeosun was similarly punished minutes later. Most of us on the sidelines seeing the Ref’s reaction also thought Jonny Miller had bizarrely joined him in the book in the same incident, rightly it turns out that wasn’t the case.
Godalming were struggling to put moves together and as a result weren’t imposing themselves on the game. The cause wasn’t helped by a continued flow of decisions going against them. I normally keep pretty quiet about the men in black but there was a decided one sidedness about the half, and no one was surprised when the word spread that the Referee Assessors were ‘In Da House’. Jonny was flattened, no free kick, and when one was eventually given the Gee’s way, a Knaphill player was allowed to boot the ball away before it could be taken. The final ten minutes saw the Gees step up a gear but without dominating the game. Evan Kelly got on the end of an Elliot free kick, juggled his way into the box but shot wide of the near post. The home keeper then beat Shane to the ball as he chased a Mark Soares pass. It got a tad hairy toward the end of the half with the game swinging back Knaphill’s way but only the one goal separated the teams at the break.
Note for World Cup watchers – no water break – and it wasn’t cool out there.
No changes for the visitors for the restart and the second of two decent plays between Rob Parrott and Cam saw Cam dispossessed when there was a decent chance of a break on goal. Mark found his way into the area down the right, he could not get a shot away and the same fate befell Evan and Cam following up. The Gee’s 1st substitution came on 15 minutes when Dan Boyden came on for Shane. For a short while the action moved toward the Godalming goal where Theo made a stop to prevent Cheeky scoring a 2nd goal. Back at the other end Jonny Miller appeared upended in the box, a decent penalty call but you can guess the outcome. The players took the opportunity to call their own water break as Elliot took treatment and after the restart Elliot gave way to Sam Fernley who went to left back, moving Sam Thomas further forward.
Handbags Alert – with 15 minutes to go Sam Thomas was cynically deposited into the railings on the dugout side of the pitch and a melee duly followed. The eventual verdict was a red card for Cam, yellow for Jack on the bench and only a yellow for the original challenge. We move on.
As is the new norm in football the 10 men rallied, and their best chance of the game thus far came when Dan Boyden picked up a loose ball which allowed Rob to play in Mark, but Mark was unable to put enough power behind his effort. Mark broke again and played the ball wide to Nana who won a corner. From the corner both Rob and Sam came close to getting their heads to the ball. For the final 10 minutes Jav Waugh and Danilo Carvalho replaced Deji and Sam Thomas. Jav went to centre half as Rob Parrott went forward. 5 minutes later Nana came off for Ethan Fifield, who picked up our final card of the day for his eagerness to get on to the pitch before Nana was off it. In the final seconds Sam Fernley was denied a corner after picking up a ball from Rob, but the score remained 1-0 at full time.
We could have been more fluid and created more chances yet that was often the case last season, but the defence held firm after conceding despite Knaphill having more efforts on goal.
And as the games come thick and fast, we move on to Tuesday and Virginia Water away, 7.45 at Chertsey’s ground.
COYG’s