AFA Senior Surrey/Kent Cup - 14th November 2009

I am pretty sure every Carshalton player on Saturday morning looked out of their window, saw rainfall of biblical proportions and started planning what else to do with their day if they could only get some form of water taxi to pick them up. It is also fair to say that when Matt Wigham sent a text saying that the match was ON, we all assumed this was a clever, in-character, ploy to get everyone out for an all-day session and away from domestic responsibilities. When the news filtered through that Merton were actually serious that the match could be played, we paddled our way to the Joseph Hood Recreational Ground and sloshed our way to the changing rooms to prepare for the AFA Senior Surrey/Kent cup game.

Yet for all the incredulity, by the time we assembled on the pitch for a pre-match warm-up the rain had all but stopped and the wind had dropped to a perfectly manageable Force 10 Gale. Dave Tilley was given strict instructions to play “with the wind” if he won the toss, but on calling correctly, then had to work out which way was “with” as the gale swirled in circles around him. What followed wasn’t the best of games and we were lucky to have linesman as that doubled the watching crowd, but Carshalton were in a determined mood and battled hard having lost their unbeaten tag the previous week.  After ten minutes Simon Clare bravely won a header down the right hand touchline but clashed heads with the fullback leaving a sizeable gash in the back of his head. Ignoring calls from all sides to go to hospital Clare bravely strapped his head up and ran back on to the field of play. (OK it might not have been that big a gash, and Matt Wigham just squirted some water on the back of my head and then strapped it up but I’m writing the report so as far as I’m concerned I was a hero!)

Chances were few and far between in the first half, although Martin Bruce pulled off a stunning save from a ferociously hit 25 yard effort, and another Merton half chance from a corner hit the bar and was cleared off the line. At the other end Carshalton huffed and puffed but found it difficult to create any clear-cut chances. The second half proved a much improved effort from Carshalton who dominated throughout. That said it still took over half an hour to break the deadlock. A poor corner from Clare from the left hand side came back to him and his cross found Alex Corner who looped his header in slow motion in of the post. Minutes later a free kick from Horton was flicked first by Alex Corner and then by Simon Clare through to Adam Taylor who surprised everyone by scoring from the tightest of angles. All in all it was a well deserved, battling success by the first team in pretty miserable conditions and on a day when few other sides in London will have played. Man of the Match was Dan McCulloch who didn’t put a foot wrong all day.

Simon Clare