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An unbeaten Civil Service team arrived at a very wet Beddington Park on Saturday with a 100% record and looking for a sixth straight league victory. However, they left at the end of the afternoon having suffered defeat at the hands of a Carshalton side that had produced a battling, stubborn performance to get their own league campaign back on track and keep in touch with the top three in the second division.

The opening half an hour was fast and frantic, but evenly contested, as both sides worked hard to combat the appalling weather conditions. The only chances in this period came from a Neil Collard cross-cum-shot that was just too high and a fine first time strike from the visitor’s centre forward that Ross Sinclair in the Cars goal had to watch all the way before seeing it go inches over his bar. The deadlock was finally broken in the 35^th minute when Cars were awarded a free kick after a shocking challenge from behind felled Tony Edwards. Collard whipped the kick in from the left touchline and Michael Winyard rose above everyone to direct his header beyond the keeper and crashing into the net. The home side was undoubtedly on top at this stage and saw a massive penalty appeal waved away when a Civil Service defender appeared to control the ball with his hand in the area. On 41 minutes though, Cars really should have added to their lead, but a last ditch tackle as he shaped to shoot prevented Gary Cummings from scoring with only the keeper to beat. At the interval the away side must have counted themselves very lucky to be only one goal down and the Cars players bemused that they were not further ahead.

The second half began with the rain still falling and the game following much the same pattern as before with both teams creating half chances, the home side having perhaps the best of these. The turning point of the match came in the 64^th minute when what should have been a simple clearance for the Civil Service centre back saw him dwell too long on the ball and Paul Pearce and Jason Winyard were on him in a flash, snapping at his ankles like a pair of Jack Russells, resulting in Pearce coming away with ball. Pearce still had a lot to do as the keeper came out to meet him, he feinted to go inside, but dropped his left shoulder and went past the keeper on the outside finishing by slotting his left foot shot home from about 12 yards to put his side two up. This would have been a good time for someone to have reminded Cars that a team are at their most vulnerable directly after scoring, because just 2 minutes later the visitors nicked a goal of their own as the Cars defence were all guilty of ball watching. Despite Cars enjoying more of the possession, their opponents were back into their stride and causing problems whenever they attacked; indeed, but for a goal line block by Pearce, a Cummings header off the line and a great save from Sinclair they would have leveled. As it turned out these were in fact the last chances of the game, and as the final whistle signaled the end of the game, Cars were relieved to have held on to take all 3 points from the best team they have faced this season.

Both these sides are to be congratulated on a very good game played in atrocious wet weather. There were many good Carshalton performances, notably those of MOM Dean Tomlinson who was superb under pressure yet again, Chris Tilley who had his best game for weeks and Michael Winyard who not only scored the opener, but also grafted throughout and seemed to be winning headers for fun.

Beddington Hotspur