Friendly – 26th August 2006 

Carshalton got their pre season campaign off to a fine start at the Coney Hall Recreation Ground on Saturday, defeating last season’s Division Two champions Old Wilsonians and in the process providing themselves with a great morale booster for the forthcoming season.

Although the early exchanges were just about even, it was the much younger Cars side that gained the upper hand over their more experienced hosts, and they quickly began to dominate, but without quite managing to breakdown a very strong Wilsonians’ back line.  However, on 35 minutes Martin Vincent should have fired Cars in front, but finding himself alone and unmarked at the far post, he missed a golden opportunity when he blazed over the bar after meeting Steve Powell’s superbly weighted cross.  Just five minutes later, Vincent made-up for his earlier miss when he ran onto Neal Collard’s excellent through ball and lobbed the Wilsonians’ keeper from the edge of the 18-yard box to send his side in at the break one up.

Cars continued to dominate after the interval and should perhaps have added to their lead - Shane Bowes and Paul Pearce both missing half chances.  Then, on 70 minutes, the referee, who it must be said a very good game, turned down what looked to be a certain Cars penalty when a Wilsonians defender went straight through the back of Pearce and then appeared to kick out at the forward as he lay on the ground.  The last ten minutes of the contest saw Wilsonians enjoying their best moments of the afternoon.  However, at the final whistle no one would really argue that Cars weren’t most convincing winners; indeed, so well had Cars played, they had actually denied Wilsonians a clear cut opening throughout the entire ninety minutes.

Next week, Old Salesians are the hosts when Carshalton travel to Old Schools Lane , Ewell for what is always a well-contested pre season encounter. 

Beddington Hotspur