Carshalton collected their third win of the league campaign on Saturday with an efficient and tidy display at Beddington Park against a Merton side that had to play most of the second half with ten-men after their centre-forward had been red carded for dangerous play.

Attacking the tennis court end, Cars started much the brighter of the sides, quickly getting into their stride and putting the visitors on the back foot from the outset.  But, the Merton defence was well marshalled early on and the hosts had to wait until the 16th minute before forcing the first opening of the contest – Paul Pearce laying the ball into the path of Earl Davis, who rifled a shot narrowly over the Merton crossbar.  However, the home side didn’t have too long a wait before hitting their first goal of the afternoon, which duly arrived in the 21^st minute, and was crafted by right-back Billy Andrews, whose dazzling and powerful run on the right flank finished with him finding Pearce, who turned on the proverbial sixpence at the near post and found the back of the net from close range.  Five minutes later, Cars doubled the lead from a move that started deep in their own half and featured a great interchange of passes from Andy Clower and Kevin Macleod, leading to a precision 4o-yard ball from Chris Tilley, which striker Martin Vincent ran onto, taking the ball in his stride and driving an emphatic shot beyond the Merton keeper.  On the stroke of half-time midfielder Lewis Cosgrove came agonizingly close to adding a third goal for Cars, but from a melee in the six-yard box where he had got the final touch, the ball squirmed the wrong side of the near post.

No sooner had the second-half got underway, the home side experienced their one real scare of the match when conceding a free-kick on the edge of their 18-yard box.  Ross Sinclair though, the Cars keeper, dealt comfortably with the resulting shot and the danger passed.  On 49 minutes, only the brilliance of the Merton keeper denied Cars a third goal – the keeper making a great save from midfielder Badgie’s superbly struck long-range effort.  Then, in the 52^nd minute, an unsavory challenge by the visitor’s centre-forward on Cars’ young central defender Davis, left the referee no choice but to show his red card, citing the use of an elbow as the reason for the Merton players dismissal.  To their immense credit, Merton having been reduced to ten men made things as difficult as possible for Cars, and it wasn’t until the last fifteen minutes of the game that the points were secured – Pearce going round the left-back and finishing from 8-yards.  Moments later, Macleod scored Cars’ fourth, having played a delightful give ‘n’ go with Pearce, which he finished with real class.  Finally, in 85^th minute Sam Johnson completed the scoring, taking advantage of a fabulous Andrews’ pass in behind the Merton left back, which allowed him to burst into the penalty box, where he scored at the second attempt after the Merton keeper had saved his initial effort.

Carshalton are in cup action for the next two Saturdays, firstly at Old Schools Lane, Ewell where they’ll face a difficult AFA Surrey/Kent Intermediate Cup Preliminary Round tie against Old Salesians.  And then, the following week an equally tough task awaits them with the visit to Beddington Park of Old Uffingtonians in the 1^st Round Proper of the AFA Intermediate Cup.

Beddington Hotspur