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A rude awakening to the new season took us to the poverty stricken depths of North London to face Old Stationers.  After 3 gruelling hours in the car following Graham Polley's 'quick route' (apparently punters getting into his cab wanting to go from Wallington to Gatwick are taken via central London!!) we arrived at a run down playing field.  A come down for those used to the manicured expanses of Beddington Park. 

Manager Polley made it clear in the changing room that a point would be a good result in our first outing in Div 2 and that's what we came away with.....but not without controversy.  At 2-1 up with 15 minutes to play, a cross from the left was met firmly by a Stationers head, only for Mark (3rd team youth policy) Lowther to save acrobatically on the line to deny the home side an equaliser.  Cue mayhem.  Mark denied the handball.  Graham Polley denied everything.  The ref gave a penalty.  Up stepped the Stationers half Greek/ half Afghanistani forward (Polley observation) to miss the kick.  Unfortunately for us and fortunately for the kicker the ref hadn't blown his whistle or wiped the forwards arse first and the kick had to be retaken.  At this decision G.Polley almost exploded.  The retake was slotted home despite a game effort by Terry. 

Highlight of the match was certainly Ryan Polley's dazzling first half strike.  Bringing Terry's drop kick under control with his chest he turned in one motion, thus evading a heavy challenge, and poked the ball 5 yards forward before unleashing an Exocet into the top left hand corner.  It was a good day for the Polleys as man of the match by some distance was veteran sweeper Dick  'Baresi' Polley, who made good use of an intense training regime since July 1st. 

Notable performances also from newcomers Andrew Smith at an unaccustomed left back spot and Gareth Banton in centre midfield alongside the players' player Dave 'I'll never ever score a goal' Jenvey.  Having turned around at half time 1-0 down, Stationers came back hard from the restart and soon levelled with a decent half volley from the edge of the box.  Matthew Huffer went up for one set piece all afternoon and promptly scored, sniffing a follow up off the keeper after a Dave Robins free kick. 

A pretty solid start to the season then and with talent to still come back into the squad, notably Jonathan Phillips, Paul Pearce and Stephen Powell we should be in for a good year.

Matt Huffer