Carshalton returned from the extended mid season break looking to get revenge for the 5-4 loss at home a few weeks before Christmas.  Certainly, by the way we started the game by imposing ourselves onto ‘Old Lats’ it looked like that could be possible.

Cars created chance after chance throughout the game, mainly due to the guile and work rate of front-pairing Jason Crisp and James Hirst and the service they were receiving from our midfield four. (Strange that the Old Lats centre halfves chose to mark the opposite sized striker.  Hirsty (5’4”) was marked by a 6’4” giant and Jason Crisp was marked by one of Hirsty’s six mates appearing at the Hayes Theatre Panto.  Unfortunately Snow White was nowhere to be seen!)

Haircuts may explain this result.  John Hill turned up looking like he had just returned from national service (I will wager that he won’t be going to the barracks barber again!), Mark Harris looked a few days away from the perfect style, Ryan Noble as always won the title of ‘Best Ginger haircut of the team’ and of course there’s always Mark ‘Boycie’ Crawley who, when choosing his style, always tries to prove that Elvis is alive and well in O’Neills in Wallington.

The turning point of the game was undoubtedly a dubious one.  Old Lats had possession and their right midfielder lumped the ball over the to top of John Hill and James Robins for their livewire striker to chase, even though he seemed to be a good 5 yards offside as the ball was played.  Play was allowed to continue and, after going around Barry Consell in goal, he gleefully slid the ball into the back of the unguarded net.

That seemed to fuel the fire in Carshalton bellies and again we created but unfortunately couldn’t finish.

Half Time: Old Latymerians 1 – Carshalton 0

After a creative and inspiring half time team talk, Cars re-entered the fray in true Henry V style, “Once more onto the pitch friends, once more…!”. 

At this point I would like to point out the attitude of our midfielders who throughout were chasing and pressing our opponents, which meant their strikers had to drop off to find the ball, as the level of service they received further up the pitch was non-existent.  This meant that both of our full-backs could push on in search of that elusive equaliser, and with 10 mins gone in the second period we managed it.  It was that 10 mins of pressure that added up to the goal.  Cross after cross rained into the Old Lats box, with them just hoofing it out to another green shirt and the process starting again.  What must have been a 7 or 8 passing move from a throw created space for Alex to send in a pin-point cross for Ryan Noble to rise and head past the despairing dive of the busy keeper.

Cars pushed again for what would be the winner, and then the second turning point of the game happened.  With 8 Carshalton shirts in the opposing penalty area, a clearance for once found one of theirs and a break was on. 

A threaded ball found the first goal scorer who again seemed a good 5 yards offside, and then it went to their right midfielder who after being dispossessed by James Robins then found the ball once more for their round substitute striker to score the easiest goal of his long career.

Carshalton heads didn’t go down and rightly so.  We were straight back into the game with more chances, slick passing moves cutting through the Old Lats rearguard, but as with the last few games the final pass or shot was lacking.  Again we fell to a sucker punch, another break from us being camped in their box created a chance for them and Barry Consell was rounded once more, with the ball nestling in the back of our net faster than you could say “I hate Heathrow.”

If matters could get worse after the game Old Lats left us at the college pitch ground and went back to their Clubhouse without us, maybe expecting us to telepathically know where it was!  So we had to make do with happy meals all-round at MacDonalds.

Happy New Year.

B.Consell, R.McGibbon, J.Robins, J.Hill, M.Gordon, M.Crawley, R.Noble, M.Harris, A.Elgins, J.Crisp, J.Hirst