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Carshalton and Stoneleigh Athletic served up a classic cup tie this morning with the hosts making a remarkable comeback from 0-3 down at half time.

Stoneleigh played very well with the wind at their backs in the first half and made the most of the conditions by dominating play and scoring 3 fine goals, two of which were powerful long range efforts which gave Dan not chance in goal.  Carshalton failed to compete and were second to just about everything.  Stoneleigh used the ball well and could have scored more.  Carshalton did have chances of their won, but 0-3 was probably a fair reflection of play at half time.

We are not going to reveal exactly what was said at half time, but we kept the talk positive and predicted that the next goal would be crucial.  Mike came on at right back and Ben came on in right midfield with Ruaridh moving to the left wing.  We switched from 4-5-1 to a more familiar 4-4-2.

We looked a different outfit at the restart, actually passing the ball and spreading the play to the wings - as we had requested from the start of the game.

As the pressure mounted on the Stoneleigh goal, Ryan picked up the pieces from a corner and slotted the ball home - 1-3 and we had our tails up.  Ruaridh reduced the arrears with an extraordinary goal.  Taking the ball down the left wing he pulled the trigger from an acute angle and the ball flew into the top corner at the near post.  2-3 and Carshalton boys were sprinting back to the halfway line for the restart.  By this stage Arran and Mitchell were rampant in the middle of the park and enjoying the extra space created by our wide players actually playing wide.  Indeed it was these two players who scored spectacularly to snatch the win.  Mitchell unleashed a volley from the edge of the box which the keeper did really well to get hands to, but the shot was too powerful and the ball went into the top corner.  3-3.

Carshalton continued to press and got the eventual winner with 10 minutes remaining.  The ball broke to Arran who capped a wonderful personal performance by cracking an unstoppable drive into the bottom corner from 20 yards.  Stoneleigh continued to look dangerous on the break but the stuffing had been knocked out of many of them.  At the final whistle the greens were celebrating and Stoneleigh players were understandably heartbroken.  Stoneleigh's manager was magnanimous in defeat and his attitude was a credit to all at the club.  We agreed it had been a fantastic game and both sets of players will have learned a lot from this.  Everyone concerned with this game can be proud of their performance and behaviour - players, coaches, ref, assistant ref (ours quite rightly gave a goal to Stoneleigh when the ball had just crossed the line) and parents from both teams.  A truly remarkable game made all he better for the wonderful positive atmosphere created by the supporters of both clubs.  This is what youth football is all about.

So on this occasion it was Carshalton who advanced after a classic encounter in the cup.  We now face a home quarter final with Tooting & Mitcham on 25th February.

Let's hope this signals that we are out of our dip in form in 2007.  From now on, let's play in both halves boys!  Good luck and well done to Stoneleigh.  We look forward to our league encounter later in the season.

Buzz