This was an enjoyable and competitive game played at 1pm on a lush Pitch 2.  Chelsea arrived with only 9 players at the start, so we lent them 2 of our youth team, Carl and James, to add to Steve, Chris Moggridge’s brother, who kindly turned out for them.  All three made life difficult for us especially with their pace.  For about the first 20 minutes we were under pressure, but managed to survive their swift attacks helped by some safe goalkeeping from John Gilligan and some excellent defending by centre back Jack Thompson.

Gradually we came more into the game, prompted well by new player Ben Bartlett.  We created a few chances before Stewart Williams scored his first goal for the Vets from close in. Mike Briggs picked up a calf injury which forced him to retire after the first half and as Chelsea ’s missing players arrived, we were able to retrieve our on loan players.

The second half continued with both sides trying to attack when they had possession and midway through the half they scored with a header from close in. It looked as if the game would end in a draw, but we hadn’t counted on Peter Street ’s firm shot from a rebound, so we managed to end up with our second win of the season.

It was a really good game which could have gone either way and it was well refereed by Alan Lawrence.

 Jim Finn