Author: Matt Haswell

Forty two long days had passed for the mighty Merton 4s since they had last trudged onto the field together. The Christmas break,  combined with the ongoing problems with waterlogged pitches had scuppered the momentum of morale-boosting, back-to-back wins in early December, so the task of toppling the table-topping Alleyn Old Boys on a dreadfully boggy Wimbledon Common Extensions pitch was a stiff one.

Nevertheless, with a near full-strength squad, the Yellows had no reason to fear, and made a steady, albeit defensive start to the match. Getting out of their own half was proving difficult against a visibly superior Alleyn outfit, who showed impressive quality passing the ball around on a woeful surface. It didn’t lead to any goals for the first 25 minutes though, as Merton dug in gamely.

But the breakthrough had an air of inevitability about it, as one of their pacey strikers beat the offside trap and slotted home clinically to make it 1-0. The second came 10 minutes later; again some good interplay that proved very difficult to deal with. The finish was clinical too, Sam had no chance, and 2-0 it was.

Yet while it wasn’t exactly an unfair score line, it was a little tough on the hosts, who had done well to carve out some decent chances of their own through direct football. Dulanie got on the end of a fine cross from Mikey, and was unlucky to see his header on goal well saved.

There was also some controversy, with Dom brought down by the last man when it appeared he was clean through on goal. A free kick, but no card, and it became a bit farcical as Billy’s subsequent effort with the dead ball was deliberately handled on the outskirts of the box – again no card from the official though.

And seconds before the whistle came for half time, a delightful overhead flick found Mikey just a few yards out, but a difficult finish to execute slid agonisingly wide. Still, the heads were up at the interval. At 2-0 the game was far from gone, and with the whole team working hard and Dom and Dulanie chasing down and holding up long balls admirably, there was hope.

The first 15 minutes after the restart were decent too, with Merton putting in some good tackles and working hard. But the third goal was the straw that broke the camel’s back. A simple through ball managed to squeeze through the defensive line, and the Joleon Lescott-esque Alleyn forward simply had too much pace, and tucked it away to make it 3-0.

The heads hadn’t quite dropped at that stage, and Merton charged up the other end soon after and had half a chance to pull one back. But with that attempt foiled, Alleyn counter attacked, and with the Yellow’s caught short, the opposing striker again found himself one on one with Sam and made no mistake.

That made it 4-0, and the rest, quite frankly, was a nightmarish blur. The goals flew in from all angles. Among them was a goal where the player was clearly offside, but like the South African cricket team losing wickets, the scoreboard kept ticking over. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Mercifully, the referee may have called an end to proceedings a few minutes early, with the damage kept to single figures. A cold shower afterwards seemed like a fitting end to the dispiriting two hours of football before it.

But the lads should also keep a cool head when assessing the performance as a whole. The opponents have a 100% record in the league, and for an hour, we held them at bay and caused them a few problems of their own. Yes, the wheels came off for the final half hour, but that’s best forgotten about. There are winnable games to come – let’s consign this one to history, and continue the run we started at the end of last year.

FINAL SCORE: Merton 4s 0 – 8 Alleyn Old Boys 4s SCORER: None MOTM: Dom Plumridge

STARTING LINE-UP: Samuel Singer-Ripley (GK), John Gridley, Steve Burchell, Mike Todt, Edward Plaistow, Chris Outred, Mike Elgar, Seb Lechanoine (Arnold Collier), Billy Dowie, Dulanie Richards, Dom Plumridge.

Todays Youth Results. U10s beat Roehampton Rangers 10-1. U11s drew with Bedfont Eagles 3-3. U12s lost 2-1 to Twickenham Tigers. U13s drew 2-2 with top of the table Motspur Park and U14s beat Molesey Juniors 4-1. Well done to Nick and the boys Also thanks to Dave Laughton who has been rushing about this weekend reffing games to help out.

Todays results. Top result was our 6s who won 4-2 away at Bank of Eng after trailing 2-0; At WCE not a very nice place our 2s drew 3-3 woth a determined EBOG side who came back from 3-1. Our 4s and 5s both lost. Our 3s played on a decent pitch at Nottsboro but lost 5-1 to a good side.Pics from 3s and WCE

With the bad weather in the week, all home games were called off due to water logged pitches, lets hope that they dry out to get some games on this weekend.  There were some away games played including the 2s who were the last team in a cup.

Unfortunately they lost this game 6 – 1 to Old Strand Academicals in the Surrey/Kent Intermediate cup.

3s travelled to Winchmore Hill whose pitch looked in good shape, they managed to get a bore draw, with Peter Jennings stepping up to the goal keeper challenge, claiming a clean sheet.

The 5s and 6s played over at Hayes playing Old Wilsonians’s 6s and 9s, both teams lost, 5s losing 3 – 1 and 6s being 2 – 0 up, losing 3 – 2 with their winning goal coming in the last minutes.

A wet weekend and the only game for Merton but what a result as Merton 1s win away at Old Actonians (previously unbeaten in the league this season) 1-0 after 80 mins and OAs 1-1 on 85mins but we get 88min winner to hold on to 2-1 win and 3 vital points. Matt Bosher scored the first but Christie Rayner came off the bench to notch the winner. Cracking team performance!!!! Fantastic start to 2016 for the 1s Well done Clappers and the boys. Lets hope for a dry week and the hood dries out!!

The Hood was pretty wet and the top pitch was the only one that was playable and that was only just. The drainage on the top pitch seems to have broken down in the three pitches on the high points which is really odd. But despite the dreadful boggy patches it was a really entertaining game with a surprising amount of good football. The wind which I had not noticed earlier in the day was now a factor blowing down the pitch and we were against it in the first half. Weirside wind assisted started really well. A good run down the left wing and an early well flighted cross was put in the net in the first minutes but was disallowed for offside. But this recipe was repeated several times down both wings and life was a little uncomfortable. Weirside missed a good chance putting a free header over the bar from a corner. Their early crossing was an issue and Woody tracked back really well to get his head to deflect one away, but annoyingly got his kit really dirty in the process. A price worth paying.  Gradually we got a foothold in the game and Vanny was troubling their full back who hauled him down a couple of times but 5 mins before he broke clear and their keeper could only half stop his shot and Charlie was at the far post to finish. Charlie made that seem quite difficult as he seemed to get caught up with it for a while. So 1-0 up at Half time and with the wind helping seemed a promising position. However that was not the case and straight from the kick off the Weirside striker seemed to waltz through our defence collide with Sherbs and somehow we cleared it off the line twice. We recovered from this scare and started to create chances. Tom Rowe was played through but fired wide and Will Low went close. But Weirside were always threatening and their skipper was always probing from midfield and they had good movement and their CF was good at holding up. So the equaliser when it came with 20 mins to play was not totally unexpected or against the run of play. Another good diagonal ball was latched on to and fired home on the turn. Pretty good stuff. The wind had dropped and it was good end to end stuff, Dave Quainton came on For Charlie and Hoppy (welcome back) came on For Woody who had put in a really good shift. DQ fresh legs immediately caused problems and with 10 mins to go broke clear down the right and crossed for Tom to fire home emphatically. We looked to hold on but Weirside were not to be denied and a hard shot from close quarters denied us the three points and delivered a fair result but disappointing as we were so close to a much needed win. I thought Weirside were good value and played better than when they beat us 1-0 at their place earlier in the season. They had some very good players well organised well lead and good movement. David Buick the ref was first class and his control was a major contribution to an what was a very enjoyable game to watch albeit a little disappointing. We put in a great effort and appoint is ok against a good side like Weirside. I thought all our players performed well and worked hard slogging thru the mud. Vanny had a really good game but Rat was outstanding yet again. We need to string a few results together in the new year and climb up the table but have every confidence in the lads and Clappers to do that.

Team; Sherbs (GK) Rat Clappers (Capt) Browner, Cookie, Woody, Al G, Will Low , Vanny , Tom R , Charlie. Subs Hoppy, Dave Q.

In the only game for Merton today 1s drew 2-2 with Weirside at a very boggy Hood. Good performance by both teams in difficult conditions and slightly disappointing result but credit to Weirside who came from behind twice.Merton Scorers Charlie and Tom.