Author: Matt Haswell

U10s lined up to play there very first match together and on what was a great pitch and a fantastic turn out from parents.

This was quite a road trip for me as i had to leave just before eleven and go via Harlow to pick up Son and Heir to keep goal. Old Es is never an easy place to get to and est not to go via  Harlow. Old Es are now playing at the Ford Sports Ground in Ilford and it is a very nice place too, with good pitches and a comfortable bar and the chicken nuggets and chips were fine. The 1s have made a poor start to the season with a string of undeserved defeats. But I was very proud of the boys today. We had the full 14 players and we were all there on time being were well drilled and organised on and off the field by Clappers.   We were kicking up a not inconsiderable  slope in the first half We settled well and quickly mounted attacks but early on Old Es were dangerous but we seemed to have the measure of them and had created some good chances. As now seems to be the pattern of the last few weeks   it was Old Es who hit the post and went ahead with a good cross and header . We continued in menacing fashion and created and missed a hatful of chances. When we were on target their keeper pulled off an incredible block save from an Al G’s header(HT 1-0).  In the second half the game was played mainly in their half. Too much so in fact as we seemed to stay in their half when they broke up field and made it an extraordinary 2-0. For all the good it had done us we continued to dominate with Vanny and Kearnsey creating chances from the wing with good crosses but we just could not finish it off. Just when i had decided it was not to be  Al G rifled home when they failed to properly deal with a cross. Then Vanny made it 2-2. It continued to be one way traffic with the odd break away but it ended 2-2. It was a good comeback if not quite complete. For the first time this season a lot of our regulars were back in the line up and we had Clappers Tills and Woody on the bench. Old Es had won both their previous games and must have been disappointed not to win as they had led 2-0 with 25 mins to go. The ref was excellent explaining  his decisions being consistent and getting enough right.He also had to listen to the most amazing whingeing. I thought we were bad but Old Es have cornered that market.  So it is our first points on the board onwards and upwards. That is an achievement and with Ilford almost diagonally opposite Wimbledon i was able to drive  all the way round the M25. Back to the clubhouse to watch England go out of the World Cup but its only rugby.

Team    Sherbs (GK) Kearnsey, Weasel, Cooky, Rat, Liam Stevens, Will Low, Al G , Vanny , Ackers, Tom Rowe, Subs Tills, Woody, Clappers

The sun was shining as merton kicked off to play old walcountians and within a minute Jamal had scored our first goal! This was the shape of things to come and by ten minutes in Zion and Jamal had taken merton up to 3-0.
Old walcountians scored their first goal after thirteen minutes but Jamal and Zion battled on and after abit of persistence scored our 4th goal.

Second half became a real battle with old walcountians defending hard and scored their second goal, but our boys did not give up and eventually finished the game with an impressive result of 8-4!

Well done boys!

HSBC 5s were the visitors to Joseph Hood in a week where three points were vital to kick-start our league campaign. Only one point out of a possible nine going into the game explains how important it was that we claimed the points and not the opposition.

With Sam picked up a double wrist injury while playing for his School team, it was down to Chris Outred to step in between the sticks. Joe and Glen made up the centre back partnership with Chris Dodd playing the holding role to give support to the midfield but also provide that extra cover at the back. Dan Plaistow came in for Ryan on the right of midfield with Dulanie once against starting on the left leaving Dom and the lone striker.

We lost Michael and Joe pretty early on so Jake came into the middle of the park to partner Dan Gridley with John reverting to centre park and Ryan coming on to replace him at right full back. It was an even contest for the first 20 minutes of the half. Both teams playing some good football with HSBC maybe shading it….just. The second quarter was when the opposition stepped up a gear, getting a head to every goal kick that Chris took making the defence work to clean up constantly. 10 minutes before the break was when we found ourselves go behind, albeit controversially, Manny (of all people and who has been in every single HSBC team that I have come up against during my time with Merton) managed to beat the offside trap according to the ref and side foot the ball past Chris to his bottom left. 1 – 0 to the visitors at the break.

A few changes were made for the start of the second period. The defence stayed the same however Dulanie and Dan Plaistow pushed up to support Dom up top as he was getting no support. The formation change seemed to work with some good possession however the end product seemed to let us down. We did manage to equalise fifteen minutes after the restart through and own goal. Dulanie chased what seemed to be a dead ball however he managed to keep it in a deliver a ball into the box. With Dom waiting in anticipation, the only thing that the HSBC defender could do was head it into the back of his own net.

The game progressed steadily with a few penalty shouts not going the way they should have. With our midfield and attacking three failing to track back and support when the visitors were on the offensive, it was left down to the defence to try and keep them at bay. It was only a matter of time however before HSBC did managed to find what was eventually the winner. Manny, unchallenged, managed to find the smallest gap between the defence to fire into the bottom left again.

Apart from a disallowed goal after Manny had kicked the ball out of Chris’s hands (he swore blind that he didn’t) there was nothing exciting to mention with the game finishing 2 – 1 to the visitors to condemn us to are third defeat in four games and still looking for our first win.

Next week we travel to East Molesey to face Old Tiffinians in the First Round of the AFA Cup. Let hope our cup run is better than out league run or current!

FINAL SCORE: Merton 4s 1 – 2 HBSC 5s SCORER: Own Goal MOTM: Jake Hewitt

STARTING LINE-UP: Chris Outred (GK), John Gridley, Glen Porter, Joe Plumridge (Ryan Burchell), Edward Plaistow, Chris Dodd, Dan Plaistow, Dan Gridley, Michael Elgar (Jake Hewitt), Dulanie Richards , Dom Plumridge.

Merton Youth teams in action today. The U10s win 8-4 against AFC Walcountians. U11s no game this weekend, U12s lose 4-2 against Twickenham Turbos. U13s win 6-1 against Croygas Town in the cup (MOM was Rafael, and Chris got another hatrick 2 in 2 games ) and the U14s lost 5-1 against Kew Park Rangers.

Saturday results – only a point gained this weekend.  1s drew a game they dominated at Old Easthameians 2-2 but came from 2-0 down. Goals scored by the Gladkows. Really good performance not reflected in the scoreline.  The 2s didn’t have a fixture.  The 3s had a long trek to Old Parkonians, losing 5 – 1. 4s, 5s and 6s all played at the Hood with all 3 pitches now in action.  The 4s lost 2 – 1 To HSBC 5s, the 5s played a lot better than last week only losing 2 – 0, a much better team performance. The 6s also played a lot better than their last game but lost 3 – 1 to Civil Service 8s. All good games and good in the bar afterwards with Footy and the Rugby but not a good result there either.

12.10 kick off Mitcham Park FC v Merton FC
First half Subs were Ted and Zion.

Match got off to a flying start ,with Jamal dribbling the ball passing through the opposition striking the ball sweetly in the back of the net to make 0-1, swiftly then came a second again from Jamal our striker!
Game progressed on with Thomas winning the ball and pushing swiftly forward ending with a fantastic strike into the top right corner scoring our third . Minutes later Harry shot through the middle and planted  a cracking 4th goal, score now 0-4. Harry went on and hit the post with another great shot ….soon after came the 5th goal from Harry , players were giving their all and enjoying every minute of the game which was evident in their celebrations.
Game continued with Jamal then scoring the 6th taking us up to a very action packed first half which ended 0-6
Subs now Thomas and Jamal
Despite Mitcham park being down by five goals they still maintained team spirit with their heads held high ,which was great to see!

Second half kicked off again with a flying start with Zion dribbling through ,scoring in the first minute to make 0-7, with a great bit of defending by Ariane ,Harry then went on with another near miss hitting the post…then came some more team work from us with Thomas passing a great ball through to Harry to which he scored a cracker .. Now 0-8.
Then further excitement in their half, when three shots were made at goal and Mitcham Parks Goal keeper made three great saves
There was some great defending by Christian then Zion planted the 9th goal, M Parks Keeper did well then to keep another out. Soon after Jamal scored our 10th then Ted made a great shot which was saved by the keeper … Mitcham Park went on with an excellent cross which was cleared .
Zion went on to score the last making our victory 0-11
Hatrick for Jamal and Harry
Well done to both teams!

Another disappointing result and another even game that went against us. It started badly when the ref turned up. I don’t what I fear most but none of them are good Ref turns up with his family/turns up and gives the pre match speech about making mistakes and needs help/Turns up with assessor. Well we had the assessor this week. So lots of fussy decisions. More than necessary so a lot more mistakes. So under pressure and making more mistakes made life a little difficult. It was a fairly even game. Our centre back Alex did his Hammy after 5 mins and had to go off with Woody, proud father, coming on mm They scored a good goal to go 1-0 up we made a bit of a muzzy for their second goal we pulled one back when Tm Rowe fired home but we  could not get the equaliser and point that we deserved. Even the assessor thought we should have had a penalty when Rat was pushed over in the box but it was not to be. I thought two years ago when we were promoted out of this division we had a bit of good fortune so we are paying for that now. Still some of our players will be coming back from injury and better times are just round the corner. For the second week running we had two sets of brothers in the side The Gladkows and the Graves (Rodents) (pics)

Weirside are a club that has done well to survive as it has had the silver spoon wrenched from its mouth. As Lensbury it use to enjoy the patronage of Shell and the wonderful facilities at Teddington but when it lost that the club buckled down and have made it work renting pitches at Imber Court, Hampton Court. They are expensive but nice. It was a lovely day and a good game for the neutral.  The result of the game hung as ever on missed chances and refereeing decisions. We dominated the first half and created good openings and had several great shouts for penalties and just when I was wondering what it would take for the ref to give a penalty Weirside attacked and I found out. We had to commit the foul. It was a penalty and Arturs saved it but they smacked home the rebound. So 1 down at half time against the overall run of play.  I am afraid the second half carried on a bit like that although Weirside created a few more chances but were as profligate as us. The feeling grew during the game that it was not our day and it certainly was not.  We worked hard Weasel (David Graves, Rat’s brother) showed well and another new signing Will Kearns worked his socks off. But it ended up with the single goal defeat.