The M4s managed to turn what was looking like a resounding victory at Eggars into a bit of a nail biter as we nearly gave up a 4 goal lead in the final 15 minutes of the game.
With the skipper steering the ship from the sidelines being distinctly under the weather, we started with Hayden Griffin in goal, a back four of Jim Harding, Dave Houston, George Earle and Thomas Caine, midfield of Martyn Garvey and debutant Sam Briggs in the centre with Josh Parr and Sabin Osman on the wings and Clive Harder and Oscar Purcigo up front and right from the first whistle took the game to Alton with our slick passing and movement causing allowing us to make a number of incursions into the circle. Shortly before the first quarter came to an end Josh scored our first goal of the season.
We supplemented our numbers with Freddie Fidgett and James Edwards in defence and Laurie Wheeler in attack and in the second quarter following another spell of pressure the ball fell to Laurie at the edge of the circle who cracked the ball into the back of the net to double our lead. A couple of minutes later an attacking short corner broke down and George repeated the medicine leaving a flat footed keeper well beaten.
It wasn't all one way traffic as the defence were left a little exposed at times as we pushed forward and it took a couple of excellent interventions from Hayden to keep Alton off the score sheet. 3-0 at half time and the team could hardly have played any better, where the familiarity of 6 of last year's U14 team was very evident as we moved forward with an incisiveness missing in the previous game at Yateley.
The second half started and we extended our lead further as, by all accounts (I was getting a drink so sadly missed it) the best goal of the game from Oscar, with an assist by Clive. Sadly this was to be Clive's final act in the game as he aggravated a longstanding knee injury.
The third quarter continued in much the same vein as the rest of the game, with Sam taking up an unfamiliar role in the centre of midfield and looking like he'd been playing there forever, getting himself in space to reveive the ball from all directions and then looking to move it on. Not bad for a first adult game !
4-0 with one quarter to play and the sidelined skipper tempted fate by mentioning we were 3/4 of the way to pleasing Ed with a clean sheet, and encouraging one of the four scorers to maybe get a couple more to have him in raptures. Let's say things didn't quite follow that script as we conceded on the break early in the final quarter and then again a few minutes later. With Alton repeating the trick with 5 minutes left we were in for a nervous few minutes but the team regained its focus and stifled a reinvigorated Alton and even had a number of breaks that could have put the result beyond doubt for the second time !
MoM - tied between George and Freddie, with honourable mentions to Sam, Oscar, Hayden and Josh (my personal vote).
DoD - well it was going to be one of the defenders for passing the ball to the opposition, at the top of our D, but during the fourth quarter all of them fell foul of that one . . . so it goes to Sabin. He knows why and won't make the same mistake again ?