Match Reports 6 October 2007

  • First Team

    Fixture
    Horsham, 6 October 2007
    Result
    4 - 2 LOSS ( R Bray, A Turnill )
    Venue
    Away
    Report

    Sutton Valence made the long trip to Horsham to come away with pointless. Valence made what can only be described as a shambolic start and found themselves 3-0 down within the first 15 minutes. Valence rallied towards the end of the first half and went in with no further score. After a stern talking to, Valence started to dominate after the break forcing the hosts back and testing the keeper on numerous occasions. Valence failed to take advantage and found themselves further behind after a breakaway goal from the pacey Horsham forward. Valence rallied once again and deservedly pulled a goal back through Rob Bray after good work from Tom Willson.

    The visitors continued to dominate with Horsham playing on the counter attack and Valence forced a number of short corners which they failed to convert. The final play of the game saw Valence score their second through Andy Turnill after being unselfishly set up by Chris Back.

    Valence host Ashford next week and will have to raise their performance to get anything out of the game against their talented opponents.

    Team
    Croucher, Worsfold, Back.C, Willson, Back.S, Bray, Fraser, Morgan, Posnette, Angel, McVarish, Turnill, Johnson, Lampp

  • Second Team

    Fixture
    Horsham, 6 October 2007
    Result
    3 - 0 WIN ( T Edwards, R Ife, A Lee )
    Venue
    Home
    Report

    Sutton Valence 2nd XI entertained Horsham 2nds XI in the second league game of the season. The 2nd team had a good warm up and entered the game in high spirits and on good form. Valence had the pushback and attacked from the off looking to take an early advantage, Edwards having a reverse stick snap shot saved by an alert Horsham keeper. The first goal came through a well won turn over ball by the midfield of Captain Andrew Lee and Bob Bartlett and a clinical pass opening up the sleeping Horsham defence allowed Tom Edward to slot home his first goal of the season. For much of the first half Valence applied pressure to the Horsham team but with little to show apart from the opening goal and the score line remained one nil at the break.

    The second half continued where the first had finished. With another amazing run from Captain Andrew Lee Valence won another short corner. The Horsham defence holding firm managed to save the shot from Callum Atkins but only by putting their body in the way of the empty goal and a penalty was warded after sometime. The veteran defender Rob Ife stepped up and converted the penalty to make the score two nil. It was from this penalty that Horsham started to attack the Valence goal and won a number of short corners but were still unable to capitalise. With the Horsham team starting to tire the game started to become very open and a fine solo run from Max Ife enabled Andrew Lee to score the final third goal for Valence.

    This week’s exceptional onslaught of Horsham was thanks to some brilliant teamwork from all the players of which they should be proud. Valence next game will be against Eastbourne 3rds, which in the past was a well contested fixture.

    Team
    R Sharp, R Ife, A McVarish, S Parker, J Edmed, A Lee, B Bartlett, M Ife, C Atkins, B Tragett, T Edwards, J Clarke, B Lewell
    MoM
    Andy Lee

  • Fourth Team

    Fixture
    Holcombe 5A, 6 October 2007
    Result
    0 - 6 LOSS
    Venue
    Away
    Report

    This week the 4th XI faced old adversaries Holcombe 5A’s but with an injury depleted squad and with players having to umpire they faced an uphill struggle.

    Valence started off brightly, putting some good passing moves together and forcing a couple of short corners which were put wide of the target, after 10 minutes Holcombe started to get into the game and after a good attacking move they went a goal up after 15 minutes, soon after Valence were 2 down despite some good work by Kyle Henderson, Rob Harrisson and stand in right back Nick Hall. Valence tried to pull their efforts together but with heads down and some poor awareness in the D they were 3 down by half time.

    And After the break things went from bad to worse, with Holcombe running the show putting together wave after wave of attacks and finally the pressure told with them adding 2 more goals to their tally in quick succession. After a great run by Lewis Randall Chad Henderson had a great chance to get Valence a goal back which was well saved by the keeper. To complete the rout Holcombe added another walking the ball round the now tired and depleted defence to make the final score 6-0.

    Not too much should be read into this result, the real test will be to see how the team performs with a full strength squad and hopefully Holcombe 6ths will get a nasty surprise next week.

    Special thanks goes Kyle who kept running all game despite getting hit in the hands and feet about 126 times and to Dan Mansfield who played a brave game with a damaged wrist and also managed to get lost on the way back to the Queens causing Wills mum to be very un-amused, And he has sat nav!!!

    Cheers to everyone who played and here’s to a better game next week.

    Team
    Will Aldridge, Kyle Henderson, James Willmot, Rob Harrison, Nick Hall, Dan Mansfield, Chad Henderson, Ben Gallaphant, Darren Thompson, Tony Auger, Simon Davies, Lewis Randall
    MoM
    Kyle Henderson

  • Sutton Russets

    Fixture
    Dartford 3, 6 October 2007
    Result
    4 - 0 WIN ( L Woolley 2, M Turner, G Shireby )
    Venue
    Away
    Report

    Sutton Russets played a storming game this week against Dartford 3 Ladies. The first half was dominated by the Russets with excellent passing between Emily Sullivan, Louisa Crispin and Lottie Woolley ensured the ball got fed straight up to the forwards. Two goals were scored in the first half but the Russets had plenty of opportunity to score more.

    The second half started well with lots of attacking play and several drives up the wing by Margaret Turner and Gemma Shireby. Sophie Garner was instrumental with her positioning as centre forward and set up the opportunity for many shots at goal. Dartford came back into the game but the backs were relentless as ever and cleared the ball to the halfs who fed the ball to the forwards to create two further goals.

    Overall, this was a good result for the Russets considering the team went down to 10 players on the morning of the game but the Russets were determined throughout and displayed excellent team work.

    Player of the match goes to Lottie Woolley, who despite being ill during the week was relentless in the midfield and created lots of opportunities to score for the forwards as well as scoring two goals herself.

    Team
    E Sullivan, S Garner, M Turner, C Turner, G Shireby, L Woolley, L Crispin, A Wright, C Matthews, T Linders
    MoM
    Lottie Woolley

  • Veterans Team

    Fixture
    Tonbridge Black Knights, 6 October 2007
    Result
    0 - 2 LOSS
    Venue
    Home
    Report

    Matches against Tonbridge Black Knights are always keenly contested and normally, with the strength of their squad in both numbers, age range and capability, they win by a comfortable margin.

    In the end, the score in this game might give the impression of a similar occurrence on this occasion, but in fact the game was much closer, and the more enjoyable for being so. In the first half the Black Knights did look the more polished in their attack building and they had a number of threatening excursions into the Valence dee, but these were generally dealt with satisfactorily by the Valence defence, skilfully commanded by Grey Smith-Laing in his first game of the season. He was well supported by Nick Willson; Steve Mole, Peter Jackson, Phil Higgins and Andy Beavis (first half) and Bob Scott (second half). Most of the ones that got through were taken out by Dave Britton in goal, having probably his best game this season.

    Valence’s attacks had their moments, particularly the efforts of Henry Humphrey, Richard Evans and Hugh Robertson, but the attacks tended to break down due to the excellent defending of Tonbridge’s Bob Little. Finally one of Tonbridge’s attacks successfully breached the Sutton valence defences to allow them to go into the half-time break one ahead.

    Buoyed by the closeness of the game, Valence came out more purposefully in the second half, making more attacking use of the half-backs to support the forwards. In this period Charles Worsfold came very close whilst in his favourite position on the near post, Nick Willson had a strong shot blocked successfully by Tonbridge keeper, Pete Saggers who was also successful in keeping out Richard Evan’s penalty flick. With so much more successful pressure from Valence it was disappointing for them to go one further behind.

    Sutton Valence can again claim to have progressed their game and can look forward to next week’s trip to Chelmsford.

    Team
    Dave Britton; Steve Mole; Grey Smith-Laing; Nick Willson; Peter Jackson; Andy Beavis; Phil Higgins; Charles Worsfold; Henry Humphrey; Richard Evans; Hugh Robertson; Paul Linaker; Bob Scott. Umpire: Paul Linaker / Charles Worsfold (1st half); Phil Higgins (2nd half).
    MoM
    Dave Britton