7^th January 2006

 The New Year started with a crucial game against fellow relegation strugglers Nutley at The Rec, and a fiercely contested game ended in a 2-2 draw.

We were now without defensive rock Mayhew for three games and Felstein who picked up an injury against Maresfield a week earlier. However, we welcomed Stu Cairns back for his first game of the season, while other long-term absentees Dave Mumford and Martin Penfold made the bench. The reshuffle saw Karl Harrsion move to center back in place of Mayhew and a rare start for Adam Smith on the right side of midfield. The early exchanges of the game were a bit tentative but we were the first to find our rhythm and began to dominate proceedings and create chances. Although it was Nutley who, against the run of play, made the first break through when they caught us on the break and a defensive slip saw the ball land at the feet of the Nutley midfielder whose shot bobbled over the outstretched hand of Clift in goal. This made us even more determined as we piled on the pressure and created several good goal-scoring opportunities, but a combination of good saves and wayward finishing left us frustrated. That was of course until Pedley latched onto a through ball from McPhail, who was having a great game in the middle of the park, and slid the ball past the keeper with great aplomb - 1-1 at halftime. We started confidently in the second half and were knocking the ball around well, but Nutley gradually got a foothold in the game and their dogged running and persistence started to cause problems. Nutley had a good 15 minutes of sustained pressure as we struggled to get out of our half, and created a couple of good chances – Burchett covering well to head the ball off the line. We then started to get our game back together and with 15 minutes remaining the ball broke to Pedley in the box and he drilled the ball past the keeper to give us a 2-1 lead. Nutley were desperately pushing forward looking for an equaliser but were unable to create a decent opening as we soaked up the pressure. However, with just two minutes remaining they broke down our left and delivered a low cross, which struck the arm of Dave Mumford as he slid in trying to block the cross. The referee pointed straight to the spot and Nutley made no mistake from twelve yards to square the game with just moments remaining.

Having been so close to victory it was disappointing not to collect all three points, however a draw was probably a fair result. There were two positives to take from the game, firstly Stu Cairns’ first start of an injury plagued season and second was Dave Mumford’s successful return from injury…it’s just a shame his cameo at the end of the game saw him give away the penalty!

MOM was Andy McPhail for his all round performance in the middle of the park.

 

1	Matt Clift
2	Kevin McDougall
3	Richard Ambrose
4	Tim Burchett (C)
5	Karl Harrison
6	Martin Verrall
7	Andy McPhail
8	Brian Gow
9	Phil Pedley
10	Adam Smith
11	Stu Cairns
12	Dave Mumford
14	Martin Penfold
15
	Goal scorer: Phil Pedley (2)