DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

5 October 2003 Surrey Lower Junior Cup at Stokes Park (Guildford)

Stoughton WMC 5(2)
DCFC 2(1)
Matty, Richie

Matty (left) got us off to the perfect start. Where did it all go wrong ?

After the final whistle, everyone (including the opposition) asked themselves the same question - How did we lose this game ?

Anyone who knows that we have not won a game since March 2003, would probably think we are a walkover, but to be honest, for skill and what we can do in midfield, we are as good as anyone at our level. No disrespect to our opponents today, but they will probably be the weakest side we play this season, they are after all 3rd from bottom in the bottom division of the Surrey & Hants Border League, so how did we lose this game ? Quite simply there are two main reasons. There is no one to finish it off in the final third and we keep letting in sloppy goals.

After Matty got us off to a good early start, scoring with only minutes gone, we continued to dominate and it really looked, even at the early stages, that we were heading for the 2nd round of the cup.

Unfortunately, the first goal we conceded, was disappointing. Stoughton won a free-kick, for a fowl from about 25 yards out and the resulting free kick was well struck, but Jel should have done better, as his attempt to tip the strike over the bar failed and Stoughton were level. We continued to keep playing good football, our defence were cutting most of the aerial threats out, then Stoughton won a corner (Oh no, not corners!). Oh yes, more poor defending from corners, up until now we had defended a couple of corners quite well, but this time the whole defence froze when the ball was crossed back from the initial corner. Everyone expected every one else to deal with it - oh dear!

We did finish the half off well though. No doubt we had the possession, but despite that, we went in 2-1 down. At the other end, missed chances from Damien amongst others cost us dear.

The second half saw us get off to a great start, we were in complete control and Richie got us back on level terms. From this point on, we were pulling the shots. Stoughton looked deflated by the early equaliser and again it looked like the game was there for the taking. Disappointingly though the defence who had generally done a good job killing off Stoughton's forward advances went a bit wobbly when Stoughton broke and fired a shot past the advancing keeper. Number Four nearly killed things off, when Jel was unlucky not to have saved their close range shot. Number Five did kill things off though, as Stoughton's forwards charged through with poor Ollie, (who had done well on his debut), lost out in the battle and Stoughton undeservedly scored a fifth.

To make things worse, there were some shocking misses, including Kirk's when it really would have been easier to score, he somehow blasted over. Despite all our possession we never looked like scoring more, as any attempts we had were generally feeble.

It was only a cup game today. Realistically we would probably not have got past Round 2, as we would have faced Mortlake Reserves, who thrashed Merton Manor 6-1. The positives from this game are that we can play good football and we do have a good selection of players to choose from. The negatives, we can't finish and give away silly goals.