DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

14 December 2003 Morden & District League Division 8 at Old Wimbledonians, Coombe Road

Old Wimbledonians 1 (0)
40
DCFC 0 (0)

(80 minute game)

They say that history has a habit of repeating itself, no truer words can be spoken after witnessing yet another narrow defeat to the Wombles.

Before today the two sides had met 5 times, 4 wins for the Wombles and a 2-2 draw being our best result, back in October 2000 (our first meeting). The last time we played at the Wombles home we had a plethora of chances, hitting the woodwork several times and having shots cleared off the line. We did everything that day and still lost. On the balance of play from today's game, we were still generally the better team, but just couldn't finish - isn't this a point that's been mentioned before ?

One of the worst things that can happen on a Sunday morning before kick-off is hear that the referee has failed to turn up. You may of course remember that this was a quickly arranged fixture, that may have been partly the reason for the referee failing to show. The situation was that both sides only had the bare 11, with the responsibility of organising the referee lying with the home side, it meant that if one of their players refereed the game, they would of course be a man short. Richie obliged at the request to make this a 10 v 10 contest, not sure how many other secretaries would have been that fair, but in all fairness, it did seem the honourable thing to do.

Our start to this game wasn't over inspiring. Although we were keeping good possession, we didn't look overly comfortable with Wombles forward advances. Rob was called into action early and kept out an early effort. Shortly after this, Adrian probably had our best effort with a great long range effort that even Ed would be proud of, their keeper though wasn't to be caught out. There wasn't really an awful lot in it in the first half. Ed hit the post directly from a corner and Rob in goal was doing a sterling job, keeping out anything that the Wombles would throw at him. Then, out of nowhere Wombles broke and scored. They did well to catch us on the break, you can't help but notice that we are just not direct enough. If you take their goal as an example, within a matter of seconds they had broken free, got in the area and finished it off. This is where we are going wrong, for all the good work in midfield, we are unable to find someone to break and score. This was to be the last kick off the half. The reaction from Tuffie was not pleasant, he lost his head. It's a shame, as he generally gives so much with his words of wisdom, this time though, his words were out of control.

With half time upon us, Richie had no choice but to sub Tuff and bring on Dan. It was probably the right thing to do. Our second half performance was a good one. After a fairly even first half, we must of had 60% of the possession, yet somehow had less real threats on goal. When you look back on the second half, how many chances did we have ? Damion and Kirk both produced good saves from the keeper, Matty and Ed hit long range efforts just wide. For all our hard work, these were the only chances that we could muster. The Wombles continued to test Rob in goal and certainly brought out the best in him, as he acrobatically (yes acrobatically, even though he is a big geezer!) tipped a long range shot off for a corner.

This season has been a frustrating one. We have learnt that there is a difference between division 8 and 10, although it is subtle, it's enough for us to have only picked up 4 points from our opening 9 games, when at the same stage last season we had accumulated 18. Some might say that we were a better team last season, that's a debatable point, but we've got to get some results soon, otherwise we maybe heading back to where we came from.

A word of thanks go to the two stand-in Old Wimbledonian referees, who both did a good fair job. There aren't many clubs that would do that.