DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

15 December 2002 - Morden & District League Division 10 (at Colliers Wood Rec.)

Mitcham Strollers 0 (0)
DCFC 1 (1)
Richie 21

Mitcham Strollers may be near the bottom of the table, but the harsh reality is that no-one really likes playing them, for the simple reason that when you play them, you have to work damn hard and today's game typified that, right from kick off through to the final whistle.

If we are going to go up this year, then we can probably look back on this game, as one of those that made that possible. Today, we showed another characteristic that every side needs, if there going to be successful - guts and determination. When your playing Strollers you've got to work and work hard, for the full 90 minutes. The first half of this game, was similar to the first half of our home encounter earlier in the season. Not a great deal in it, with us edging it on possession and going in at half-time with a slender 1-0 advantage.

Damien who by his standards had a bit of an off game last week, came back to life this week and he created our first real opportunity, when he took on a couple of Strollers players, before hitting a decent strike, only to see it bounce back off the bar.

In a game with few opportunities, a very well worked free kick, taken by Adrian and headed in by Richie, was vital. A casual spectator had only just turned up to watch a few minutes, was impressed by what he had seen, saying it was a very good goal. It's that moment of magic which win games and today was a great example of that. Other chances of the half included Damien having a shot blocked, as well as Adrian and Kirk having shots, which were easy for the keeper and a good effort by Ed, which was blocked. Strollers forced Rob in goal, into a decent stop, as well as a couple of efforts that went wide.

One of the unusual events of the first half, was when Matty went through and had his shot saved by the keeper, the next thing we knew, the ref. gave us an indirect free kick, inside the area. No one seemed to understand it and Ed sportingly tapped the ball back to the keeper from the resulting free kick. Not probably knowing it at the time, the reason the free kick was awarded, was that the keeper picked the ball up, after previously putting it down. We should really have buried the free-kick, as the ref's decision was spot on.

Things at half-time looked worrying, as Ed picked up a nasty ankle injury, you could see a lump through his socks - nasty! Glenn had to go and this meant that Jel had to come on and play up front in his place, or at least try! Ed may get criticised for being lazy, but when it comes down to it, he gives his all for the team. He was brave (as well as silly) to play on that injury. Adrian also had an injury and like Ed, you wouldn't have noticed it and Allen got injured deep into the second half. These factors, were what made today's result all the more impressive. No one slacked and everyone put in a tremendous amount of effort.

The second half saw the pitch go from bad to worse, as it was turning to look more like a mud bath, then a football pitch. After 65 minutes the referee offered both captains the option to abandon the game, surely with so little time remaining that would have been pointless. Luckily, neither captain was interested.

It was now becoming more difficult to string passes together and we really had to dig deep. Damien and Ed both forced the keeper into a couple of good stops and at the other end we were let off the hook on a couple of occasions, when through balls got stuck in the mud, when we looked lacking for numbers at the back. Richie uncharacteristically missed a penalty, probably not helped by Ed shouting your going to miss!

When the final whistle went, there was a great feeling of relief, as we grabbed three vital points, which puts our promotion hunt, right back on track. It was also a vital win as we had also previously lost our last 2 games.