Thames Valley Church Football League 2011/12

SACFL 0 vs. TVCFL 'All Stars' 2

On a bitterly cold Wednesday evening, the Thames Valley Churches Football League ‘All-Stars’ braved both the weather and rush-hour traffic to head to West Molesey to face the cream of the Southern Area Christian Football League. The venue was the ground of The Combined Counties Football League Premier division team, Molesey FC.  With traffic proving must less of a problem than feared, attention quickly turned to keeping warm on a pitch that hardened slowly throughout the game.

With the advice of the management team of Ben Morrison (Brookside St Laurence) and Jonathan Horne (Kerith Community Church) to keep things tight ringing in their ears, the All-Stars were surprised to find themselves the brighter of the two teams for the first 15 minutes.  Mark Montgomery (West Reading) and Paul Alexander (Bethel United) caused plenty of problems to the SACFL defence and forced a succession of corners and saves from their goalkeeper. Having found themselves initially on the back foot, the SACFL started to pull themselves back into the game and exert some pressure of their own. Despite responding well under the guidance of centre backs Barry Agar (Kerith Community Church) and Tim Wilkins (Greyfriars FC) it was the SACFL that came closest to opening the scoring with a long range strike that came thundering off the crossbar.

Following the scare, the All Stars responded well and the midfield duo of Mike Sharp (Wycliffe Wanderers) and Steve Magness (Brookside St Laurence) started to dominate the game and it was Magness who broke the deadlock after 25 minutes with a deft header over the stranded goalkeeper. The ‘All-Stars’ continued to dominate and were rewarded with a second goal 5 minutes before half time when Kieran Knight (Brookside St Laurence) found James Hern (Greyfriars FC) who turned the last defender before firing into the bottom left corner.

The second half was more disjointed, particularly as the ground continued to harden, which made turning difficult. Agar joined Ben Findley (Kerith Community Church) in attack and both went close on several occasions. Having started the game at right back, Matt Lilley (Reading Saints) pushed onto the right wing and with support from Gregory Lyford (Bethel United) caused a constant threat throughout the second half. SACFL slowly managed to gain a foothold back into the game in the last 20 minutes and brought out a series of fine saves from goalkeeper Nath Saleh (Kerith Community Church). Alex Higginson (West Reading) and Wilkins tightened up the defence and saw out the remainder the game without further incident.

Thank you to all the players and supporters who made the journey down to play in the first league rep game in 7 years. It was a great evening and we managed to gain revenge for a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the SACFL in 1998! Thanks also to Ben and Jonathan for pulling together the team, and having to deal with finding several last minute replacements.

It is hoped we will be able to build up a friendship with the SACFL over the next few years and plans are afoot to hold a rematch in Reading at the end of the year.