Merton 5s v Old Lyonians 5s – 19th November 2011

This week saw us travel by tube to visit Old Lyonians in Harrow. The last thing we wanted was to return home with anything less than 3 points. Having defeated the opposition 6 – 2 at home a few weeks prior, we went into the game confident that we could increase our lead at the top of the table. With Josh unavailable we recalled Glen Field to cover between the stick. Aaron and Ben were also absent but Lee returned.

It was clear from the start that the hosts had strengthened their squad since the last meeting. This showed after 15 minutes when they took the lead, a smart finish into the bottom left hand corner put the host 1 – 0 up. We wasn’t behind for long however, Patrick turned up the heat and following an assist from Dan down the right, managed to evade two defenders and slot past the keeper with ease. It remained level going into the break.

We seemed to have taken our foot off the gas come the second half and the opposition were able to capitalise on this from a corner. Their tall centre back rose at the near post to send a looping header into the far top hand corner. Not l long after did they double their advantage, with me failing to catch up with a break down the right, a cross was delivered into the box and converted with ease.

With 20 minutes remaining we upped the ante and pilled pressure on the Old Lyonians defence but the last goal of the game ended up a consolation only. Dan Outred caught a corner with a delightful volley at the near post to mirror the opposition’s third, and send it into the far top hand corner, Prior to Dan’s goal Sevan hit the upright with a neat volley that had little reaction time. As well as having to travel back to Merton on the back of a loss, Glen suffered what seemed to be a broken arm, later to find out it was just tissue damage. We still remain 2 points clear at the top of the table but West Wickham has a chance to become level on points if they win their game in hand.

Next week we host EBOG in the 2nd Round of the SAL Cup. A decent cup run on top of our overall league performance can do nothing but boost our confidence of claiming silverware come the end of the season. Keep the good performances coming boys….

Team: Glen Field (GK) (Lawrence Bispham), Dan Outred, Chris Outred (Capt.), Darren Avey, Edward Plaistow, Dulanie Richards (Lee Lenihan), Sevan Mutafyan, Chris Dodd, Arthur Lewis (Kieran Yansen), Patrick Mhondiwa, Dan Hall

MOM:Patrick Mhondiwa

Written by: Edward Plaistow