Not a good day. A late no-show from our keeper saw Mustard step up manfully and take the gloves and John Cutts make a late dash to North East London (well, frankly Essex) to bring us to a full squad of 14. 
 
The good:
 
The first half saw Merton defend robustly and keep Old Parks at bay, albeit without having too much of the ball. Ryan shielded the back 4 expertly in a holding midfield role, and Mustard effectively played sweeper-keeper in behind, making some timely interceptions. Joel and Vin were contained the Parks strikers well. Going forward, Nick P looked dangerous when on the ball in space, and was having some joy down the right flank. Seb had a chance from the corner of the box after nice work from a throw in but his cross-eluded both the bottom corner and the onrushing Nick. Denys was battling hard for knockdowns and had a couple of half chances. Dan flicked on a free kick past the far post, again neither quite a cross or a shot. Approaching half time, Merton took the lead, rolling substitute Chris P nudging the goalkeeper (who had run miles out of goal for some reason) off the ball, which fell to Nick to lift over the stranded keeper from fully 35-40 yards with a delightful finish. Merton withstood a late first half rally to go in at half time 1-0 up and were feeling pretty good about things. 
 
The bad:
 
Merton could have got a dream start when Dan intercepted a pass from the keeper to the fullback just a few minutes, but in two minds whether to shoot or pass to the screaming Darcy, instead passed to an opposition defender. Fail.  
 
The second half saw Merton under increasing pressure. With the team reshuffled with Ryan off injured, we lost our shape somewhat and were guilty of having too many men piling forward and not tracking back. On top of this the ref, who to be fair had a decent first half, suddenly decided after one too many robust Denys tackles, that “enough was enough” and the game became non-contact, which served to frustrate Merton further. As the pressure built, Joel and Vin were increasingly exposed, and the pressure told with Merton giving away a soft penalty near the touchline. Mustard very nearly made a fantastic save but couldn’t quite do enough. 1-1. Very quickly, it was 2-1 as a cross from a (short?) corner found its way along the floor almost along the goal line without meeting a clearance, and was smashed in at the back post. Merton made some changes to try and get back in the game, but unfortunately a miskicked goal kick saw Old Parks one on one and resulted in another goal. 1-0 to 1-3 in less than 10 minutes.
 
The ugly
 
At 3-1, it looked like an uphill battle. Things quickly got worse. Riccardo reacted to a ridiculous challenge (studs around his shoulder/face) with a couple of jabs to the opposition player and was sent off, no complaints there. However, in switching to a 3-5-1 to chase the game, Merton unravelled and turned a 3-1 defeat into a 5-1 hammering. Poor passing, lack of fitness combined with not showing for the ball all led to a horribly exposed back 3, and Old Parks took full advantage, scoring a couple of goals that to be honest were rather embarrassing to concede.
 
The Verdict.
 
It was a very disappointing end to a game that had such promise in the first half, but hopefully will be remembered by all concerned to ensure it does not happen again this season. We need to build on the positives from the first half, continue work on our fitness, and fight to the end. If we can do this, we can do well this season.
 
MoM: Nick, with honourable mentions to Ryan (we rather fell apart without him) and Mustard for stepping up and taking the gloves.
 
Posted in Match Reports 3s

U10s lined up to play there very first match together and on what was a great pitch and a fantastic turn out from parents.

Team really work well under Matt (Coach) leadership and all encouragement from mums and dads.
Team scored 6 goals to Raynes Park Vales 3 – Overall,  football was clear winner here on this day!
Well done to every player on pitch – Home & Away Teams

*David Laughton*

​Parent of Oliver Laughton (Merton Goalkeeper)​
Posted in Under 10s Reports

This was quite a road trip for me as i had to leave just before eleven and go via Harlow to pick up Son and Heir to keep goal. Old Es is never an easy place to get to and est not to go via  Harlow. Old Es are now playing at the Ford Sports Ground in Ilford and it is a very nice place too, with good pitches and a comfortable bar and the chicken nuggets and chips were fine. The 1s have made a poor start to the season with a string of undeserved defeats. But I was very proud of the boys today. We had the full 14 players and we were all there on time being were well drilled and organised on and off the field by Clappers.   We were kicking up a not inconsiderable  slope in the first half We settled well and quickly mounted attacks but early on Old Es were dangerous but we seemed to have the measure of them and had created some good chances. As now seems to be the pattern of the last few weeks   it was Old Es who hit the post and went ahead with a good cross and header . We continued in menacing fashion and created and missed a hatful of chances. When we were on target their keeper pulled off an incredible block save from an Al G’s header(HT 1-0).  In the second half the game was played mainly in their half. Too much so in fact as we seemed to stay in their half when they broke up field and made it an extraordinary 2-0. For all the good it had done us we continued to dominate with Vanny and Kearnsey creating chances from the wing with good crosses but we just could not finish it off. Just when i had decided it was not to be  Al G rifled home when they failed to properly deal with a cross. Then Vanny made it 2-2. It continued to be one way traffic with the odd break away but it ended 2-2. It was a good comeback if not quite complete. For the first time this season a lot of our regulars were back in the line up and we had Clappers Tills and Woody on the bench. Old Es had won both their previous games and must have been disappointed not to win as they had led 2-0 with 25 mins to go. The ref was excellent explaining  his decisions being consistent and getting enough right.He also had to listen to the most amazing whingeing. I thought we were bad but Old Es have cornered that market.  So it is our first points on the board onwards and upwards. That is an achievement and with Ilford almost diagonally opposite Wimbledon i was able to drive  all the way round the M25. Back to the clubhouse to watch England go out of the World Cup but its only rugby.

Team    Sherbs (GK) Kearnsey, Weasel, Cooky, Rat, Liam Stevens, Will Low, Al G , Vanny , Ackers, Tom Rowe, Subs Tills, Woody, Clappers

Posted in Match Reports 1s

The sun was shining as merton kicked off to play old walcountians and within a minute Jamal had scored our first goal! This was the shape of things to come and by ten minutes in Zion and Jamal had taken merton up to 3-0.
Old walcountians scored their first goal after thirteen minutes but Jamal and Zion battled on and after abit of persistence scored our 4th goal.

Second half became a real battle with old walcountians defending hard and scored their second goal, but our boys did not give up and eventually finished the game with an impressive result of 8-4!

Well done boys!

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Posted in Under 10s Reports

HSBC 5s were the visitors to Joseph Hood in a week where three points were vital to kick-start our league campaign. Only one point out of a possible nine going into the game explains how important it was that we claimed the points and not the opposition.

With Sam picked up a double wrist injury while playing for his School team, it was down to Chris Outred to step in between the sticks. Joe and Glen made up the centre back partnership with Chris Dodd playing the holding role to give support to the midfield but also provide that extra cover at the back. Dan Plaistow came in for Ryan on the right of midfield with Dulanie once against starting on the left leaving Dom and the lone striker.

We lost Michael and Joe pretty early on so Jake came into the middle of the park to partner Dan Gridley with John reverting to centre park and Ryan coming on to replace him at right full back. It was an even contest for the first 20 minutes of the half. Both teams playing some good football with HSBC maybe shading it….just. The second quarter was when the opposition stepped up a gear, getting a head to every goal kick that Chris took making the defence work to clean up constantly. 10 minutes before the break was when we found ourselves go behind, albeit controversially, Manny (of all people and who has been in every single HSBC team that I have come up against during my time with Merton) managed to beat the offside trap according to the ref and side foot the ball past Chris to his bottom left. 1 – 0 to the visitors at the break.

A few changes were made for the start of the second period. The defence stayed the same however Dulanie and Dan Plaistow pushed up to support Dom up top as he was getting no support. The formation change seemed to work with some good possession however the end product seemed to let us down. We did manage to equalise fifteen minutes after the restart through and own goal. Dulanie chased what seemed to be a dead ball however he managed to keep it in a deliver a ball into the box. With Dom waiting in anticipation, the only thing that the HSBC defender could do was head it into the back of his own net.

The game progressed steadily with a few penalty shouts not going the way they should have. With our midfield and attacking three failing to track back and support when the visitors were on the offensive, it was left down to the defence to try and keep them at bay. It was only a matter of time however before HSBC did managed to find what was eventually the winner. Manny, unchallenged, managed to find the smallest gap between the defence to fire into the bottom left again.

Apart from a disallowed goal after Manny had kicked the ball out of Chris’s hands (he swore blind that he didn’t) there was nothing exciting to mention with the game finishing 2 – 1 to the visitors to condemn us to are third defeat in four games and still looking for our first win.

Next week we travel to East Molesey to face Old Tiffinians in the First Round of the AFA Cup. Let hope our cup run is better than out league run or current!

FINAL SCORE: Merton 4s 1 – 2 HBSC 5s SCORER: Own Goal MOTM: Jake Hewitt

STARTING LINE-UP: Chris Outred (GK), John Gridley, Glen Porter, Joe Plumridge (Ryan Burchell), Edward Plaistow, Chris Dodd, Dan Plaistow, Dan Gridley, Michael Elgar (Jake Hewitt), Dulanie Richards , Dom Plumridge.

Posted in Match Reports 4s

Merton Youth teams in action today. The U10s win 8-4 against AFC Walcountians. U11s no game this weekend, U12s lose 4-2 against Twickenham Turbos. U13s win 6-1 against Croygas Town in the cup (MOM was Rafael, and Chris got another hatrick 2 in 2 games ) and the U14s lost 5-1 against Kew Park Rangers.

Posted in Uncategorized

Saturday results – only a point gained this weekend.  1s drew a game they dominated at Old Easthameians 2-2 but came from 2-0 down. Goals scored by the Gladkows. Really good performance not reflected in the scoreline.  The 2s didn’t have a fixture.  The 3s had a long trek to Old Parkonians, losing 5 – 1. 4s, 5s and 6s all played at the Hood with all 3 pitches now in action.  The 4s lost 2 – 1 To HSBC 5s, the 5s played a lot better than last week only losing 2 – 0, a much better team performance. The 6s also played a lot better than their last game but lost 3 – 1 to Civil Service 8s. All good games and good in the bar afterwards with Footy and the Rugby but not a good result there either.

03.10.15 Gladkow Bros

Posted in Uncategorized

12.10 kick off Mitcham Park FC v Merton FC
First half Subs were Ted and Zion.

Match got off to a flying start ,with Jamal dribbling the ball passing through the opposition striking the ball sweetly in the back of the net to make 0-1, swiftly then came a second again from Jamal our striker!
Game progressed on with Thomas winning the ball and pushing swiftly forward ending with a fantastic strike into the top right corner scoring our third . Minutes later Harry shot through the middle and planted  a cracking 4th goal, score now 0-4. Harry went on and hit the post with another great shot ….soon after came the 5th goal from Harry , players were giving their all and enjoying every minute of the game which was evident in their celebrations.
Game continued with Jamal then scoring the 6th taking us up to a very action packed first half which ended 0-6
Subs now Thomas and Jamal
Despite Mitcham park being down by five goals they still maintained team spirit with their heads held high ,which was great to see!

Second half kicked off again with a flying start with Zion dribbling through ,scoring in the first minute to make 0-7, with a great bit of defending by Ariane ,Harry then went on with another near miss hitting the post…then came some more team work from us with Thomas passing a great ball through to Harry to which he scored a cracker .. Now 0-8.
Then further excitement in their half, when three shots were made at goal and Mitcham Parks Goal keeper made three great saves 👏👏
There was some great defending by Christian then Zion planted the 9th goal, M Parks Keeper did well then to keep another out. Soon after Jamal scored our 10th then Ted made a great shot which was saved by the keeper … Mitcham Park went on with an excellent cross which was cleared .
Zion went on to score the last making our victory 0-11
Hatrick for Jamal and Harry
Well done to both teams!

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Posted in Under 10s Reports