Author: Matt Haswell

8^th October 2017

Merton Under 9s                             4
Halliford Under 9s                            3

Scorers: Harry 2, Louis, Lewis
MOM: Louis

Nice autumn away game in the outskirts of Staines.  Scenic route taken pass Hampton Court Palace, along the river Thames pass Kempton Race course to our destination of The Matthew Arnold School.  Everyone arrived for the meet time, little walk across to the pitch ready for the warm up and team talk.  Starting line up this week was Max (GK), Joe and Ollie (Defence), Louis, Percy and Lewis (Midfield) and Faris (Striker).  On the bench were Archie and Harry, with David still away in Disney land with Mickey and friends and all the roller coasters.

The first half we started strong and put pressure on their defence and goalkeeper but couldn’t find the net, their keeper making some good saves.  For about the first 5 minutes Max was standing in his area with surprisingly not a lot to do.  The first goal unfortunately came from the opposition, and unfortunately due to the intensity of the match I’ve forgot how it went in.  The boys got themselves together, kicked off and continued as they started the match.  Couple of changes have way through the first half, Harry and Archie on.  We got the leveller from Lewis who dribbled pass a couple of players and placed the ball in the bottom right hand of the net. His first goal of season and well deserved.  That’s how the first half finished, the players gathered for well earned drinks, short rest and team talk. 

Second half, couple more changes and onto the exciting but intense 25 minutes.  We continued to play some good football, passing the ball about, clearing the ball out from the back and shooting first time at goal. Again they took the lead from a corner that wasn’t cleared, 2 – 1. Percy was having yet another great game in centre of midfield, with his endless running and closing down. We drew level yet again with a sweet left foot shot by Harry into the top right corner.  The boys never gave up and with some good passing Harry got us in the lead making it 3 – 2.  There came upset in the last 10 minutes as they scored to level the game again to make it 3 – 3.  A few more changes, Harry off to be denied a chance to get a hat trick. With about 5 minutes of normal time to go, the ball was played over the top to Louis who calmly controlled the ball and composed himself in front of goal to score his first goal of the season and put us back in the lead.  Now, for the second week running, Fergie time was played and the last 5 minutes of added time was squeaky bum time.  The boys played their hearts out, not one of them having a bad game, defended well and saw the game out to go on and win their second game of the season.

This was a great but nail biting match to watch, which had everything in it. There were new goal scorers, end to end play, post hitting, defending, passing and the ball hitting the back of the opposition net. 

Man of the match was close between 2 goals Harry, Percy’s engine in the middle, but was given to Louis for another great performance and getting on the score sheet. Winning treats at the end of the game supplied by Roy. 

The win made the drive home a lot more enjoyable.

Next week’s game sees a 10.30 kick off at home against Hampton and Richmond Borough Youth Stags. On the agenda is Taff helping with the goals and Stuart supplying the pom poms for the new sideline cheerleaders (Lewis’s sister and friend). 

Old Salesians 3-5 Merton 4th

Having been humbled 6-1 by Old Salesians in the first game of the season at the Hood, the return fixture, and a chance to avenge that dismal performance, had come round remarkably quickly. The setting – Tennisonians Sports Ground – was an idyllic one, and the weather was just about playing ball too.

There was just one thing missing… a referee. Having made contact with said individual, he’d claimed shortly before the scheduled KO time of 14:30 that he was “just 5 minutes away”. However, this claim became increasingly dubious as the minutes ticked by. Come 3 o’clock, Mike – who was very conscious that this fiasco was starting to dent his Happy Hour drinking time – stepped up to ref. A rusted spare whistle was sourced, along with a belated chase for a mobile phone to keep track of time. And eventually, it was all systems go.

Merton started the game beautifully, shored up by a very solid back three, and Akram in the middle to break up play. But the most impressive bit of all was the willing to play the ball around on the carpet, and with plenty of enterprise to boot.

The breakthrough came courtesy of some good buildup play, although the finish from Adam – with his first 2 touches of the ball – was simply exceptional: a Cruyff turn, followed by a clinical left-footed finish.

Somewhat against the run of play though, the oppo equalised, with Merton not being able to clear their lines, and allowing a cross to come in that was duly dispatched. 1-1.

But rather than let the heads drop, Merton reasserted their dominance on the game, and soon reaped the reward, with Dom slotting home another smart left-foot finish. 2-1.

Then came the first of a number of referee blunders. Merton won a corner, but what followed was one man head-butting another. The 20 other players on the pitch, along with a sprinkling of spectators and their dogs, all saw it clearly. The ref, however, did not, and despite some (deserved) abuse that followed, it remained 11 v 11.

The salt was then very much rubbed in Salesians’ wounds. The first in slightly farcical circumstances, as the ref pointed to the spot prematurely after a handball, despite Aaron being through on goal with what would have been an advantage, and slotting it home. But they had to come back for the pen. Fortunately, the ref’s blushes were saved, as the little maestro blasted it into the bottom-right corner.

Then, just a minute later, Aaron was at it again, this time put through cleverly after some lax defending from the home side. 4-1 at the break, and Merton were well worth every bit of it.

With still no sign of the official ref, Mike continued to don the whistle for the second half. Merton knew that if they scored next, the game would be very much in the bag. But, for some reason, they were slow out the blocks, and just under 10 minutes in, Salesians punished them – albeit in maddening fashion. A probing, swinging corner was delivered to the back post, and the simplest of headed finishes was applied, with not a single Merton player anywhere near him. Very poor indeed, and at 4-2, it was now game on again.

Even more so in the minutes that followed, as Salesians squandered a number of good chances (although in one or two cases, they may have been the beneficiaries of some missed offside calls).

But with Merton just starting to get a bit jittery, that man Aaron stepped up to the plate again to complete his hat-trick – this time another clinical finish after some good interplay. 5-2, and game won.

The final minutes were all Merton too, with a number of chances going abegging. There was also time for one last moment of farce, as the goalkeeper dived in on an approaching Akram in the box. He tumbled over, and the referee pointed to the spot, much to the bewilderment of all involved. Even Akram, who quite reasonably pointed out that he hadn’t even appealed for the spot kick. With that, the decision was reversed – all very professional officiating, really.

With literally the last movement of the game, Salesians then won a free kick on the edge of the Merton box, and what followed was a quite-remarkable strike that flew in the right edge of the goal, sending the ole onion bag bulging. Very pleasing on the eye, even if it was the oppo.

Even more pleasing was that it meant the referee could finally call time on proceedings, and some celebratory drinking could commence. Deservedly, too. This was another fine performance from this rapidly-improving team. If they play like this every week, they definitely aren’t going to lose too many games.

MOTM: Akram
DOTD: Joe Plumridge

NAME: Dom Preee

TEAM: 2nds

POSITION: Centre Mid 

BIRTH DATE: 19 03 1990

BIRTH PLACE: Petersfield, Hampshire 

PREVIOUS CLUBS: Petersfield Town, South Harting 

1. Tell us who you are outside of the club. What do you do, how would you describe yourself?
Pretty standard 27 year old – I seem to spend a lot more time working than I do enjoying life.

2. How did you end up at Merton FC?
I am a good friend of Oli Ross. He recommended I attended pre-season and the rest is history.

3. What do you like most about Merton FC?
Never felt intimidated when I first arrived unlike at other teams who were dominated with big egos. Everyone is given a chance to prove themselves.

4. If you could play for a professional team, which would be it and why?
Newcastle. Childhood fan. I think I would have had a decent partnership with Alan Shearer 

5. Do you have any pre-match rituals or superstitions?

 Not really, no.

6. Lastly, share us your goals/expectations for the season.

 To become a consistent starter for the seconds and aim for a promotion. 

RAPID FIRE:

Favourite Player (at Merton, or in professional football): Pavel Nedved. Great hair and unreal with both feet

Childhood Team: Newcastle 

Favourite team in the UK: Newcastle 

Favourite team outside the UK: AC Milan

Childhood Hero: Shearer

Favourite Food: Italian cuisine in general

Favourite Drink: Rum and ginger beer

Favourite Band: don’t really have a favourite. Five were pretty decent back in the day

Norsemen (a), September 30: Lost 1-2

A sojourn to anywhere upwards of Ally Palace should come with some sort of health warning. The north is a foreign country, they do things differently there.

In Merton 2s’ case, this was various interpretations of timeliness ranging from 30 minutes early (preppy top marks PQ, DQ); bang on time (Adam, Gibbo, Jamie); late but with regular WhatsApp updates from the car (Gabby); or late because of getting on the wrong train entirely (Cookie).

Merton came strolling out of the traps with all the verve of Dame Thora Hird attempting to find a biscuit under her sofa. Sherbs watched on as the backline was broken, made a decent attempt at a tackle, but was stranded as a subsequent cross went to a Norseman to put into an empty net.

Up front, Rayner and DQ were creating upwards of zero chances until the last 20 minutes of the first half when Team Handsome started to get on top of things. Andy Holder-Ross came off the bench for a hobbled Pearcey and notched. Merton went in with their tails up.

Second half, said tails made their way limply back between Merton legs as Norsemen ground out a territorial advantage, hit the bar a couple of times, and eventually scored after a defensive error.

Merton responded by not doing a lot apart from overhitting crosses and musing the tiresome journey home. Joe Grew did manage a GOAT clearance: somehow smashing the ball against his own bar hard enough to clear out of the area. Astonishing.

Cookie, DQ, and birthday boy Dan Rist commiserated by drinking until 5am: #lads. MOM was Joe Grew, because he stood pretty firm in the face of an average performance.

DOTD was Sherbs, not just for the first goal, but also for counting on paper using concentric circles instead of the traditional five-bar gate. Maybe it’s a keeper thing.

Merton FC u12s win 4-1 away to Hampton Rangers u12s

BI weekly catch up part one

Woody Misses his penalty, everyone else scores theirs, subsequently gets dotd and then doesn’t write the match report. Harrison still hasn’t learnt about the EC rule and drinks 4 pints for it. 7 before 7 is still a possibility.

Part two

Merton welcomed Alleyn Old Boys to the Hood after dispatching West Wickham in the cup the week before. I feel bad for Simon, scores the winning peno and doesn’t even get a match report to do him justice.If only the glory of him pointing to his stomach after scoring could have been captured.

With everyone on time and Kerns/Siri running late as per, we kicked off holding our own for the first 15 minutes or so. In my time for Merton, I think i’ve only ever conceded one worldie, the amount of penos and shit goals i’ve let in makes me question life sometimes. This game was no different, 1-0 down, ball to the back stick was half cleared and slotted in from about 7 yards out.

Alleyns had a lot of the ball in the half and the penalty to make it 1-1 came out of the blue, blatant push in the back, Sam Harvey slotting it to the keepers right to make it all square. This seemed to push Merton up the gears as the passing got quicker and more direct, this probably led to the second goal, or Sam perfecting his ‘bobble ball’ technique ( just think about Stan Collymore and his goal against Tim Flowers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN2F6WQk8zk)

2-1 and Merton pushing for a third were pegged back almost instantly by Siri imitating his inner Claudio Bravo and coming for a cross that wasn’t really there and subsequently headed into an empty net.  2-2 at half time and Van instantly letting everyone know that Siri went from MOTM last week to DOTD this. Such a team player.

The second half was low in quality, Alleyns defended pretty well and we didn’t really have many clear openings. 15 minutes into the second half Alleyns cut down the left, reserved the ball and delivered an overhit ball to the back stick with their winger did well to knock back into the box straight to their forward who tucked in from 3 yards out.

Merton 1s first loss of the season. All in all a good performance against a pretty good team, but a couple of mistakes costing us. However the style of football has certainly changed from last year, with the long ball being replaced with a more fluid passing style. Carrying on these sort of performances against div 1 teams into the league will see us pushing for promotion/the league.

Motm – Sam Harvey

Dotd – Siri

1^st October 2017 (away)

Merton Under 9s                             0
Old Ruts                                             12

MOM – Ollie

Pleasant mid morning kick off for the under 9s, away to local rivals Old Ruts.  We played them pre season where it was a close game, this was the total opposite. There was definitely and bit of ‘Fergie time’ on the watch.  Neal took the warm up once everyone arrived, couple of games and then some shooting practice. Taff even lent a hand with the Old Ruts mum’s carrying the goals out; they must have been lighter than ours!!!

Missing one player this week, David, who was running around Disney Land hopefully not slide tackling Mickey Mouse.
Starting line up of Max in goal, Harry and Joe in defence, midfield of Percy, Archie and Louis, up top was Faris.  Lewis (Hazard) and Ollie on the bench.  Although we conceded 12 goals there were some positives in the match.  The boys played the ball about and made some good passes and one twos, getting the ball out to the wide positions.  We did have chances but just couldn’t convert them.  Old Ruts had some good players who could put the ball in the net. We went in the first half with the score being 5 – 0. Clearing and losing the ball near our goal was our down fall for the goals.

The second half was a bit like the first but the boys worked harder to try and get some goals back, Percy doing the upmost to control the centre of midfield who I thought had a really good game, Louis having game of season so far running up and down the wing and getting into scoring positions but not finding the net. Archie putting in the crunching tackles, with one of them causing slight injury to knee and being fireman carried off by Neal. Faris’s passing and movement was better, just didn’t have his scoring boots this week.  Harry and Joe also doing their best to stop the Old Ruts scorers from getting more goals. Ollie doing what he could at the back trying to help Max defend the goal and picking up man of match this week.  There is a trophy but Lewis’s mum forgot it!! Max although picking the ball out of the back of net numerous times did pull off some very good saves.

And poor Lewis who is still looking for his first goal. Lewis was given the chance to open his scoring this season after being fouled in the box and stepping up taking the penalty.  Unfortunately it was his or the teams day to get a goal. The keeper pulling off a great save denying Lewis his goal. 

The score line didn’t hinder the teams’ spirit and look forward to the long away match next week against Halliford Colts FC.