Author: Matt Haswell

Merton 9 vs 2 met police

[Show slideshow]

Todays Youth Results.

U9s beat Met Police 8-2.

U11s no game, U14s beat Rocks Lane 5-0, and our U15s drew 4-4 with Bedfont Eagles.

Our U13s won their Surrey cup game 3-1 away against Beacon Hill with a hat trick from Marcus (pic)

It was a good performance against strong opposition who provided splendid hospitality and welcome from a very nice well run club.

Today’s Results.

1s draw 1-1 against Old Finchleians with a late equaliser and some good fortune.

3s lost 3-2 to Carshalton (2 great goals from Glenn just not enough).

6s lose heavily to strong Carshalton side watched by the Quinlan family (Merton Legends Martin played with his dad watching -pic)

Result of the day with Clive’s 5s winning 2-1 at Old Actonians and Lenners and Chris Dodd coming back to the Hood to bring the news.!!! (pic)

Merton 9. Mitcham park colts 1

First away match for the new under 9’s team at mitcham park Merton came away convincing 9-1 winners.

Mitcham kicked off and Immediately lost possession to a very fired up merton team who attacked goal and forced the first save of the game within a minute. Merton dominated and the home team where unable to get out of there own half. On the fifth minute the ref stops the game at the instruction of mitcham park secretary, who announced they had fielded the wrong team.

After some delay the match eventually started with the correct mitcham team and to the credit of the Merton boys all the drama did not put them of the stride. It was same again as Mitcham where pinned back in there own half and not long before the goals started flying in.

Best moment of the match voted by our pitch Marshall Winta, was when Darius dispossessed a mitcham player on the halfway line, blazed down the right beating defenders along the way to the touch line and put over a perfct cross for Tom playing in only his second competitive game to strike home beautifully on the half volley.

Overall, a great team performance, Merton dominated and outclassed mitcham park colts with skill, effort, determination and discipline. 4 boys on the scoresheet with only 1 shot on target against, which went in!!!

Mitcham park colts manager summed up the Merton team performance.

“Great effort, great minds, great teamwork”

Despite the torrential storms that hit the UK on Friday, we arrived in Chiswick with the pitches in good
nick, playing to our Barcelona-esque style. We did, however, arrive in dribs and drabs due to serious
traffic around the Mortlake area – rumour had it that a still-drunk Big Chris was still partying in the
middle of the road from Thursday night, such was his level of rowdy drunkenness. Not an ideal start.
As the clock hit 7pm, the ref arrived and the game was on. Both teams took a while to get going, feeling
like a start of the season clash. It would be Merton, however, who would who would hit first. The ball was played through by Dwayne, agonisingly close to the defender but yet just out of reach. Knowing the race was lost, the defender went tumbling in a manner that Ashley Young would be proud of – dramatic, and screaming as if he’d have joined Clive in his regular “shower fun times” sessions. With Dulanjie just to beat the keeper, he calmly slotted home to put the 5s one-nil up. Cue the probing from Ibis Eagles. They began attacking with some purpose, putting the ball in the box at every opportunity. Luckily, the rear-guard action of Darren & Lenners, men who are used to their fair share of probing, dealt with it stupendously. It was, in fact, the 5s who had the best chance to make it 2, with Dulanjie one-on-one again. Perhaps too confident second time wide, he scuffed his effort which tamely rolled into the keeper’s arms. Not too long after, a cruel deflection was to undo our good work. They sent a corner in, which was again very well defended. The ball broke to the edge of the box, where one unfortunate [but very good looking] fellow toe-punted it straight to the opposing player outside the box. He took a touch, and let fly with an effort that deflected cruelly off Lenners for a goal that their pressure arguably merited. Lenners OG, 1-1 at half-time.

We knew that the game was there for the taking in the second half. After another cagey start from both teams, the 5s were to spring ahead again, with a second halfsubstitute instrumental in the build-up. Aaron Ackerman picked up the ball from our own half, playing it through towards the left. Dulanjie managed to latch on to it just before it went out of play, and drove inwards. Too fast for their defense, Dulanjie found himself in front of goal, only at a very tight angle. A keen eye for tight gaps, Dulanjie managed to squeeze it between the keeper and the near post to make it 2-1. They piled on the pressure in order to find an equaliser, however we defended resolutely all over the pitch, resulting in them not creating a clear cut chance in the last 30 minutes of the game. It was only down to Richard thoughtfully deciding that 2 was enough that we did not win by more; maybe less Gareth Bale, more Gareth Gates on this occasion. He’ll gladly save them for when we need them, and we played out the 2-1 victory to put ourselves within 4 points of equalling our points total from last season.

Those who bemoan young people for not voting may have a point, as only 3 nominations were received. Such was the difficult task of picking a man of the match, it resulted in a three-way split. Dulanjie wins one for his two goals, Aaron Byrne for his impressive balance between first-half offense and second-half strong defensive work that saw us see out a victory, and Darren Avey for being an immovable object, winning everything in the air despite their bombardment. Many more people are worthy of a mention; Delman and Josh ensured nothing came down the wings, Dwayne and Aaron got good assists, Miguel impressed with his composure in the middle when coming on and Sam in goal managed to deal well with all that came his way comfortably. This was a very strong team performance, on to next week!

On a beautiful Sunday morning u11s with a full squad including 4 subs for 2nd week in a row….. were ready to take on Claygate.

We started a little slow and went 1 goal down…. boys were reminded of training ….pass and move…..set and take.

We bounced back with a great team goal and Cormac scoring a goal with his left foot curling like a boomerang into goal.

Passing then just continued and it looked like a field of buttercups as we swarmed all over Claygate goal.

Steve smashed in a goal….like a torpedo from a sub… locked onto target and Boom.

Zion got 3rd goal and was on fire throughout the whole game… showed trickery and zap…. smash grab ball flew into net of his finesse finish on his left foot.

We March on and once again great team bond and parents…. we love you guys.

Next week we travel Hampton Rangers.

David Laughton

Merton Res 4 Oldsmiths Res 2

Scorers Willgoss (2) Cibwabwa (2)

Lofty demanded Team Handsome 2.0 make Joseph Hood a fortress. The 2s delivered. But it wasn’t that simple.

It looked like it might be for a while. A cross-field ball bounced up for Wilgo on the edge of the area, 12 yards from the touchline. His half-volley arced from right to left over the goalkeeper and into the side netting. 1-0. Wilgo bagged his second when the Oldsmiths keeper found him in space outside the area minutes later. Merton’s skipper advanced, sat the keeper down and knocked it into an empty net. 2-0. Half-time.

It was more of the same to start the second half, with Merton’s back four an outstanding unit and Sherbs an assured presence in goal. With the tireless, selfless running of Tom Benham up front and James Laughton and Elz menacing on either wing, the 2s looked dangerous every time they broke forward. Tom’s hustle in particular was vital to his team’s superiority. And so it proved, with the best team goal of the day.

Wilgo won the ball from an Oldsmiths break and set James away down the right. His cross made its way via Tom to Elz, who cut in to beat two defenders before firing home with confidence. 3-0.

Then came the nerves: Oldsmiths who had already won their first league game were not going to give up easily and battled all the way. Their determination paid off and at 3-1the away side were back in it. Sherbs made his outstanding save of the day at his near post to counter an Oldsmiths break down the left; he and his defence threw themselves in front of plenty more as the game ticked into the final half hour, but could do little about a powerful header from a corner with 15 minutes to go. 3-2.

More chances came Merton’s way as the game became stretched. Tom was unlucky not to score at least one. Then, with 10 left, the Laughton-Elz combo – who lit up the match whenever they were on the ball – combined again for Merton’s fourth, with Alberto playing the telling ball in for Elz’s second. 4-2. A result all worked hard for. Particularly the manager.

“I ached from about 30 minutes in, but the smile is big now,” said Lofty afterwards. “Great to bounce back from last week.”

Lofty had an outstanding game in midfield and organising and managing the team. Wilgo deserved his ‘Man Most Handsome’ award for his on field leadership alone, never mind the two goals.

First game of the season and it was one of our three trips up north.

Alexandra Palace is a long way from Morden but it isn’t the hardest to get to by public transport. That is until, there’s a passenger on the line at Warren Street, and the Victoria Line is part suspended. If whoever it was, thinks they’ve got problems, they want to try and herd 14 blokes around London every Saturday!

We built in plenty of slack in the meet time, the 3s take note, so even with our detour, arrived at the ground 50 minutes before kick off. The youthful enthusiasm of the team, yes you read correctly, youthful, meant we were changed and warming up in plenty of time to kick start our season at full throttle. And full throttle we did.

With four debutants in the starting XI and two more on the bench the squad had a fresh look. As all six are under 26, two even still in their teens, it also drastically lowered the average age. Despite the new line up we started well, with the old hands organising well and leading by example, and it wasn’t long before we were putting the AP defence under pressure. It was this pressure that meant AP surrendered possession to Tom Rowe out near the right wing. Tom beat his man, ran into the box, and calmly curled the ball round the oncoming keeper. Midway through the half, no real pressure on our goal, and one nil up. This was already much more enjoyable than last season.

It wasn’t long before we were two up. Milo played a good ball into the left channel and Tom was again one on one with an AP defender. This time his strength and power saw off his challenger and after steadying himself he finished well at the near post. Turns out a quiet Friday night in pays off, doesn’t it Tom! We dominated the rest of the half without creating many other opportunities but equally not allowing AP any clear sight of our goal. Woody and Tilley dominated midfield whilst Tom and Milo kept us on the front foot.

AP started the second half better and we were soon on the back foot. We hadn’t really got going and then Rat suffered a bad ankle injury and had to be substituted. We reshuffled and AP threw more men forward but our defence stood strong with Clowesy and Ben in particular making key clearances. Special mention goes to Siri in goal who made some good saves whilst generally being a commanding presence. The half didn’t go past without us creating more chances and on another day Vanny could’ve come away with his own brace. However, there were no more goals and we saw out the half to record our first victory of the season.

Well done to the debutants; Siri, Ben, Nick, Milo, Sam and Jonny, who all played an important part. Also a well done to our ref on the day, who’s game management and communication was very good. He was particularly good at seeing when a foul wasn’t simply a bad challenge but that the ball was there to be kicked!

MOTM = Tom Rowe

Line up: Siri, Ben, Rat (Sam 59), Clappers, Clowesy, Nick, Woody, Tilley, Vanny (Milo 85), Tom, Milo (Jonny 68)

Merton FC vs Hook Youth Reds 4-1,
The first cup game of the season! Merton FC at home vs Hook. We all met at Joseph Hood at 9:15, everyone got there nice and early, we all were ready for action! We warmed up for 45 minutes before we kicked off.

So at 10:30 the thriller started. We got off to a good start within a couple of minutes we were dominating.  At about 15 minutes in McKenzie scored a wonder goal, top bins! Roughly 2 minutes later the opponent scored with a header from a corner, very unfortunate. After Hook scored they started to apply pressure along our back 4, however they were no match for us. Later on the half time whistle was blown 1-1 at half time.

The next half kicked off, Hook started this half but straight away we were on to them. We gave them no time on the ball, as a result we scored, Keiron was the goal scorer, making it 2-1 to Merton! The ball rolled off the centre spot yet again, straight away we were applying pressure to them. We kept on attacking until we put a ball into the box where their defender got the touch and scored a own goal, unluckily for Marcus our striker as he could’ve slotted it away. The ball was kicked and the game started again. The game died down for a couple of minutes however after a few substitutes we were back into it. The ball was moving around hooks box, we took a couple of shots that were deflected but Evan slotted it home making it 4-1. After the goal Hook started to attack towards the end. About 5 minutes were left as Hook got a couple of corners, we cleared them well, except one that trickled away from our keepers hand and was cleared off the goal line from Freddy, our centre back.

That was it the full time whistle was blown a heroic victory for Merton! What a spectacular performance from our squad.

Great game
Report by Freddy Camilleri (Centre Half)