Jokers 0 - 2 Merton 1s (A)

Team: Tony Haycroft (GK), Ollie Treherne, Nick Sait, Stephen Hardy, Jon Bowen, Jim Hey (Capt), Andy Carlisle, Martin Dye, Phil Balbirnie Scott Walbarn, Barney Christopher, Harry Stevenson, Josh Aynsley, Caleb Johnson, Zak Proudman

Umpires: Theirs, thank you

Scorer: None

DOD: Secured by yours truly for a side line ball hit straight back off (much to Phil’s relief…)

With recent reports having AI input, let’s see if you can spot the difference with what’s below… Having had such a good start to the year we were keen to get over last week’s slight blip and back to winning ways. The usual selection shenanigans resulted in a squad of 15 heading to deepest darkest Morden (although Barney who was helping out had to dash off at half time) with a few of the usual stalwarts unavailable spaces were filled again by some youthful upcoming juniors.

The game started well and the Jokers with good possession pressed Merton early on and it seemed one way traffic, the only question was could we convert that into a goal and from some great build up play a rebound hit their defender on the line for a PS. Up stepped Phil, who set up confidently but to everyone’s surprise (not as much as his) he pulled it just wide.

We kept pushing for a break through, but slowly Merton grew in confidence and started to keep possession and thwart the Jokers attacks where a breakaway found their forward somehow open in the D who calmly slotted in for Merton to take a lead against the run of play.

Merton kept setting up deep, which afforded us a good level of possession where we kept transferring it round the back and then as space was created probing up each of the wings however our final ball often let us down and failed to find a Surbiton stick, and it wasn’t long until a Merton short corner (which was dubiously given) was flicked in off the post to double their lead as half time approached.

We still sensed that we could get something out of the game and pressed hard in the second half, winning a number of short corners where shooting past their keeper was straightforward but their defenders stood strong where we had three cleared off the line much to our frustration as the clock kept ticking down.

Everything including the kitchen sink was being thrown at Merton, Phil kept running up front to try and carve an opening supported by the youngsters showing no signs of tiring as we tried to get something from the game. Jon and Jim in midfield battled to maintain possession and towards the end even Ravvers popped up in the D with a good shot but was thwarted yet again by the Merton defence. A short corner at the full time whistle was an opportunity to at least get someone on the scoresheet but the shot went wide and it was unfortunately one of those days where lady luck was smiling down more on the oppo than us.

Onto next week and Spencer, let’s go the Jokers!