COWHC Mens 3s vs. Cheam Clarets - 23 Jan 2015

As last week Mr. Blue Sky put in an appearance for the match, although the afternoon start meant that not only could we have breakfast in bed, but we didn't have to deal with frost on the pitch. OK, so it was more Kingston-upon-Thames than Kingston Town, but it was a pleasant day, and the pitch had enough sand to match a Jamaican beach so we could dream of a moment in paradise.

Cheam have always been something of a bogey team for us, it seems as though we only manage to win one in ten against them, and as we won at their place earlier this season there was plenty of food for thought as the teams got ready to come out to play.

Fortunately it looks as though we're on something of a train of gold towards xanadu at present, and within the first couple of minutes Gihan's pace and skills had the opposition thinking he had some kind of strange magic. Maybe he does, because their defence parted, we called out "don't slow down!", he entered the D and... won a P-flick. There was no confusion over who was taking the stroke, Corny placing the ball on the spot. As I lined it up I was thinking "don't bring me down"... and sure enough he converted to give us an early lead.

Of course an early lead can be dangerous given there are many rivers to cross until the end of the game, but we didn't surrender. The defence was first to every ball, stepping in front of the Cheam forward line like four little diamonds. The midfield were passing the ball around as though they were on higher ground than everyone else and the forward line simply had to call out "so here I am" and the ball would find them.

The second goal game from a flowing move down the left, Corny and Ben interchanging as fluently as the last train to London leading to Ben rounding the keeper to finish with aplomb.

At half-time we had some sensible words from skipper Cleashy, still doing his Jose Mourinho impression (although we haven't sacked him... yet!) - "don't do anything reckless", "don't let it pass you by", "don't think it's over", "please don't make me cry"...

Not sure why he said the last one, but Cheam did give us some small cause for concern at the start of the second half. They did put us under some pressure, but the defence kept their calm and the showdown with their foward line again turned on our favour as three times some speedy counter-attacks brought results. A goal each from Corny and Gihan from open play, and one from James from a short corner that ddn't exactly go to plan (I'm not fooled so easily as to think that was meant boys!).

Although Cheam were still trying, by this stage they looked a bit more like 13 Eurogoths floating in the Dead Sea as the passes flowed around them.

Game over and another win safely in the bank we retired to the clubhouse to prepare for the quiz night (which involved tasting of some red red wine among other things). But more importantly here is the news - we are top of the league!

POM was Martin for an exceedingly composed display.