3's do double over Chessington
After a nice rest the in-form Soche were back to business in a rather awkward double header against Chessington as the end of the season draws nigh. For those who this will be a foreign concept to, that's 2 back-to-back 60 mins matches. The Soche's preparation was hindered by the lack of trains from Clapham Junction and half the team turning up to play despite sleeping in their contact lenses. Happens to the best of us.
The first slice of mammoth action got under way with the Soche under the cosh playing into the wind. Chessie hit the post early on and put Tommy P under pressure with a speculative long range effort that dipped, weaved, dodged (and any other word you can use to describe a girl trying to avoid lipsing Daniel) towards the goal before the keeper could shin it round the post. A lack of quality kept first half chances to a minimum but the Soche came out flying in the second half. A splendid long range half-volleyed pass from TK set the young Leach junior scampering down the left wing before he swung in a low cross into the path of emergency centre-forward JK who opened the scoring by clamming the ball into the net for his first Soche goal.
The Soche continued to create chances to double the lead, JD had a header blocked by the keeper and saw a speculative over head kick whistle over the bar but the second goal eluded them. Chessie came back into the game in the closing minutes but the defence and Tommy P remained strong to keep them out and claim the first 3 points that were up for grab.
A quick break and the Soche began to dominate the second half. Chessie's lino did us a massive favour by heading back the world of adventures early leaving Phil to run their line. A marginally offside JK raced onto a JD throughball and calmly found the bottom corner with a firm strike to double his tally for the afternoon and put the Soche 1-0 up.
More chances kept coming. Blessed with a golden opportunity to open his account for the Soche, Ben struggled with the weight of his watching family on his shoulders and missed a chance that even forgotten man Tom Leach would've maybe scored. TK was then played through on goal shortly afterwards and opted to round the keeper but was push too far wide to evade the covering defender who did well to get back and block the shot. The Soche's wayward finishing was soon to be punished as the ball fell to Chessie's teenage winger, who was probably even too young for Scott, and he finished with aplomb from the edge of the area with an unstoppable drive to equalise.
The second half was a slog as two tired teams battled in windy conditions. The Soche were pegged back without the visitors creating anything and struggled to create anything in attack until TK held the ball up well before flicking the ball through to the on-rushing JD who found himself 1-on-1 with the keeper and managed to slot home the winner before being hacked to the ground.
The game wasn't to end without drama however. TK got cramp and did the funniest walk the famous black and blue stripes has ever seen. Chessie had a a few long balls into the box but Theo and Carl kept the visitors at bay for another win and a massive 6 points to push us closer to the gaffers dream of a top 4 finish.
UTS
