All sixteen of Brockham’s U16A squad played their part in a double-header fixture versus Wandgas Youth at the Big Field this Sunday. Both games proved to be enthralling duels with a competitive edge that brought an exciting end to a wet and cold week.
In the first match Brockham took the three points but it was not without a sturdy challenge from the Gas. The first half decided the game but possession was a close affair throughout. Both keepers did well to keep offensive chances at bay and an excellent save from Dorking boy Tom Francis playing between the sticks for Wandgas prevented Michael Cheeseman from snatching the best of the early chances following a swaggering rush through the Gas’s back line.
It was a spark of inspiration from Sam Kandalaft that broke the deadlock. His quick feet are mesmerising at times and having turned one way then the other to pass his midfield marker, he dropped a shoulder and rolled the ball left and right to make his way past two more challenges before slotting the ball home just inside the upright from ten yards. If it weren’t for a spot of knee bother and a lot of competition for midfield places he’d be a shoe-in to play all match, every match.
Joe Silver has been an inspiration since grabbing the chance to establish himself as a regular starter following the suspension and injury of Jordan Martin that has made the latter unavailable for the best part of 2013. Silver’s first touch has improved and the sight of him running at pace with the ball must strike fear into any defender. It was just rewards for his efforts that he netted directly from a corner just before half time to make it two goals for Brockham, a score-line that held for the remainder of the match despite some close efforts by both teams and four changes to the Brockham line up.
The second match was a different affair with Wandgas reversing the advantage. The Badgers found themselves two goals down within fifteen minutes. The boys could have felt hard done by having had the linesman’s flag for offside against Wandgas overruled by the referee for the first, and the second goal coming from a deflection off the referee’s back that looped the ball over the Brockham defensive line and into the path of the Gas striker to tuck into the net beyond a flabbergasted James Rabbetts in goal.
Brockham’s spirit has been better this season though. An inspired substitution saw team captain Sam Lloyd re-join the fray and within minutes his guile and menace in midfield had won the ball and allowed him to drive purposefully towards goal from where he delivered an inch perfect ball from wide left of the penalty area for Cheeseman to bury and bring the black and whites back into the game. Captain Courageous did it again five minutes later with an almost identical goal that Cheeseman collected gratefully once more from Lloyd’s excellent assist.
With the second game drawn 2-2 at half-time and Brockham on the rise it looked as if there would be only one winner in the second period. Martin had two goals disallowed, one for off-side and the other for an innocuous foul. George Gomes thought he’d scored his first of the season for it to be ruled out again by a marginal off-side decision, whilst Silver shot wide of an open net, and both Martin and Cheeseman were thwarted by an inspired Francis in the Wandgas goal.
The Gas had other ideas though. At the start of the second half they had put their pacey number ten to the right of a three man attack and despite Brockham’s numerous chances he was causing Brockham’s left side all sorts of problems. Francis had clearly been instructed to hit the right channel from goal kicks and Brockham had several warnings when the number ten had almost been put in on goal two or three times. He didn’t need asking a fourth time. A lofted goal kick into the right channel was knocked on over the Brockham back line to where the Gas striker outpaced his pursuers and buried it past an advancing Rabbetts.
Brockham couldn’t believe they’d gone behind again, and there was a five minute spell where they could have lost their confidence and discipline. Instead they kept going and levelled the game with an almost identical goal that started with Rabbetts, was picked up and layed off by Gomes, and finished by Martin who ran away from his marker and rounded Francis.
With ten minutes to go and the momentum with the Badgers it might have been supposed that Wandgas would have been wishing the time away. Instead it was Brockham craving the point by the end with Wandgas going close on three occasions, the first going inches wide, a forced spill from Rabbetts being sliced wastefully across goal when it seemed easier to pass it in the net, and a long range cracker ricocheting off the Brockham crossbar.
Man of the Match: Sam Lloyd
