We entertained Chessington and Hook football club on Bank Holiday Tuesday after Christmas.  The kick-off was moved with the agreement of our visitors to noon.  There was a sizable crowd at the match to watch the entertainment on offer.

Our team contained several changes from the previous loss to Deportivo Galicia with concussion absentee Brad Peters missing from our one-up, we welcomed back ‘Sonic’ Akoto and Aaron Bogel to our back line and Ben Bauchop earned a starting place in our midfield.

After the opening exchanges, it was Epsom who took the lead in the 21st minute after a shot by Gavin Quintyne that was parried to the feet of Jamie Byatt who was on hand to open the scoring for us; on the balance of play, it was just about right.  However, the lead only lasted 12 minutes before ‘Chessy’ equalised to make the score 1-1.  The rest of the first half ended with both teams battling to take the lead. ‘Cheesy’ had a golden opportunity to take the information but the effort went over the bar.  Another scoring opportunity presented themselves to each side, but the chances were spurned.  Half time 1-1.

As the second period started, we earned a couple of corners from good attacking play, but the opportunities were lost and then in the 50th minute and slightly against the run of play we were behind 1-2.  This setback galvanised the team and we did not make the best of at least a couple of opportunities and fell further behind in the 76th minute; this would prove to be the final scoreline.  It must be noted that the officials were very lenient with the opposition goalkeeper who continually interpreted the rules differently from what is laid down in the FA rule book and was rightly booked for wasting time, although any neutral would suggest that a sin bin of ten minutes would have been appropriate if the ‘man in the middle’ had decided that was the best course of action.

Anyway, we dust ‘ourselves’ down and move on to a difficult game away at Dorking Wanderers ‘B’ next Monday (kick off at 1100 at the Meadowbank Stadium) – we must get this right and have a massive month of fixtures in January which will go towards determining our season.