We played Dorking and Wanderers Academy in a ‘top of the table’ clash at Fetcham Grove last night and what a performance it was.  We won the game through a converted penalty in the first half from Jaevon Dyer and were fully deserving of the win.  The performance was full of effort and attitude and the 1-0 scoreline was a great result. There sometimes is nothing better than a clean sheet and a solitary goal to win a game; not all games can be won by 3 or 4 goals.

Over recent seasons, our opponents have become somewhat of a ‘bogey’ team for us with several defeats to them; we finally put that ‘to bed’ last night.

We welcomed back Jaan Stanley and Kevin Moreno-Gomez from being recalled by their parent club for the weekend and injury respectively.  Oli Thompson took his place in central defence after being used as a late substitute for last weekend’s defeat to East Preston.   Nick Wilson took over the central midfield berth from the absent Ryan Smith.

In truth as we look back on the match, we were by far the dominant team over the 90 minutes and won the game after a correctly awarded penalty just over midway through the first half.  The penalty was awarded for a clear foul on Jaevon Dyer who promptly dispatched it into the net even after plenty of shenanigans from the opposition goalkeeper in trying to put him off.

In the second half, we had at least 3 further great chances to increase our lead and on each occasion, the opposition goalkeeper did not make a save.  Our opponents did not really fashion a clear-cut chance in the whole 90 minutes which is testimony to our defensive capability on the night.

All in all a great result which puts us back into second place and 8 points behind league leaders Shoreham who suffered their first defeat of the season at home to Selsey last night.  Coincidentally, we make the long trip to Selsey this coming Saturday so again this will be a further test of our ‘effort and attitude’.  We follow that with a home game against Godalming Town next Tuesday and a further home game on the 11th of March against Montpelier Villa.

Come down to Fetcham Grove to ‘cheer on the lads’.