First Team
Combined Counties Premier South Sat 18 November Reg Madgwick Stadium
Epsom & Ewell
2
AFC Croydon Athletic
4
2-4

Before we begin the match report, it would be remiss of us not to mention the passing on the 11th of November of our Club President, Stella Lamont after an illness bravely borne. We were in touch with Stella’s family immediately on her passing and fully respected her  families wishes in not announcing her passing until mid-day on the day of our next home match which was yesterday; we cannot legislate for any other third party announcing her passing but we as a Club would never do so without permission out of respect for what Stella did for our great football club.  A very respectful minutes silence was held and we know that Stella would have been watching from ‘on high’ wishing us well. We await details of her funeral, but again this may be a private affair and we will fully respect that as well. Her legacy to this football club will live on.

Back to the match, it was another disappointing result for us especially when those watching saw us playing very solidly in the first half only to go into the half time break 1-0 after one slide rule pass split our defence in injury time of the first half to make it 1-0 to our visitors.

Within 6 minutes of the second half starting, we found ourselves 3-0 down after an own goal and another goal from our visitors; this was very harsh on us. We went further behind in the 74th minute after a deflected shot nestled in the back of our net; even for the most hardened AFC Croydon supporters we had been talking too this was very harsh on us as we had also had numerous opportunities to score but were unable to take our chances.

If only we had played like we did in the last fifteen minutes to the previous seventy five, then the result might have been different. We absolutely ‘battered’ the opposition and scored two goals, had one chalked off for offside and one shot that hit the post. We scored our first goal from George Owusu (he has a knack of scoring goals and was his fourth of the season nearly all from the subs bench) and then a second goal from Ethan Nelson-Roberts. Our opponents were rattled and very much on the back foot and you could see that they were mightily relieved to hear the final whistle.

So, another defeat and we remain just above the relegation zone. We have two tough away games to come against 4th placed Abbey Rangers and 7th placed Alton FC – we need to get something from these games and if we play like we did in the latter stages of the game against AFC Croydon then we surely will do – your support at any of these two games will always be welcome.