We welcomed Tadley Caleva FC to the Reg Madgwick stadium on Tuesday evening and unfortunately suffered another home defeat which gave us the first unwelcome ‘double’ of the season after losing at their home ground at the back end of September.
We made a few changes to the starting line-up after some late unavailability and injury to players who had turned out the previous Saturday in the draw at Colliers Wood United FC. Steve Springett came back into his normal central defensive role and George Owusu and Sirak Negassi were awarded starting berths. Toby Colwell retained the Number 1 jersey.
The match started brightly, and we were nearly ahead within the first 10 minutes after a shot from Sirak Negassi was parried by the opposition goalkeeper. The game was played at a frantic pace, but our opposition were certainly in control for most of the opening exchanges. It was no surprise when they took the lead on the 30th minute with a free header at the back post after some lackluster marking by our team. They continued to press us back and scored what turned out to be the final goal of the game in the 37th minute with a low shot from outside the box that evaded everyone and nestled in the corner of our net. The half ended 2-0 to our visitors.
We made no changes to our starting line-up as the second half began and to any neutral watching we were certainly on the ‘front foot’ for most of this half and had numerous chances to try and cut the deficit, but this was all to no avail. Substitutes came and went but still no joy for the home team, some of the chances were gilt edged but no Epsom player was there on hand to score a goal. A Tadley player was sent off in the 89th minute for a second bookable offence and even with 7 minutes of time added on and playing against 10 men we were unable to break them down.
So, another disappointing evening in front of 69 spectators, but we move on once against to an away match at Horley Town this Saturday with a 3pm kick off.
📷 c.r – Spencer Mitchell
