We faced third-placed Knaphill on Tuesday evening, 17th September, aiming to extend our unbeaten run to four games, having collected 9 points from our previous 3 matches and, crucially, kept 3 clean sheets. However, instead of extending that record, we suffered a 5-3 home defeat.

We were without Ali Fofahan, the first goal scorer from our match at Tooting the previous Saturday, so Sean Michael Anderson stepped in. We also welcomed back Reece Tierney, who started on the subs bench, alongside new signing Jason Bloor from Langley FC. Both Reece and Jason would feature later in the game.

This report won’t dwell on the questionable decisions made by the ‘man in the middle’ throughout the match, as the 82 spectators, along with the players and officials of both teams, will undoubtedly have their own opinions on what they witnessed.

In the first half, our visitors were quick off the mark, although they didn’t create any clear-cut chances that troubled us too much initially. The game came to life when the referee awarded a penalty to Knaphill, despite no apparent appeal from anyone. The penalty was converted confidently, and Knaphill extended their lead on the stroke of half-time, making it 2-0 at the break.

We fell further behind early in the second half when another penalty was awarded to Knaphill. Things worsened when they made it 4-0 by the 60th minute. This finally sparked us into action, and we pulled a goal back through Adam Green, followed shortly by another from Carl Oblitey. At that point, a remarkable comeback looked possible for ‘the Salts’. Unfortunately, Knaphill scored their fifth in the 70th minute, effectively ‘putting the game to bed’.

Our situation worsened ten minutes later when two of our players were sin-binned for 10 minutes, reducing us to 9 men for the remainder of normal time. Amid these dismissals, our manager was also sent off. Despite this, we managed to score again in the 8th minute of injury time, with debutant Jason Bloor firing an unstoppable shot past the Knaphill goalkeeper. The match ended 5-3 in Knaphill’s favour.

We must quickly move on from this result and shift our focus, as we take a break from league action to face high-flying Step 6 Seaford Town at home this Saturday, with a 3pm kick-off in the FA Vase 2nd Qualifying Round. Following that, we have another cup fixture next Tuesday against Hilltop, with a 7:45pm kick-off in the Combined Counties Premier Challenge Cup. Why not come down and support us?