We played against our landlords (Cobham FC aka The Hammers) on the evening of Tuesday 23rd September; we were the away team for this fixture

.It was a chilly September evening, and once again our team had a much-changed look, with injuries and suspensions taking their toll. In fact, the number of regular first-team players watching from the sidelines could have made up more than half of our usual line-up. The side was captained by Ethan Nelson-Roberts, who marked his 100th appearance in this match.

We welcomed two new signings who started on the substitutes’ bench: Jake Brown and Jason Vincent, both of whom would enter the fray later in the match.

Cobham, who currently sit atop our division, are one of the favourites for promotion after just missing out in the play-offs last season, so we knew that it would be a tough test with our depleted resources.

This turned out to be the sort of match that led our team to do much of the defending and try to keep the Cobham strike force at bay. We did this for most of the first half, apart from a couple of forays into their half which ultimately came to nothing. We did have an excellent opportunity when Kallum Peart darted through the Cobham defence on the left and was left with the keeper to beat from a tight angle, but he was only able to scuff his shot and the Cobham keeper was able to save easily.

Half time 0-0.

No sooner had the second half begun than we found ourselves one-nil down when Cobham scored from a good move on 28 minutes, which took out three Epsom players and left the Cobham player to hit a curling strike into the top right-hand corner of our net. The same scorer for Cobham was then sent off for a very high challenge on Ethan Nelson-Roberts, who was making his 100th appearance for our club in the match. This challenge was very worthy of a red card and would not have been out of place in an MMA bout. Ethan had to be substituted with a wound to his head, and we later found that he left hospital at 3am the following morning after a check-up.

With a man advantage now for over 20 minutes there was a glimmer of hope that we might get something out of the game; however, this forlorn hope was extinguished when the Cobham forward and regular goal scorer, Derek Hayford, extended their lead with seven minutes to go.

In truth, even playing against ten men we really did not fashion a real chance, apart from a great header from Jason Vincent which produced the ‘save of the match’ from the Cobham keeper. If that had gone in, who knows what might have happened with the minutes remaining. The result ended 2-0 to the home team and cemented their position at the top of the table.

We move on very quickly with a home match against Chipstead this coming Friday with a 7:45 kick-off time at the Reg Madgwick Stadium; please come along and lend your support to the team.