We took on one of the only two teams below us at the Eastwood Leisure Centre in Sheerwater on Saturday 3rd February; this was the archetypal ‘six pointer’ which so many football people talk about. We came out the wrong side of a 4-3 score line having led at half time 2-0.
There was one change from the loss to Jersey Bulls in midweek with Harvey Keogh returning in goal. We could name only 4 substitutes with our second-choice goalkeeper, Toby Colwell as one of them.
We started well and took the lead on 3 minutes with a second goal for us from Carl Oblitey who got a foot to a dangerous cross to make it 1-0. We began to control the game with our opponents only troubling us now and again, but the swirling wind played its part throughout the game to make conditions difficult. We went further ahead just before half time again after another good move with Lewis Perch applying the final touch. We were well worth our lead at half time of 2-0.
Football is a ‘funny old game’ as someone once said and we were level at 2-2 within 5 minutes of the second half starting. The first goal for Sheerwater in worthy of further examination when the referee awarded a penalty to the opposition for a handball which any player would have had difficulty in preventing’ it was one of the worst refereeing decisions we have seen this season. The linesman who was closest to the incident was asked for his opinion by a supporter and he simply said ‘I did not see the incident’ which would make any independent observer think well what was he watching if he did not see the incident. The equalising goal came from our inability to clear our lines and an opposition player put the ball into the net.
We got back in front approximately 15 minutes later by a similar penalty award from the referee where the most cynical amongst the supporters watching might have been thinking that he was trying to ‘even up the penalty that he had just given’. Nick ‘Tricky’ Wilson stepped up and dispatched the penalty. We held onto this lead until another penalty was awarded against us for handball which was dispatched to make it 3-3. The goal scoring did not stop there but unfortunately for Epsom it was Sheerwater who scored the decisive goal to make the final score line 4-3. Before the final whistle, the referee intervened again and sent a Sheerwater player off for a second bookable offence, again whether it was a booking is very debatable, but it summed up the referee’s performance on the afternoon which was extremely poor.
The result meant that Sheerwater moved above us in the league, but they have played two games more, our next two games are incredibly hard when we play away to AFC Croydon next Saturday which is followed by a home game against the only team in the football pyramid who have won every game, namely Farnham Town. We expect a large away following for that game so if you are thinking of coming you might want to get to the ground a bit earlier than normal.
