We played Alton FC at the Reg Madgwick stadium in Cobham on Saturday 24th February and were beaten 4-3 by the visitors.
The match was very much spoiled by some poor officiating by all three officials. This began when mid way through the first half the No 10 of Alton clearly elbowed our left back Jerry Antwi as they went up for the ball; video evidence clearly shows the blatant deliberate elbow. The opposition player may protest his innocence along with his team mates but as one of the Alton officials told us at half time ‘he has a bit of a reputation I am afraid’ were the words used. As to why the two officials nearest the incident did not see it we have no idea. As this report is being written Jerry Antwi is undergoing a scan in hospital, perhaps the officials if they read this report may reflect on that. We hope you recover soon Jerry and we all send our best wishes. There was of course absolutely no punishment for the blatant elbow as both officials apparently missed it and to add insult to injury our Captain was sin binned for asking the referee why no action had been taken – just bizarre.
As for the game we welcomed Shay Honey into our goalkeeping berth, there was no Rory Edwards after an ankle problem and Reggie Savage started up front.
We started well and were more than a match for our higher placed opponents but found ourselves 2-0 at half time after we did not pick up their forwards from two set plays. HT 0-2.
We began the second half well and it was no surprise when we pulled a goal back after a penalty when Sirak Nergassi was blatantly tripped inside the area, up stepped Tricky Wilson to score from the spot. We again pushed for an equaliser and were undone by a quick break as Alton made it 3-1 but how the lineman did not flag for offside for the goal scorer no one at the ground could tell – more poor officiating from the officials. Alton made it 4-1 shortly afterwards, but we struck back with 2 goals to make it a very nervy end for our visitors. They saw the game out 4-3.
The game will be remembered for the very poor officiating and not for Alton’s win apart from their supporters who were there. It should be noted that the Alton supporters were also shocked by the three officials performance.
Where does this leave us; still third from bottom with a tough away game at Knaphill to come this Tuesday followed by another home match against Sandhurst Town next Saturday.
