Otterbourne Football Club First Team Match Reports

Saturday 23rd January 2010 – Otterbourne 1 Stoneham 3

Line Up: Flood, Willson, Kelly, Jannaway, A Kerr, Davies, Beasley, Cole, Knight, Milne, T Kerr, Subs; Taylor, Clark

Although geographically probably not the nearest neighbour, there is no doubt that Stoneham is viewed as the derby match. To give the tie added flavour, throw in a quarter final tagging.

Bruiser had a strong squad at his disposal but with the overarching concern that the team had not had a competitive match for several weeks due to the bad weather. The conditions at Oakwood were idea, the pitch not too sodden after the thaw.

The game was going to be tightly competed and no-one was predicting a high scoring affair.

As the game commenced both sides showed little to separate the two in terms of weaknesses in style of play. The midfield was the key area to win in terms of domination. The skills of Nick Cole and the quick feet and hard tackling of Chris Knight were always going to frustrate and annoy Stoneham respectively.

In defence, the back four of Craig Willson on the left, Andy Kerr on the right, and John Jannaway and skipper Marc Kelly gave keeper Jamie Flood little to be concerned about. Probably one of the tightest defences Otterbourne have had for some while.

The Otters knew that Stoneham were adverse to the physical game and with ex-Otter James Banks mixing things up, discipline had to controlled.

The first half saw little, if any clear cut chances for either team. However the football was direct and entertaining. The referee controlling the game superbly and not allowing anything to get out of hand. Tom Kerr found his way into the book with the help of some embarrassingly unsporting ‘recommendations’ from a Stoneham player.

The second half saw little change in determination from both sides as they each tried to break their respective defences down. Jamie Flood pulled of a particularly fine save to deny the Stoneham forward.

The undoubted turning pint of the game came on 55 minutes when Chris Knight and the Stoneham centre midfield player both went fully committed into a one-on-one head on challenge. The Stoneham player yelped rather loudly and writhed around an alarming amount. The referee summoned Knight immediately and issued a straight red card for showing his studs in the tackle.

The advantage had now swung to favour the visitors. With under 20 minutes to go a deep Stoneham corner eluded The Otters defensive and for the first time in the game caught them napping. An unmarked Stoneham player was free to power home a fine header.

Deflated The Otters immediately pressed forward and the tenacious Paul Clark, brought on to replace the injured Paul Beasley, was felled in the box . Up stepped Marc Kelly who scored arguably his finest (and most important) spot kick of the season to level the score.

Extra time ensued with both sides digging in hard. But it was the extra Stoneham man which finally took its toll on a tiring Otterbourne. Stoneham scoring twice more to kill off the game and put them through the semi final.

An extremely well fought encounter from both sides fulled with local passion. I’m sure the next game will be equally as enthralling.