Molesey 4 vs 0 Chessington & Hook United

We certainly had a competitive edge about us but Molesey were better, and asked more questions of us than we did of them and the game for the opening twenty minutes was played mainly in our half.

Our greatest threat, as has been the case recently has been from our set plays and the pace of Kyle Green, although in addition to this our front pairing of Reece Jackson and Robbie Burns worked tirelessly.

The first goal came at the midway point and left a bitter taste. A theatrical fall was seen by the referee as a foul, and with the way things are going for us at the moment the outcome was almost inevitable before the kick was taken. McShanes well directed kick was in the corner, but Smith in the Chessington goal should have done better.

We responded well and moments later a fine run and clever play by Burns saw him create room for himself to shoot. His left foot strike was parried away, and despite the rebound falling kindly for Green he could only find the side netting.

At the break we had certainly given as good as we had got, and despite a more promising start by Molesey we had grown into the game, finished the half strongly and had probably done enough to feel at least a little unlucky to be behind.

We started the second half as well as we had finished the first, but the decisive moment came on the hour when having endured fifteen minutes of both sides cancelling each other out we conceded to Mc Shane again, and as with the first, Smith may have done better.

Needing two goals to get back into the game the shape was immediately changed with the returning Jimmy Harding replacing Matt Chapman, and the side playing a 3-4-3 formation.

Whilst this was a necessary change to salvage something, the players failed to adapt and two goals in a little over two minutes with seventy minutes or so on the clock saw the game taken away from us. Firstly we conceded a penalty when Gurney also making his return was adjudged to have handled an attempted cross, and almost straight from the restart a fine team goal saw us picked off to concede far too easily.

We stuck at it and ensured that we didn’t fall further behind, but we were well beaten and rarely looked like even getting a consolation goal. As tempers flared ever so slightly, yellow cards were the order of the day and further changes were made to avoid yellow becoming red.
The defeat completed a miserable 2011 for us and we can only hope to enjoy a better time as we enter 2012.