Horley Town 4 vs 1 Chessington & Hook United

We never really got going, but surprisingly the first real chance fell to us as a goalmouth scramble resulted in a number of half hearted attempts on goal, none of which caused major problems for the home defence and for which our reward was nothing more than a corner.

It took just ten minutes for us to concede and the manor of the goal rather set the tone for the first half. Having been under some pressure in our left back area in the opening spell where Dan Gurney was left exposed on far too many occasions we simply failed to adjust and was punished through a lack of desire to stop an opponent.

From a corner conceded on that side, Horleys right back was allowed to advance to receive a short pass which he was able to cross under no pressure and the marking in the box allowed too much space for their front man to head home.

Our distinct lack of desire when we didn’t have the ball was evident in almost every Horley attack and good fortune only saved us from falling further behind.

On twenty seven minutes though we conceded again when firstly a lack of pressure in midfield allowed too much time for the Horley man to get his forward pass away and then poor defensive organisation saw Heath outpaced by Lock who lobbed the out rushing Sharpe in the Chessington goal.

It took only another five minutes for the game to be up and with the same old story in evidence as a free run into our penalty box by the Horley full back saw him fire home for an easy third goal.

In a round about fashion we kept going and disappointing attempts from Burns and Jackson came to nothing and the half time to be fair couldn’t come quick enough.

The harsh but fair words from the staff at the break had no effect at all as within thirty seconds of the restart we had conceded again. Poor marking tackling and clearances allowing another free shot on our goal which again left Sharpe with little chance of bailing us out.

A combination of the game being up and some brave changes saw us actually grow into the game a little bit and whilst the result was never under threat we at least began to play better and in our opponents half. Robbie Burns going the closest during this time when he unquestionably should have scored.

Our reward came with twenty to go when Reece Jackson’s strike from the edge of the box flew into the top corner. Unfortunately there are no prizes for the best goal in a game. Something the Chessington players should learn from.

We actually were the better side for the next ten minutes and may consider ourselves a little unfortunate not to register again but we didn’t and with us relentlessly pursuing a second goal we could have conceded again ourselves. Thanks mainly to Sharpe we didn’t and that at least just about kept the defeat reasonable, if any defeat can have that description.