Chessington & Hook United 0 vs 1 Wembley

With all due respect to Wembley, having been beaten in the last five games and with fixtures against Epsom and Ewell, Badshot Lea and Molesey to follow, it had for all the wrong reasons become a game that we needed something from.

Sadly it wasn’t to be, and although losing a game in itself is disappointing enough, the performance and the manner of the defeat gave far greater cause for concern.

The Chessington players to a man seemed reluctant to pull a shirt on and compete and paid the price for just quite simply failing to show up.
The game offered very little in terms of action at either end, and it was the very averageness of all on show that gave us some hope that despite our own shortfalls we could get a result.

At the break it was goalless, but soon after the restart we were punished for our usual over elaborate kick off routine. On a poor surface we failed for a full three minutes to get the ball in our opponents half, insistent on trying to bring the full back into play from the restart when a ball into the top third was the order of the day. Although our punishment was not immediate, and we were presented with opportunities to clear, we failed on each occasion and it was no surprise when a speculative effort from the edge of the box went in off the post to give the visitors the lead.

There was no response of any note and our one moment of real hope came in the last minute of the game, when Cole-Bolts free kick from near the half way line sailed over the poorly positioned goal keeper, only for the referee to decide something must have happened, leading him to strangely award a foul against Andrew Heath who at this stage was on the ground having been flattened by the flailing goal keeper.

But that was that and our sixth successive defeat was complete.