Guildford City vs Chessington & Hook

With a number of our nearest rivals involved in the FA Vase, the first of two away trips to Guildford in a week, offered us the chance to pick up league points whilst our rivals were otherwise engaged.

The conditions were always going to play a part in both team selection and ultimately the outcome of the game, as the swirling wind and questionable playing surface meant it wasn’t ever going to be a great game to watch.

Guildford started the quicker, pushing our usually attacking wide players almost back into full back positions. That said both Dean Pitcher and Scott Todd stuck to their defensive tasks well and kept any real threat to our goal at bay. The nervy opening could have been worse when Jason Massing was adjudged to have fouled and on rushing forward and with the covering defender just about round escaped with a yellow card when the Guildford bench were demanding a Red.

The few chances that were created by Guildford were comfortably dealt with by the defence, which included Malik Buari along side Leon Canning, in what proved to be an inspired move as Malik was by far our best player on the day, and goalkeeper Mark Daniels, who on one occasion attacked the ball with such venom, the striker shot high and wide apparently concerned more with avoiding Mark than hitting the target.

Gradually our football took over and on an increasingly difficult afternoon we started to create some well worked half chances all of which failed to break the deadlock.

However just ten minutes before half time, a long throw by Malik Buari was headed on by Andrew Heath, and Darren Smith smashed home for his fifth goal of the season.

Shortly before the break Darren Smith, suffering from a foot injury, was replaced by Andy Davidson and it was clear that a reshuffle was needed.

At the start of the second half the 4-5-1 shape was used and immediately gave us a more solid look and allowed our wide players to play further forward. This resulted in a much more offensive approach and just ten minutes into the second half a well taken quick free kick by Martin Jackson to Scott Todd saw him cleverly lift the ball over the full back, before firing home from the edge of the box for a well deserved two nil lead. Lessons appeared to have been learned from the previous week as we made sure we had plenty of cover at the back even when in good attacking positions, and this kept Guildford’s chances to a minimum and usually from long range which rarely troubled the Chessington goal. Only once did we look like conceding, but Mark Daniels was equal to a well directed header with a smart save low to his right.

For the second successive away game we saw out the remainder of the game with few dramas to secure another clean sheet and another three points that moves us up to third in the table.