A place in the last 8 of the Surrey County Cup was at stake this week as we took on Kingston and District League outfit Surbiton Eagles.

As per usual there were the mandatory changes with some players coming in and some being away. This week Dionne, Barry, Furno and Sean were away from last weeks team and Kylo, Ed and Pod came back.

The build up to the game was a bit chaotic as Surbiton were forced to start with just 10 men and we had our keeper Will turn up with about 30 seconds to spare after traffic on the A3.

Although we were at home, it didn’t feel that as we had to use the slightly smaller pitch on the left hand side of the changing rooms. Although it was still a good surface, it was not as good as the one we normally play on.

It’s fair to say that the tie was up within the first 5-10 minutes of the game as we raced into a 3 goal lead before our opponents had the chance to get all 11 players on the pitch. Their suicidally high line, lack of linesman and our pace was their undoing and Alex and Kylo grabbed the early goals.

At 3-0 up it looked like it was going to be a rout, but Surbiton recovered well from what was effectively an early knockdown, steadied themselves and defended stoutly for long periods.

Unfortunately this week the referee (or maybe it was us) was being watched by someone senior from the FA and as a result the match official was very heavy handed with the cards dishing out bookings early on, when a ticking off would have probably been more than sufficient.

Although it took us quite some time to extend our lead, we did play some glorious football in which Matt Bell was pulling the strings from the centre of midfield. Helped by a vastly superior surface to virtually every other ground in the league, we stroked the ball round the pitch at will to leave our opposition to chasing OFC red shadows.

On another day we might have scored several more as we hit Surbiton from the flanks, balls over the top from Arron and leisurely spells of possession, but the opposition defended well and their keeper made some good saves. We also discovered on Saturday that Paul Stocks also has a Rory Delap like throw in, so if we find ourselves needing to take a less subtle approach to scoring we can just load up the box and let Stocksy throw it in and hopefully win the scramble.

Arron made it 4-0 10 minutes before half time from the spot with an unstoppable shot from 12 yards.

Shortly before half time we had to endure a bit of pressure from Surbiton but our defence looked extremely solid and unlikely to crack.

In the second half we started well and increased our lead with a superb flowing move down the left hand side of the pitch which was finished by Alex Gibson to complete his hatrick and score his 40 th goal this season.

Again it was Matty Bell at the centre of pretty much everything that we did. He would pick the ball up off our back four and exchange passes with other midfield players before releasing us on another attack. Unfortunately he and Jamie Barry both found themselves in hot water shortly after the restart for seemingly minor infringements.

Soon after the restart we lost Stocksy to an injury so bubbles came on in his place and assumed the right back position.

We continued to play good football throughout the second half and had to endure little in the way of pressure from the Surbiton, who did play some nice football at times but just didn’t show enough composure to create any genuine opportunities of their own. They weren’t helped by the fact that we also had Jamie doing an excellent job of screening our defence and breaking up the play.

With about 15 minutes left we gave Matt Bell a rest after a truly classy display in central midfield. In his place we bought on Pod who has been out for a while, but is also a very capable passer of the ball.

Mere moments after entering the field of play, Pod was about the fourth or fifth player we had booked and it was pure comedy. The ball was there to be contested in central midfield and as Pod went to tackle the opposition player he quite clearly slipped and made a challenge that was more comedy than it was dangerous. Hopefully Sean will keep the video and we can stick it on Youtube. Regardless, another yellow card came out and the statistics will no doubt make it look like a very unsporting and dirty fixture was played out, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Towards the end of the match, Pod atoned for his yellow card by sliding through the perfect through ball to Kylo who finished superbly by lifting it over the advancing keeper. Final score 8-0.

Overall it was an excellent performance. There were a few changes in personnel but we looked more complete as a team than at any other point this season. Matt Bell picked up the Man of the Match for a truly outstanding exhibition of how to play in central midfield but there were lots of other strong individual displays as well. The result takes us through to the quarter finals of the County Cup where we play Thornton Heath Wanderers in a couple of weeks.

Next up for us is Surrey University at Corrie Rec. Last time out against the students it was a closely fought game and although I wasn’t there, it says on Football Mitoo that Sean Killoran scored twice and got man of the match – presumably an administrative error.

Still waiting for details of the fixtures for the League Cup, but as things stand we are still very much on for emulating Abbey’s achievements last year and winning the treble.