Weather conditions have severely hampered both our scheduled games and our training, and at present we seem to be finding it difficult to gain any sort of momentum which seems to have borne itself out in our rather inconsistent form of late.

Up this week were Spelthorne Sports who we knocked out at the semi-final stage of last years Intermediate Cup competition and who we should have played last week at home.

It was a good squad this week and the starting line up was Sam, Furno, Fraz, Sonny, Clarkey, Ross, Harps, Butler, Gravy, James and Jarv. On the bench Michael Taylor, Andy Ellis, Joe Spooner, Peter Hallam and James Beckram.

The game kicked off on a nice flat pitch and in windy conditions that were bound to affect the pattern of play for both sides.

What was apparent from the start was the Spelthorne were bang up for this one and right from the off they were first to everything on the floor, in the air and anywhere where the ball was there to be contested. Every time we got the ball there would be a thumping tackle and Spelthorne were back on the attack. Our start wasn’t good.

It was frustrating to watch from the sideline because simply looked like several of our players weren’t really up for the fight. Far too often the ball would fall in to a position where it was there to be challenged; our players would hesitate to go to the ball or look to pass the responsibility on to someone else and the Spelthorne player would be there first. There were very few tackles of any serious conviction from Oatlands except the one from Furnival that occurred well after the referee had blown up to stop the game for an earlier infringement.

It took about 15 minutes before Spelthorne opened the scoring. From a corner we half cleared the ball, they headed it back, we half cleared again, they headed it back, we just about cleared it off the line, they headed it back, we cleared it off the line again, they headed it in. 1-0 Spelthorne – dreadful.

Going a goal down did little to change the pattern of the game from our perspective. We continued to be second too many loose balls and when Spelthorne had the ball they had enough time space to do tricks, flicks and back heels which made us look like a bunch of mugs and made them look like a team of Christiano Ronaldo’s. We only showed glimpses of good football, Pete Butler and Clarkey combined well down the left hand side on a couple of occasions.

Going forward we offered very little, I think there was one cross that Pete Butler got a head to, but it was a very difficult chance. Other than that I don’t remember us having a shot on target or looking like a serious threat. We needed to hold the ball up to give others a chance of getting numbers forward.

10 minutes before half time Spelthorne scored again. This time one of their strikers had plenty of time on the ball, did a Zidane like turn under very little pressure and released a speculative shot which unfortunately went in. 2-0.

A couple more desperate goal mouth scrambles and great saves from Sam later and it was half time and an opportunity to reflect on a poor half of football. Needless to say Phil tried to be constructive and fair on the team but this would have been difficult to do without using the F word.

The second half got underway and although it wasn’t a great improvement there were some signs of life. If you were describing Oatlands as a hospital patent, you might say that our performance went from being “gravely ill” to just plain “critical.” We needed to achieve stable and recovery in the next 45 minutes.

Although Spelthorne continued to win virtually everything in midfield and in front of our defence and mostly under little pressure, our back line stepped up their game and defended the edge of the box well to allow our opponents very few glimpses at our goal.

The appointed official was quite quick to blow the whistle whenever there was contact between 2 players. With Spelthorne’s enthusiasm to win the ball and our decision making resulting in too many late tackles, the foul count was quite high and there were quite a few cards coming out as well. Now seemed like the perfect time to introduce a man who is no stranger to referees and on came Mike Taylor for Harps. I think it took about a minute for him to be surrounded by Spelthorne players and two minutes before he was asked by the referee not to interfere with the linesman, but he was all over the pitch and Oatlands now had an out and out ball winner.

With about 20 minutes left Spelthorne were reduced to 10 players following a second yellow card for one of their strikers and Oatlands had a glimmer of hope.

5 minutes after Spelthorne went down to 10 men, it still looked like they had more players than us, but soon we did start to find a bit more space to exploit and began to enjoy much more possession, particularly down the left hand side where Jim, Joe and Fraz all combined well to set up a number of raids. It was from one such raid that we had our best chance of the game, a cross from the left found Gravy at the back post, but the quality of the finish didn’t match the quality of the run he had made.

As the game drew towards a close their were other chances; Pete Butler came desperately close from a free kick and more good work down the left resulted in James Robertson hitting the post late on..

Sadly, it wasn’t enough and Spelthorne held on well to emerge as 2-0 winners to catapult them into 3 rd place behind Knaphill and Woburn Arms.

Overall it was a poor performance from us and we can have absolutely no complaints about the outcome. Spelthorne turned up and clearly wanted it more than us and got their rewards.

From the sideline it wasn’t good to watch as several of our players looked well below par, we weren’t decisive or positive enough, there was little in the way of communication and we looked unlikely to score for 80 minutes - all in all it was a rather bad day at the office and we are miles better than what we showed on Saturday.

Realistically, this result should really have killed off any thoughts of promotion but by sheer luck, other results on Saturday mean we still have a glimmer of hope. We need to dust ourselves down and start to show a bit more passion and commitment, especially as defeat at Emmanuel next week will almost certainly mean another season of being “also rans.”

Next week we are at home, it’s another vital game and if you don’t like what’s written in this match report, play better.

Not sure what’s happening about training this week as I understand that the pitches have succumbed to a combination of the recent weather and vandalism, but Jordy has kindly offered to look into gym membership so when training is off, we can go down to the gym and perv at the girls in the pool instead.

Thanks to those who made the journey to come and support, if the performance is as bad next week, I will provide rotten fruit and gravel for the spectators to throw at the OFC players.