Thanks to GCW pulling out the league, last weeks efforts were all for nothing and for the second time this season events beyond our control have conspired against us. If you will remember Staines pulled out of our first match and although we got the points, the GWAFL is the only league in Europe that doesn’t punish the offending team by awarding a 2 or 3 nil victory to the opponents. As a result of GCW pulling out, we also lost all last weeks goals, points and money.

That meant this week instead of fighting it out for the top spot in the league we were now fighting to get back in to the top four against old foes Lightwater United.

We would have fielded the same starting 11 as last week, but Ted fell victim to another prawn sandwich in the week and was forced to withdraw, giving a starting birth back to Furno. This week’s squad also included the addition of Tom Lloyd, Jarv, Mike Taylor and Dom.

This week’s team; Sam, Furno, Fraser, Sonny, Pete H, Pete B, Gravy, Baynezy, Joe, Jim and Anthony Cocks. The bench; Dom, Andy, Mike, Jarv and Tom.

We started the game very positively and found ourselves in front of goal after about a minute with an early range finder from Anthony Cocks which just missed. We carried on our good start for the next five minutes and passed it round quite nicely generally finding another Oatlands player with the majority of our passes.

The game looked like a fairly physical encounter from the side and it looked like the ref would have plenty of reason to put the whistle to his lips and it was in the seventh minute of the game that the referee blew for a free kick midway in our half and on the right side of the pitch. Lightwater put the subsequent free kick right in to the corridor of uncertainty and Joe Spooner was there to nod home for the opposition from close range. A somewhat unfortunate own goal but we looked more than capable of bouncing back.

Following the restart we played well in patches and either Butler or Gravy looked most like opening the door for an Oatlands chance. Although playing well at times it was patchy, too often we gave the ball away cheaply in dangerous areas, predominately because we didn’t seem keen enough to create space or give a shout and too often the play broke down in attack as we gave the ball away when we had our backs to their goal. Generally speaking though, we were clearly the better team.

It was with 19 minutes on the clock that we got back on level terms. Gravy’s efforts in the centre of midfield were rewarded when he skipped a dangerous looking tackle and broke up Lightwater possession near the left hand side of the pitch. He got the ball under control nicely and chipped a diagonal through ball for Jim which scythed open the Lightwater back line. Jim Beckram was breaking from deep and after getting caught offside on a couple of occasions, finally timed his run to perfection and latched on to the pass. Despite being under pressure from both keeper and defender Jim finished calmly from the edge of the box and we were level.

We might have gone ahead very shortly after going level. Baynezy (who could have gone to see Chelsea) surged across the edge of the Lightwater penalty area with the ball at his feet and unleashed a decent left footed shot that looked like it was destined for the bottom corner. Sadly for Oatlands, the Lightwater keeper made an excellent full stretch save to keep them in the game.

The next 20 minutes of the game were fairly even with Oatlands probably just edging it terms of chances. From our perspective we played some nice passing football at times, but again we tended to concede when it looked like the killer pass was on and our frustration seemed to increase the amount of Hollywood balls that we tried to play and their defence lapped up with ease. The fact that we probably weren’t as effective as we would have liked wasn’t just down to us playing below our best, Lightwater were an extremely industrious outfit who gave us little time on the ball and gave Pete Butler in particular a bit of a battering in the centre of midfield. Although Lightwater were fairly direct, they did have players that caused us quite a bit of bother at the back - in particular their no.3.

It was Oatlands who took the lead just short of the 40 minute mark. Some crazy defending from Lightwater resulted in them putting themselves under massive pressure from our strikers. The ball broke free to Jim, who again had just the keeper to beat. He slid the ball under the keeper well, but it looked like it might not make the goal so Jim made sure with a finish from no more than an inch. 2-1 Oatlands.

Just before half time Sam Ahern kept Oatlands ahead by superbly palming the ball over from a shot from very close range.

At half time Phil was not happy. He felt that there was a severe lack of communication among the team and too much shouting of just names and not directions. He also wanted to see us defend better from the front to prevent the mortars being launched from the Lightwater backline at our defence.

We seemed to start the second half with Phil’s words ringing in our ears and there was certainly a lot more effective OFC communication during the first 5 minutes.

From a defensive perspective, we looked pretty solid. The ever reliable Pete and Fraser in the full back positions defended well against some tricky opposition and whenever the ball did break free, Sonny was there more often than not in order to sweep up. It was also the sort of game that suited Furno and there were plenty of opportunities for the big northerner to get stuck in, clatter a striker or come hammering through the back of an attacker in an aerial contest.

We were convinced that we had scored 10 minutes in to the second half. On the edge of the box Anthony Cocks picked up the ball and was left with just the keeper to beat. Yet again we were thwarted by the Lightwater keeper and he made a great stop from 2-Guns shot, but the ball broke loose and Jim was there to finish from the position where he is absolutely lethal – 2 yards out. But controversially (but probably correctly) the goal was disallowed for offside.

Shortly after the disallowed goal Oatlands did get a third and it was the pick of the bunch. Baynezy who was struggling to motivate himself after finding out that Chelsea had won 5-0 in a game he could have gone to, broke down the right hand side and skinned the left back. He delivered the perfect low cross to the back post and after a bursting run from midfield Gravy was rewarded and finished well. 3-1 Oatlands.

After scoring the 3 rd goal we lost our way a little and to a certain extent our heads. Pete and Anthony Cocks both got booked for pointlessly arguing with the referee and we invited Lightwater back into the game.

Although Litghtwater didn’t have that much in the way of attacks, they certainly enjoyed their best spell of the game and were first to a lot of the 50/50’s and pressed us hard down the flanks. We were also guilty of dropping deeper and deeper at the back meaning that long periods of time were spent defending the edge of our 18 yard box as they looked for an opening.

With 20 minutes left, Lightwater were back in the game. It was an incisive attack down our right that cut us open in the same way that Baynezy had done to them. Despite the efforts of both Fraser and Sonny, the left sided Lightwater player got himself into a good position to square the ball across the OFC 6 yard box. The low cross was met at the near post and suddenly OFC were on the ropes. 3-2.

The next 10 minutes were extremely uncomfortable for us and we struggled to raise our game across the pitch, we were again forced to defend the edge of our box for long periods and it looked like a Lightwater equaliser might be on the cards.

After riding our luck for a while, it was a bizarre incident that finally finished the contest. Both keepers had struggled slightly with the bobbly nature of the pitch and there had already been a couple of sliced clearances, but with just over 10 minutes left the ball was firmly played back to the Lightwater keeper from the midfield area. The keeper came out to make the clearance but just as boot was about to connect with ball, it took a nasty bobble, deceiving the keeper and rolling into an unguarded net. With a great deal of relief it was 4-2 to Oatlands.

In the back end of the second half we replaced, 2-Gun, Jim and Joe with Jarv, Tom and Mike Taylor and we found the confidence to begin the process of seeing the game through to a successful conclusion. Before the end of the game there was more controversy when the keeper prevented a goal by handling outside the penalty area and some great goal keeping from a Jarv chance kept the score to 4-2.

Overall it was a very good result that keeps us in the hunt despite the loss of valuable points and goals against GCW. But it was a performance that had some moments of very good football and some moments were we looked somewhat short of our best. The result puts us 3rd in the league (maybe second when Hersham withdraw??) and the good results continue despite still looking somewhat short of the sort of performances that saw us beating the likes of Shepperton FB and Godalming in the latter end of last season.

Stew got man of the match for the second game on the trot with another excellent display alongside Pete Butler in central midfield. Only recently has he moved into this role and with a few central midfield players sidelined / forced to the bench, competition is seriously hotting up in this area of the pitch. Jim Beckram also picked up his 100th cap this week, so a massive thanks to him for all his commitment and loyalty to the club over the past 7 years.

Note from the Chairman - Jim Beckram started his OFC career on the 2nd Nov 2002. Almost to the day he is awarded his 100th cap. This is an awesome acheivement and I would like to add my personal thanks to Jim for his unquestioned loyalty and dedication to OFC over 7 years.

Next week we are away AFC Gomsall who are near the bottom of the table, but they are very much an unknown quantity for us following promotion from D3 last year.

A big thanks to the 20 plus supporters who came down to cheer the lads on this week. Details of next weeks game will be on the forum and hopefully we’ll see you all there.

Finally, we should make the Surrey Herald again next week so if you scored (for either team) or played well, you might get a mention.