All the signs prior to the game pointed to a defeat this week. Firstly we were travelling to a ground where Phil managed his first ever OFC game which resulted in a loss following a speculative shot from the halfway line which defeated “the cat” Dan Sheridan, secondly it is a ground which saw us get relegated from D1 a couple of years ago by Guildford City Shere who have since folded and thirdly we were missing a substantial amount of the regular squad with Jarv, Gravy and Furno off to a stag do, Pod and Ted injured and Sonny, Clarky, 2-Gun and others all occupied with other Saturday afternoon duties. I am sure we would have loved to postpone this one, but unless you’re Hersham the league doesn’t make exceptions.

Frustrating factors aside we were still able to fashion together a side that carried a lot of experience, but was somewhat lacking in match fitness or on-pitch action this season. It was therefore a welcome return to the side for Chris Harper, Dom Gallagher, Mark Jordan, Tom Lloyd and Sam Campbell.

This week’s team: Sam, Pete H, Fraser, Mike, Dom, Joe, Pete, Barry Harps, Baynezy, Jim and Jordy. On the Bench; Tom Lloyd, Andy, Sam C and Dan.

At 2pm and 5 minutes after Baynezy and co had managed to find their way back from the Weysiders ground where they thought we were playing, we finally managed to get out the required 11 players to play the game.

From the off it was the home team who took the initiative and forced us firmly on to the back foot. While most of our team were shaking hands with each other and re-introducing themselves for the first game together in many months, Gomshall were busy trying to force an opening and seize the early initiative in the game. They also seemed to have us outfoxed by employing what looked very much like a 4-5-1 formation.

Having seized the initiative, the unusual formation of Gomshall threw us early on and Baynezy and Dom down the right and Pete and Joe down the left found themselves in a very tricky situation and scratching their heads for ideas of how to go about dealing with the problem. It was only Sam’s lightning reactions and positive decision making that kept us in it early on after he very quickly shut down a couple of promising looking Gomshall attacks.

Very much against the general run of play, it was Oatlands that took the lead in the 20th minute. Baynezy who had been quite quiet early on, chased down one of their defenders and managed to rob the ball in the centre of the pitch. He then turned and ran at the Gomshall back line who backed off him allowing some of our attacking players to find space. Bayne then picked out Jim with a precision pass; Jim took one touch and finished calmly with a nicely taken left footed shot across the keeper which nestled in the corner of the net. 1-0 OFC.

Despite taking the lead, we still found ourselves under a lot of pressure. Gomshall didn’t play a particularly attractive type of football and mainly relied on the back four blasting it long and into the corners which we struggled to deal with, as our full backs had a combined age of 88 and were up against some pacy wide players. Subsequently Gomshall were able to whip in some glorious crosses, when they found space and if it wasn’t for another couple of outstanding saves from Sam they might have grabbed a deserved equaliser or even taken a decent lead. Gomshall’s other main weapon was a particularly long throw which again was either superbly dealt with by Sam or was forced away by an OFC defender.

In the centre of our midfield we had Chris Harper who hasn’t played since the Cup final against Surrey back in April, but the Gargamil like OFC stalwart has never let the team down and was again critical in winning a number of headers, tackles and calming things down when in possession. Alongside Harps was OFC’s current form player Pete Butler. Pete might be half the age and height of his opponents but our tricky centre midfield player absolutely ran the game when in possession and caused the opposition no end of problems.

Joining Jim up front this week was Jordy, who is undoubtedly the worst player in Oatlands history. He has a woeful touch, can’t shoot and spends most of the time breaking up OFC attacks with an uncanny ability to get caught offside 10 times a game. But, and I hate to say it, the man is absolutely lethal in front of goal with nearly a 40% goals to games ratio. Again, and like a number of others he was lacking match fitness, but his work rate in closing down defenders and getting stuck in was superb.

Throughout the first half we remained very much on the back foot and realistically, if it wasn’t for some superb goalkeeping from Sam and a right back and central midfield player in the form of Mike and Fraser performing heroics in the role of centre backs, we would have gone into half time 3 or 4 goals down. We offered little in an attacking perspective in the first half, our chances being limited to the occasional break, speculative shot or free kick. We were relieved to come in at 1-0 up at half time.

At half time the plan was to take Harps off 10 minutes into the second half, put Tom into the centre of defence and move Mike to his more accustomed role of central midfield. In terms of the way that we were playing, we would need to make a couple of changes early on to combat their formation.

We couldn’t have got off to a better start in the second half. Just 2 minutes in, Chris Harper picked the ball up in central midfield. There was time and space available and Chris spotted Jordy’s run down the right and picked him out perfectly. Jordy, took one touch and delivered the perfect cross, which was met by an unstoppable flying Pete Butler header. An outstanding goal and 2-0 Oatlands.

As expected we came under more pressure from the opposition and spent more time defending the edge of our box. We also went for the expected change and Mike moved to central midfield.

10 minutes into the second half the nature of the game changed completely. The referee, who had already brandished about 3 yellow cards to Gomshall in a game where there was barely a bad tackle made his third or fourth shocking decision of the game, but this one could have been critical to the outcome. This time a Gomshall attacker penetrated the 18 yard box from our left, but Mike Taylor slid in superbly to nick the ball away for another corner, we clapped on the sideline at another brilliant bit of defending, but were cut short when the referee pointed to the spot from his position of just beyond the centre circle. An absolute shocker of a decision. Mike then vented his frustration at the referee and was then given his marching orders. Needless to say Gomshalll then took their chance from the spot. 2-1

The mighty OFC were well and truly up against it now. On top of already missing several regulars and having to deal with long spells of pressure, we now had to work out how to protect our lead with only 10 men. We badly needed the 3 points and had to pull together.

I think it’s fair to say that what followed was probably one of our finest displays in a long time.

Being down to 10 men, we were obviously going to be coming under some severe pressure from the opposition who now had their tails up, but our defence were magnificent and led by 17 year old Fraz. Although Gomshall made a couple of chances and were guilty of being wasteful at times, as a unit the defence let very little through. When they gained possession there was a calmness and purpose to the passing and very little in the way of hoofing it straight back to the opposition. Where possible we always tried to play our way out of defence.

In the centre of midfield, Pete was joined by Jim Beckram. Although out of position, Jim supported Pete extremely well and mucked in with defensive duties where necessary and more often than not Pete Butler was on the end of his simple but effective passing.

With 15 minutes left, OFC went further ahead. Pete Butler had been the outlet that OFC needed all game. His close control, vision and quick thinking must have been immensely frustrating for the opposition who were forced to concede a succession of fouls which resulted in opportunities for OFC to attack the opposition. When Pete won another free kick on the right hand side, he had the opportunity to deliver one of his killer balls into the box. As per usual, Pete didn’t disappoint with the cross and waiting at the back post was Fraz who leapt higher than anyone else and with a glancing header it was 3-1 Oatlands.

Following the award of another free kick in a dangerous area just outside the box, things looked poised for another opportunity for Pete to test the keeper, or so we thought. James Beckram, who I don’t think has ever taken a free kick for Oatlands decided that the odds of a shot on target would be much higher if he took responsibility. Not unexpectedly, the shot was an absolute mile over the bar and the only positive thing about it was the fact the keeper had to run about 100 yards behind the goal to fetch the ball. Jim’s Frank Lampard moment was gone.

As the minutes ticked by the threat from Gomshall was more and more ragged as we continued to put in vital tackles, nick the ball away as they were about to pull the trigger and broke down numerous attacks. We also genuinely looked the more likely to score on the counter thanks to Baynezy and Sam Campbell making bombing runs down the flanks and Pete and Jim more often than not managing to find them.

We killed the game off with 5 minutes left. Yet again Pete Butler ran the Gomshall midfield and defence ragged and a superb bit of skill on the edge of the box totally fooled the Gomshall defender who was forced to bring him down. Again Jim Beckram went to the ball as if to take it, but a combination of OFC supporters and Phil eventually managed to convince him to leave it to Pete. It was a good job too because Pete’s attempted cross, deflected off the wall and caused the keeper to fumble the ball into the net. 4-1 OFC and game over.

Overall it was a magnificent performance by Oatlands, we were missing several regular players and were forced to play nearly half the game with 10 men. But those who played and those that pitched in were superb and although there were a number of outstanding individual performances, it was the collective effort that saw us gain another 3 valuable points.

The result keeps us well and truly in the hunt but if we want to start talking about promotion or titles we need to keep well aware of the fact that we cannot afford to drop any points. Next up in the league are tough games against Spelthorne Sports who will be desperate for revenge after we knocked them out the cup and then AFC Woburn Arms.

Gomshall will be gutted about the result and probably feel the same way we did when we should have put about 5 past Knaphill in the first half before going on to lose. They will also be fired up when we next play them in the same way that I expect we will be desperate to avenge the result at Knaphill.

Next week we play Shirley Town Seniors in the County Cup. We should have a lot of players back, but there will be difficult decisions for Phil to make in terms of selection given the level of performances on Saturday. To get into the squad ensure you are there on Thursday and let Phil, Jim or Beater know if you are available by Tuesday.

A big thanks to all those who made the long trip to Shere and especially to Mike Ahern whose spectacular diving antics on the sideline showed us that goalkeeping is very much in the Ahern family genes.

Check our reports out in the Surrey Herald as well.

Note from the Chairman - Fraser's goal was the 300th goal scored for Oatlands in our history.