Oatlands were looking to continue their impressive form this Saturday against old rivals Mytchett. A couple of weeks ago we dished out a pasting to Mytchett and thrashed them 7-0, but we knew this would be a totally different affair given the fact that we have a poor record away to Mytchett, they have a small bumpy pitch and the opposition would no doubt be fired up and hoping to avenge the recent defeat.

The build up to the game was far from ideal as we already had a few players who are injured or unavailable, but it looked like we might be down to the bare bones when Butters had to pull out and keeper Will reported in looking decidedly ill. Fortunately Jordy and Ross were both available to come in at the last minute and we forced Will to play anyway meaning that we could start the game with 3 subs. We also made 5 changes to the team that beat Mytchett a few weeks back

The team: Will, Baynezy, Sonny, Furno, Ryan, Pod, Lloydy, Tom P, Joe, Jiz and Jamie. On the bench; Jordy, Ross and Simon

From the off it was clear this would be a tough game for us. The pitch was bobbly, muddy and difficult to pass on, also Mytchett were clearly well up for it meaning it would be a physical affair and we struggled to cope early on.

After 10 minutes or so Mytchett put together one of their typical attacks where they whack it from deep to their best player – the lively lad up front. Their striker controlled the ball superbly on his chest, changed the angle and looked to break into the box. Furno was with him all the way and looked as though he would go shoulder to should and try and push him wide. Feeling Furno’s aggressive northern touch was enough to send the striker to the floor and the referee blew for what looked like a very generous penalty decision. Needless to say Mytchett then scored from the spot with a shot to Will’s left.

We dusted ourselves off from the early set back and went about trying to find a foothold in the game, but again it was proving difficult to find any sort of rhythm as the ball kept bobbling around which made controlling and passing the ball difficult and we found it difficult against our determined opposition who probably sensed that they were the team in the ascendancy. We also lost Tim Furnival to a dislocated shoulder shortly after conceding, meaning that Rosco was bought on as cover at centre half.

On 20 minutes a sweeping OFC counter attack made it 1-1. Having broken up a Mytchett attack we broke up field quickly and down the right hand side. Jamie B picked up the ball down the right and used his pace to beat the left back. Having done so, he then drilled the perfect cross along the floor to the far post where it was met and dispatched by Jiz. A great goal and 1-1.

The following 20 minutes were mainly a physical battle in which there was little in the way of genuine chances created in open play. Despite the lack of entertainment in front of goal there was plenty to keep the neutral entertained as both sets of players continually bleated at the referee about decisions made, innocuous off the ball incidents and the linesman’s decisions.

For us the individual performances were all generally fairly positive. Will had virtually nothing to do, but despite illness he was still on the pitch which was good. At the back Baynezy defended well and made some occasional journeys up the field. Ryan on the other side was pretty solid, defending well and generally finding another OFC player with his passes. In the middle Sonny and Ross defended well and sniffed out most of the danger.

Although we didn’t create much from open play in front of goal throughout the first half, Baynezy did go close to making it 2 for Oatlands when his free kick from just outside the box shaved the post.

In midfield it was a tough battle. Tom Pryce had been asked to fill Pete’s boots in the centre and he was doing a great job of breaking things up, winning headers and unlike on Thursday, his passing was accurate as he sought out Tom and Joe out wide. This was all despite being dragged off the pitch with another season ending injury in last week’s game.

At half time Phil made clear what he thought were the dangers from Mytchett and talked about the need for our midfield to get slightly closer to our attack. He also talked about the need for Jiz and Jamie to cut off the supply of mortars being launched from the Mytchett back line.

The second half got underway and there was little change in the pattern of the game, which continued to be mainly played in midfield. Also in the centre of our midfield today was Pod who was playing in his 100 th game for the club. As a player Pod would probably prefer a less physical game because his strength is using a bit of time and space to pick a pass, but in today’s game Pod was also doing a good job of getting stuck into the opposition and helping to shield our defence.

About 15 minutes into the second half we took the lead. This time 2 or 3 quick passes cut Mytchett open and resulted in the ball being sprayed wide to Joe on the left. Joe took a touch and whipped in a superb left footed cross to the penalty spot. This time it was Jamie in the right place at the right time and he swivelled and volleyed the ball home superbly with his left boot to make it 2-1 to OFC.

Unfortunately the second half was a very stop start affair after we edged the lead. We seemed to be the victims of a few late challenges, there was endless bitching at the referee from both sides and Mytchett’s number 9 seemed to have gone to the Jim Beckram school of diving as he spectacularly fell to the floor with the full vocal sound effects on a number of occasions

We made a change midway through the half and bought on Jordy for Joe Spooner who left the field having put in a solid performance and collected an assist for the second goal. This also meant a slight change of shape with Tom Lloyd moving over to the left hand side.

Jordy’s impact was almost instant. Literally within a minute of coming on, a free kick was whipped in from the left hand side of the pitch, evading everyone other than Jordy who had made a great run to the back post. Jordy made no mistake from close range and fired the ball home to make it 3-1.

The rest of the game wasn’t really that interesting. We created a few chances on the counter attack and forced their keeper into a couple of saves, Mytchett got a couple of corners but didn’t really threaten to score and the incessant petty fouls and bitching at the referee continued.

Overall it was a good team performance, in the past we have tended to do badly in these sorts of gritty physical encounters but today we all got stuck in for 90 physical minutes and we took our chances superbly. It was disappointing not to get a clean sheet as the penalty was probably Mytchett’s only shot on goal in the whole 90 minutes and we had defended superbly throughout.

For us Tom Pryce was the man of the match after hard working and solid display in central midfield, but there were a number of other very good performances across the team.

The result marks our fourth successive victory in the league and pushes us up to the heady heights of 4 th in the league. Next week we play Windlesham at home and if we can put in another solid performance, there is no reason why we can’t take all three points from that fixture as well and push even further up the league.

A big thanks to all those that made the long trip to Mytchett to show their support