Oatlands went out looking for their fifth successive league victory this Saturday against Windlesham Reserves. Going into the game we had a good squad and plenty of options on the bench, but for the second match in succession we were missing Pete, Jim and Moo, both of whom are undoubtedly key players. A win in this game would surely see OFC move into the top 3.

This weeks team; Will, Baynezy, Sonny, Ross, Ryan, Pod, Tom P, Joe, Tom L, Jiz and Jamie. On the bench; Jordy, Simon, Dom.

We started reasonably well and immediately pinned Windlesham into their own half. We also created a couple of half chances which seemed to fall our way mainly as a result of some indecision at the back for Windlesham. That said any thoughts of a nice easy ride to victory disappeared when we went to sleep at the back from a long ball and allowed a Windlesham striker to break free. Considering it was their first attack, the opportunity was taken very well by the Windlesham player who left Will with no chance. 1-0 Windlesham.

We bounced back well from going a goal behind as we went in search of the equaliser. We passed the ball round quite nicely and made the most of the space that we were afforded across the pitch and our attacks on their goal came from a variety of angles, as Joe and Tom whipped balls in from wide positions and Pod and Prycey looked to feed in the strikers from central midfield.

Our dominance was rewarded after about 15 minutes. We won a corner on our left, Joe whipped it in and Jiz managed to keep his eyes open for long enough to head home from 6 yards out. 1-1.

Having drawn level, we then turned the screw on Windlesham and we were soon 2-1 up when Jiz was put through again. With just the keeper to beat, Jiz feigned a shot, put the keeper on his backside and rolled the ball in from 6 yards to score his 10 th of the season.

As the game progressed, we were very much the superior team in terms of possession and chances, and if it wasn’t for the Windlesham keeper making a string of great saves, we might well have been miles out of sight midway through the first half. As it was we had to suffer a few scares ourselves as Windlesham did mange to create some good chances of their own, one particular chance brushed Will’s post when a nicely constructed attack culminated a great headed chance at the near post.

With our dominance of the first half and the lions share of the chances, more goals naturally came our way before the end of the first half. Jamie Barry made it 3-1 with a finish from close range and Tom Pryce made it 4-1 when having broken from the central midfield, he gambled that something might break loose in the box. His gamble paid off when another good stop from the keeper fell into his path and he slammed the ball home to put us 4-1 up going into the break.

At half time we talked about the need to push on, keep up the intensity and not take our foot off the gas.

We started the second half slower than we would have liked and right from the off the game had a much more even feel about it. With 10 minutes gone in the second half, the ball was pretty much bogged down in midfield and Windlesham were the team who were stringing together the better passing moves and winning the loose balls, but sadly for them, they rarely culminated in a genuine chance in front of goal as Sonny, Ross, Baynezy and Ryan stood firm at the back.

From the side, we simply looked a bit sloppy. I don’t think we were ever in any danger of losing, but we didn’t seem to be giving 100% effort particularly for each other and it was clear to see that we were getting frustrated at each other as far too often a player would pick the ball up, have another easy option to pass to only to go on and make the wrong choice. We were also guilty of standing off Windlesham and letting them pass the ball around with little in the way of pressure from us.

Just as the game looked like it would go really stale, we won a corner. From the corner there was chaos in the Windlesham penalty area as we tried to poke it home and they flung bodies in front of the ball. Finally, the ball broke loose to the penalty spot and Sonny popped up to thrash the ball home into the bottom corner. 5-1.

Even at 5-1 we seemed unable to push on and our frustration continued. Up front Jiz was now involved in rather comedic battle with the referee, linesman and the Windlesham defence as he continued to push for new records in being caught offside, Joe Spooner in acres of space was going postal because the ball hardly ever seemed to come his way and Beater was the angriest of all growling away on the touchline and clearly in need of a warm bath, candles and the soothing saxophone music of Kenny G.

Injury forced the first substitution when Jamie B pulled a muscle. In his place we sent on Mark Jordan. After 10 minutes of not touching the ball since coming on, Jordy had his first big chance to make an impact when he was sent clean through on goal. I am not sure what happened but as Jordy approached the on-rushing keeper, some sort of invisible man seemed to tackle him and he fell over in a heap allowing the keeper to clear the danger.

With 20 minutes left, Jim decided to freshen things up a bit on the pitch. Off came Jiz and Pod and on came Si and Dom. Baynezy moved from right back to central midfield.

Not long after the changes we scored our 6 th of the game. Tom BL who has been operating down the right recently picked the ball up on the corner of the box, after jinking with the ball he unleashed a superb effort that soared past the keeper and into the top corner of the net. 6-1 OFC.

Not long after we made 6-1, Windlesham got the goal their efforts in the second half deserved. Windlesham won a free kick on the right hand side of the pitch and put in the perfect ball that was deep and to the back post. We failed to mark and their player seemed to have a free header at goal. He made no mistake. 6-2.

When Windlesham scored we probably had our best spell of the second half. We began to pass the ball nicely and mainly to our own players, Baynezy stoked up the energy in central midfield again and as a result we started to create more chances, particularly as Ryan edged in to a more attacking role from left back.

With about 10 minutes left Jordy made it 7-2. I think it was a slightly misjudged and flicked on header from a Windlesham defender that paved the way for Jordy’s chance. Jordy found himself on the edge of the D, but had to wait for an eternity before the ball came down after a high bounce. He took the shot first time and volleyed it sweetly into the top right hand corner. 7-2.

We might have made it 8 in the dying moments when Ryan put the cross of the game to the back post, it was flighted perfectly and probably would have been an exact replica of last weeks goal, but Jordy went for power and the ball flew just wide.

Overall it’s obviously a good result for us. It may well have been more but their keeper made some great saves, particularly in the first half. The result also looks good on paper, but there are definitely a lot of areas where we need to improve. Despite scoring another 3 goals in the second half, it wasn’t a particularly good second half performance, the passing was poor at times, we stood off and let Windlesham play in front of us and we were childishly arguing with each other when we didn’t get the ball, the right pass or things didn’t go our way. This will definitely have to change if we want to be celebrating victories against the better teams in the league.

Ryan took the Man of the Match award for another faultless display at left back, throughout the game he passed the ball superbly, made several important tackles and was always available and keen to receive the ball.

Good luck to Windlesham for the rest of the season, it’s a shame to see a team struggling, but they have a lot of youngsters who will no doubt grow stronger over the rest of the year and will help them come back much stronger next season.

The result puts us at the top of the league on goal difference and with a game in hand, but it’s a very tight league and our next league opponents have to be considered to be the favourites as their first team play in a league that is 5 leagues higher us and recent results suggest that they will probably be the best side that we play this season.

Next up is a cup game which is away and against Cobham United. We haven’t played them this season so we have no idea what to expect. Cobham did lose this week to Lightwater, but details of the scorers and the fact that Lightwater’s firsts weren’t playing, suggests they probably played a stronger Lightwater than usual. It would be nice to go to another cup final this year, so let’s make sure we turn up with the right attitude, support each other and make sure we don’t come off the pitch wondering what might have been if we’d done things differently or tried a little harder.