On Saturday OFC faced local rivals Weybridge Town. Our games against Weybridge Town (Formerly AFC Hersham and Hersham Reserves) have always been hard fought affairs and are usually spiced up by the fact that there are a few familiar faces for both sides.

This week there were the usual changes to the line up. Moo couldn’t make it because he went shopping in Kingston, we might have had Tom and Jay available but we have received a number of conflicting documents from the FA about when their bans are and how long they will be and Pod was out injured. Good news for us was that Sonny, Furno, Ryan and Pete were all available for the first time in a while.

This week’s team; Will, Bayno, Furno, Sonny, Ryan, Tom BL, Pete, Ross, Jordy, Simon and Jiz. On the bench were Sean and Joe.

When the game kicked off, it was clear that both sides were going to be very much up for this one. Although it was a decent sized pitch, neither team gave the other any time or space meaning that the ball had to be moved quickly around the pitch by both sides, and there was some attractive passing football. Sadly for Oatlands, it tended to be mainly in our own half as we struggled to gain a foothold in the oppositions half.

It took about 5 minutes for the first goal of the game. Despite being under relatively little pressure, an Oatlands defender under hit a pass across the back line which was intercepted by the lone Weybridge striker. There was a race on between the Weybridge striker and Baynezy to get to the ball, but the striker got their first and drilled his shot low and hard past Will and into the bottom corner of the net. 1-0 Weybridge

Having gone a goal down we found ourselves being pressed hard by Weybridge who were playing 4-5-1 and were at times overrunning us in the centre of midfield. We also struggled to win the ball up front as Weybridge defended very positively. From our perspective, we looked dangerous whenever Pete was on the ball as he wriggled free from numerous tackles and combined well with Ross and our wide players.

15 minutes in and Weybridge must have thought they were going to double the lead. Their tricky right winger latched on well to a ball from central midfield and teed up the perfect cross for their striker. Despite it being a good header, Will pulled off a miracle save, tipping it on to the bar and then getting up and even preventing a corner.

As the half progressed, it would be fair to say that Weybridge were definitely edging the game in terms of possession, chances and what rugby folk might describe as territory. Even though Weybridge were edging the game, we were playing reasonably well and it was definitely a vast improvement on some of our rather sloppy performances of late. At the back we struggled early on to combat the Weybridge formation, but we adapted well and used either Ryan or Baynezy to push up into midfield, depending on the pattern of play. In midfield it was a hard fought battle, between the teams and despite Weybridge playing an extra man, we gave as good as we got and up front Simon and Jiz worked like dogs to put the Weybridge defence under pressure when they were facing their own goal.

With 10 minutes left in the first half, we were given an opportunity to equalise from the penalty spot. It was a rather unfortunate penalty for Weybridge as the bobbly and boggy pitch probably contributed to an inadvertent handball when a defender was trying to control the ball. Ross took the responsibility and coolly converted with another superbly taken and unstoppable penalty. 1-1.

As the half closed Weybridge continued to just about edge the game and if it wasn’t for Will’s goalkeeping heroics, we might have gone in at 2-1 down.

In the second half Weybridge started out by playing a more conventional 4-4-2 which came as relief to us as we could return to playing in a formation that we are much more comfortable with. We started the second half stronger than Weybridge and with more time and space available our central midfield started to create opportunities for our wide players to get in to crossing positions and we were now beginning to look more threatening going forward. Pete Butler was also drawing fouls off the opposition allowing us to set up some decent deadball opportunities.

15 minutes into the second half we took the lead. We won a corner on the left hand side of the pitch. Pete Butler whipped it in and Sonny made a run from the penalty spot to the near post as the ball came in he just beat his marker, glancing it into the far corner. Pictures HERE, HERE and HERE. A well taken goal and 2-1 OFC.

At 2-1 there were opportunities for both sides. Will had to undertake heroics in our goal again by stopping a one on one and by tipping a shot from long range on to the bar. At the Weybridge end of the pitch we were creating far more attacking opportunities than at any other point in the game, particularly as Weybridge surged forward in numbers in search of an equaliser and left some gaps at the back.

Up front for us Simon and Jiz both continued to work hard, chasing down anything loose and putting Weybridge under great pressure as our midfield sought to put balls in behind the opposition defence for them to latch on to. Indeed on another day Jiz might have found the net on a couple of occasions after he was given time and space inside the Weybridge penalty area, sadly for Jiz although his shots were on target, the keeper was up to the task and made decent stops to keep it at 2-1.

With 15 minutes left it was clear that Oatlands were beginning to tire, particularly as there were a number of players on the pitch who have not seen a full 90 minutes of action in a while. The first casualty on our side was Jordy who hasn’t played a full 90 since well before the turn of the year. Clearly feeling the strain, he was forced off the pitch with a muscle injury and was replaced by Joe Spooner.

As we began to tire Weybridge began to seize control of the game and for Oatlands it was increasingly looking like the last 15 would be spent defending the edge of our own penalty area.

Despite the amount of pressure now being put on us, we defended superbly and Weybridge were clearly getting frustrated. Numerous promising attacks for Weybridge ended with an Oatlands toe poking the ball away or sheer numbers behind the ball forcing a shot from distance.

With 5 minutes left we were forced into a second change. This time it was Ross who had to come off the pitch and was clearly feeling the strain of 90 minutes in central midfield after having spent several games at the centre of defence. Sean came on as a replacement.

With about a minute left on the clock Weybridge finally got a breakthrough. It was as a result of more carnage in and around our penalty area and unfortunately a rare mistimed tackle from Sonny bought down a Weybridge player. The referee had little choice but to point to the spot and award a penalty. The penalty was far from convincing and was a bit of a duffed effort. But it did enough to beat Will and gave Weybridge a share of the points.

Overall from our perspective it was a vast improvement on recent performance and although we were gutted not to have held on for the win, Weybridge definitely deserved at least a point from the game and that was evidenced by the fact that Will got the man of the match on our side. There were lots of positives to take from the game as we again fought hard for each other and adapted well to a lot of positional changes and on an individual basis there were some very strong performances. It was difficult to criticise our performance, but you might say that while we passed the ball round very nicely at times, too often it was only in our own half.

Next up for us is Tongham and according to the lads from Weybridge Town who spy on us and listen to our tactics in the Flint, they’re a young bunch of lads who pass it round for fun and will beat us. Obviously this means we will have to turn up with the right attitude if we are to stand a chance of taking something from the game. It’s a home game so get yourselves down to Corrie Rec and cheer on the lads.

A big thanks to those that made it to Egham to cheer us on this Saturday.