Oatlands have predictably made an abysmal start to the season and this week it looked like things might get even worse as the Whites (playing in blue this week, an unlucky kit in my opinion) were injury ravaged and desperately short on numbers against a traditionally physical Lightwater. To ensure we at least had one substitute we managed to sign up ex-left winger, Webmaster and Club Secretary Paul Watson.

This Saturday's game was at Lightwater County Club which is undoubtedly the sort of place you would want to take your family in the summer, along with a rug and some ham sandwiches. Nice facilities at Lightwater as well, biggest changing rooms in the league, great bar and obstacles behind the goal which cut down the amount of chasing the ball required by the goalies.

We looked the part on arrival, Newlook arrived with a bottle of Magniers and the rest of the team clowned around for 30 minutes while we waited for our allocated dressing room.

The team; T-Bone, Harps, Dom, Sam, New-Look, King Pippy III, Rob, Steve Goulash, Ozzy, Psycho, Jimmy Droutba, On the bench Paul Watson.

The game started horrendously and Lightwater really should have been one up in about 15 seconds. Harps, playing his first game back was hassled by a striker and sent a bouncing back pass back to T-bone. T-Bone was deceived by a dodgy bounce and could only head it to the edge of the box. Striker picked it up, squared it and the striker should have scored.

We picked ourselves up quickly and I think it fair to say that we controlled the game for the next 20 minutes and pressed Lightwater deep into their half. Lightwater looked disjointed at times and on many occasions put themselves under pressure by not clearing their lines when they had the chance. Dave, Steve and Ozzy all combined well down the right and that's where our most obvious threat came from.

Oatlands should have been in the lead after 15 minutes when Steve made a good run from deep to break free and seemingly score with a tidy finish to the keepers left. Unfortunately the linesman's flag was raised and it didn't count.

Apart from the early defensive blunders, Oatlands had looked very solid at the back, and Sam and Harper made sure there was little for the keeper to do. We also looked extremely well organised at free kicks and set pieces. Despite this Oatlands were hit with a sucker punch when a Lightwater build up resulted in a crossing opportunity, as the cross from our left came in, the ball struck Rob Hunters arm and the referee deemed it a penalty. After we made a substantial protest with the referee, the Lightwater striker composed himself and tucked the ball into the net. 1-0

Despite what we thought was an injustice and despite the goal coming against the run of play, we picked ourselves up and continued to press Lightwater deep into their own half of the pitch. Again our main threat continued to come from the right hand side where Dave Ewan was putting in an excellent display.

Although we had the majority of possession we had to be wary, particularly against the giant number 15 who didn't really face much competition in the air from our midfield. Despite being a giant, the guy was good on the ball and was Lightwaters main outlet.

We trudged in at half time knowing that we should have been better, despite creating numerous attacking opportunities we failed to test the home keeper and as a result an unfortunate penalty decision had cost us dear. It really did seem like a classic case of keep going and surely things would go our way.

After motivating ourselves for a second half assault on the Lightwater goal, we got off to a classic OFC start and found ourselves carved open by a long ball over the top. The Lightwater striker went clean through but the chance was wasted after his shot went off the keeper for a corner.

Oatlands then went through our worst period of the game, we let Lightwater dominate us for 10 minutes and put up very little resistance, allowing them to run with the ball at us from midfield and create a number opportunities of their own.

Fortunately it was in our worst period of the game that we produced our goal. Chris Harper untidily hoofed the ball down the pitch when it looked like a more simple option was on and Rob Hunter did well to keep it in, and did even better to very quickly slide the ball through to Jimmy. Despite the fact that Jimmy has gone through a bit of a drought he finished coolly, lift the ball past the keeper and bringing about the first roar of the season from another very strong Oatlands crowd.

No more than a minute after the goal and while Jimmy was still pointing at Alejandro's shirt that he was wearing for the day, Lightwater went straight up our end and scored. We seemed to fall asleep and despite Sam Ahern's best efforts, the slippery winger/striker managed to get a ball across the goal between T-Bone and the 2 covering defenders and the striker was left to score from six yards.

Following the goal the game became more open as both team tired out. We bought on Paul Watson and Lightwater made a couple of subs too. Midway through the second half we looked increasingly desperate and Jimmy went down seemingly in the box with a big girly wail, but the foul was “just outside” the box according to the linesman – valuable words for any linesman who is responsible for running his own back line. We wasted a good ball from the free kick.

Finally we did manage to get a penalty – from the other end of the pitch it looked dubious. Steve Goulash going down heavily under what looked like a light tackle. Steve Goulash was given the responsibility but the keeper did well to save it, Watson was quickest to react but put the ball just wide from the rebound.

Annoyed but unfazed we continued in search of another equalising goal throwing numbers forward whenever possible. Both teams appeared to be tiring and as a result the game became much more open with both sets of midfields finding more time on the ball. Lightwater probably had the better of the latter stages of the second half and forced us deep into our own half for sustained periods. Lightwater may well have got another couple of goals after creating some clear cut chances. The first opportunity was from a corner and the tall no.15 finally found himself in a space without the attention of 2 OFC defenders but his powerful downward header was cleared off the line by the OFC keeper. The second opportunity followed shortly after when OFC defenders were busy discussing who they should mark. The ball was thrown into the six yard box and the striker had a chance to bring it down. T-Bone was quick to smother the shot but the ricochet fell to another Lightwater striker 8 yards out. The shot was blazed Steve Sweeting style over the cross bar.

The final 10 minutes promised much in the way of attacks, but delivered very little in terms of genuine chances. Finally the ref drew the game to a close and Oatlands were left to stare a third consecutive defeat in the face.

Overall the performance was reasonable, but the result was poor. Last season (without being disrespectful to Lightwater) I think we would have run out comfortable winner against a Lightwater team that were far less physical than in the corresponding fixture last year.

Despite having a lot of possession and pressing Lightwater for long periods we failed to create enough clear cut chances and we were punished by conceding poor goals. As the season progresses more and more players will come back to fitness and competition for places is going to increase and hopefully the results will start to come. To put it in perspective, our last point (against Lightwater at home) contained only four of the starting 11 from Saturday – Harps, Dom, Jim and Rob.

A massive thanks to the huge army of supporters who came down to cheer us on all the way over in sunny Lightwater.