GEOFF...HARPS...JARV(1)...ROBH...PEEWEE...JIM B...DOM...2-GUN...FURNO(1)...JACK...STU....POD

Last week was the perfect start to the season, but this week we faced familiar opposition in the form of Lightwater Utd, a team that seem to be different every time we share the pitch. That said the results never differ and these are always tight games, settled by the odd goal or a draw. Cast your mind back 2 years and you will remember us being battered for 90 minutes by a very good and very physical team but we pulled off a draw, 2 weeks later in the home fixture they were the weaker team who we battered for 90 minutes the result; a draw. You get the picture.

This week, let's start with the unavailable players; Jordip, Sam Ahern, Mike Taylor, The Ewan's, Nigel, Elliot and Foxy. This left us with 10 fit players and 2 injured players who were probably capable of doing a job. That said, those available knew exactly was at stake and could all be relied upon to give 100%.

This week's team. Jeff, Jarv, 2-Gun, Dom and Furno were the protectors of the OFC goal, Harps, Peewee, Jack and Djimi were the midfield and Stu and Rob were up front. Pod kept the bench warm.

We got off to the worst possible start and well and truly got caught with our pants down. From the kick off we were indecisive and conceded possession down our right hand side. Our enthusiasm to make a positive start left our right hand side overloaded by Lightwater players and their left midfielder scored a superb goal from the corner of the box. Geoff was powerless to stop it going in 1-0 to the home team.

From the restart we looked down in the mouth, we were sluggish and far too often we were either second to the ball or we let there best player (no.6) have too much time on the ball, resulting in pressure on our 18 yard box. From the side we looked like a team who could stop the opposition scoring because of our speed and determination at the back, but coming out of defence we too indecisive or simply made the wrong choice of pass, subsequently putting ourselves back under pressure.

We rode the storm for the first ten minutes before eventually gaining a foothold in the match. Peewee began to start breaking up possession in midfield and his fellow centre mid, Chris Harper put his foot on the ball and allowed us to build from there. With 20 minutes of the first half gone, the Lightwater threat had subsided and it was OFC versus the tall ginger Lightwater linesman. I don't know whether the guy simply didn't understand the rules of football (hence his relegation to the bench of the reserve team at Lightwater) or whether he was genuinely out to try and cheat us. But every single Oatlands attack was ended prematurely by his flag for offside or clear cut decisions in our favor were awarded to his team mates.

We found ourselves immensely frustrated by these decisions and started taking our aggression on the referee who unfortunately had no choice but to rely on the decisions made by the linesman.

Justice was done after 25 minutes when a Jarv corner was tamely dealt with by the Lightwater defence. Furno, waiting on the edge of the box managed to control the ball under difficult circumstances, turned well and caught his left footed shot flush on the toe. The shot was on target but a deflection enabled the ball to evade the keeper and we were deservedly level.

From the equalizer we took control of the game and looked the hungrier team. Peewee, Jim, Harps and Jack in midfield were excellent and hunted down Lightwater players like dogs chasing a stick in the park. The result was rushed clearances and increased OFC possession. Jack down the right was nursing a pulled hamstring but on numerous occasions he left the Lightwater left back for dead, sadly his superb crosses did not end on the note they deserved as we were either a yard to late or squandered our chances.

Lightwater may have been under pressure but a full stretch double save from our new no.1 keeper Geoff kept the score at 1-1. Again our efforts up front continued to be frustrated by the linesman provided by the home team.

We went into half time a very frustrated, but motivated team. No Phil this week, but long term casualty Alejandro Sanz led the half time talk. Not much to this one other than the fact that if we got the ball out wide, we would create chances and we passed the ball to feet we should be able to wear the opposition down and score. It looked likely that Jack would be coming off for Pod at some point in the second half.

We normally start the second half badly, don't know why but we just do. This was no exception and we had to concede ground to Lightwater for the first few minutes of the second half, but in defending we were resolute and did the basics at the back ensuring there was a platform to build on when we went forward.

Dockers began to start racking up the money owed to the club fairly early in the second half in an almost identical incident to last week. This time the unfortunate Lightwater left back moved the ball on to a team mate and minutes later he was caught flush in the shin by an absolutely brutal, but somewhat expected two footed Beckram horror challenge. The card given was probably decided by whether the player would be continuing or not. Fortunately it was yellow and fortunately the player was able to continue.

We took the lead 15 minutes into the second half. Rob Hunter made a strong run at the Lightwater defence and managed to jink past two of their defenders, unfortunately for him, the third defender had made up his mind that Rob wasn't going past and bought him down dangerously close to the 18 yard box. Up stepped Jarv and 2-Gun. 2-Gun made the dummy over the ball and Jarv hit a beautiful curling right footed shot into the back of the net. 1-2.

We were desperate to kick on from there and desperately sought to add a third and maybe a fourth. Unfortunately while probably enjoying the greater amount of possession we weren't playing with the sort of fluidity that we enjoyed last week and too many unforced errors ended attacks before they had started. Again in defence we looked capable of defending our own goal but nervous touches, indecision and at times a lack of communication gifted Lightwater more chances than they deserved.

We were punished with 20 minutes left. Geoff came racing off his line to clear a ball that dropped between defence and keeper and just managed to beat the opposing striker to the ball, being out side the box, he couldn't gather it and was forced to clear, unfortunately the ball fell to a Lightwater player who made the most of the opportunity and managed to put the ball in the back of the net with a low shot. 2-2

We would have made it 3-2 minutes later in our best move of the game. We got possession in our own box on the right hand side bought it out, we then put together a very swift passing move involving 3 0r 4 OFC players. Rob Hunter made a run forward but realizing he was in an offside position stopped (as did the Lightwater back four) the ball was then threaded through and Stu coming from a deep position latched on to it took a touch and superbly lobbed the keeper. The referee then halted the game indicating an offside on just about the only occasion when the lino didn't have his flag raised. The referee explained after the game that he thought he saw the lino put his flag up.

We huffed and puffed our way through the rest of the game creating a few half chances, but no serious opportunities presented themselves and we were forced to settle for a disappointing draw.

Overall it was a bitty performance. Individually we were poor, but importantly what we weren't able to do for ourselves, we did for the team and no one could question our willingness to win or our team spirit. Unfortunately we simply lacked something a bit more special that would have turned the game in our favour. As Rob Hunter said in the pub afterwards, it was one of those games that looked like it might have gone the shape of the pear early on but we pulled through and the important thing was that we did get a point out of it.

It has to be said that the officiating of the game wasn't the best we have had, and we did have a good goal disallowed, but ultimately a better performance would have seen us comfortably beat Lightwater.

The result puts us top of the table. But next week we face a very tough team in the form of Staines Lammas. This game is a home at 3pm and we would really appreciate seeing as many people as possible to support. A massive thanks to all those who came down to support.