A home cup game against Chiddingfold on a bright Saturday morning despite the overnight stormy weather.
After last week Cranleigh were looking to start brightly. It wasent to be as the Chiddingfold number 7 broke clear on goal and was 1 v 1 with our keeper. Isaac Denton – Miller stood strong and tall making himself a big target and the number 7 could only hit the ball straight at him . A great save .
Toby Davis hasselled the Chiddingfold defender into a hurried back pass to his keeper and as the keeper panicked Toby poked the ball past him 1-0. For the first 15 minutes Cranleigh had looked the better team with chances falling to Sullivan Howick and Leo Lord.
The Chiddingfold number 7 was a real thorn in our defence and he broke again to make it 1-1. Less than 2 minutes later it was 1-2 with their number 7 scoring again. Sullivan Howick managed to get onto a great ball at the back post but with the goal at his mercy managed to somehow trap the ball under his leg on the goal line and it was cleared away. Half time and despite being the better team we find ourselves 2-1 down .
With the number 7 causing all sorts of problems it was decided to bring on Patrick Mare to man mark him .
The second half started with Cranleigh again dominating without managing to score. Charlie Gibson was narrowly wide with 2 efforts as were Toby Davis and Jack Rogers .With Ethan Payne starting to boss the midfield a great pass put Sullivan through to make it 2-2. Cranleigh were camped in the Chiddingfold half and pushing for the equaliser .
A ball through to Jack Westerman saw him bearing down on goal with only the keeper to beat. Unfortunately the keeper produced an amazing save to keep it level .
It needed a great run and shot from outside the area by Charlie Gibson who curled his shot into the top corner to finally put us back in front. At 3-2 up we felt we needed another goal to kill the game off .
A great cross found Sullivan at the back post with no one near him. Unfortunately Sullivan tried to hit it first time and stuck it wide when really he could of taken a touch … or 5 and rolled it in.
Jimmy Smith came on in goal and produced a fine save with the rebound causing a massive goal mouth scramble. Twice a Chiddingfold player had an open goal only for a Cranleigh player to make desperate block .
With a minute to go a hopeful effort by Chiddingfold was palmed away by Jimmy only to fall at a Chiddingfold players feet who tapped in for 3 -3. Heartbreak again for Cranleigh conceding another late goal. As I was standing behind our goal it took all my self control not to run around and clatter their player as he walked the ball into the goal.
Final score 3-3 and a very gracious comment from their manager complementing on how well we played and how he felt they had robbed us of the win.
Massive disappointment for the team who really were the better team .
Scorers
Toby Davis
Sullivan Howick
Charlie Gibson
Players of the match
Harry Dancaster – True class
Patrick Mare – Unselfish job done for the team marked their number 7 out of the game in the second half
