Monday 31 August 2009

Molesey 0 v 0 Banstead Athletic

Monday 31st August 2009
Walton Lane, West Molesey
Combined Counties League Premier Division
Attendance: 78
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.50


The first bank holiday of the season heralded my first two games in a day of the season, for which I headed over to south west London, as the Combined Counties League was just about the only league in the south-east kicking off at 11.30 (or playing at all today). Indeed, it's days like this that makes it a relief when you do have a second game to go to, after witnessing a hugely tiresome first game. Which was at Molesey, in south west London, for a 11.30 kick off. The Walton Lane ground, by Combined Counties League standards is very good. Not surprising as they were members of the Ryman League for many years, would have no problem gaining promotion were they to be in a position to be promoted, and also given the general truly shocking low standard of facilities of Combined Counties League clubs who have not previously been in the Ryman League previously. Chessington and Hook, Raynes Park Vale are classic examples, closely followed by Colliers Wood. It must also be said that Molesey do tea that is as good as at any ground I have been to, thoroughly recommended! As for the programme, although a tad pricey for this level, was full of relevant infomation and stats and so was probably worth the money.

As for the game, this was truly awful. I suppose this could have been expected as, somewhat surprisingly, Molesey had only taken one point from their opening 3 games, and Banstead pointless from their first four games. A typically closely fought local derby but with precious few goalscoring chances at either end, ieven free kicks were ballooned high and/or wide, and the only decent chance of note came right at the end of the game for Banstead, when their forward had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, the ball hit the keeper, rebounded straight back to the forward but he could only tamely head the ball wide with the goal at his mercy. This would have been quite an improbably winner for Banstead, as they had been reduced to ten men midway through the second half for an elbow. So the game ended 0-0, which was fair to both teams and the game itself. So I headed for Hampton Court train station for my train to Berrylands and then walk to Tolworth for my second game knowing that surely the quality and entertainment can only improve...

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