Netley Central 2-1 Burridge AFC

Saturday 3 March 2012

Netley are unbeaten at the top of the Senior Division, and just one game away from the Southampton Senior Cup Final. The final is the showpiece game in local grassroots football, mainly because it is played at the thirty-two thousand seat St.Mary’s stadium, a world away from any club’s facilities  in the competition. Netley is along the shore of Southampton water that flows into the Solent.

They play at their local recreation ground – albeit one with a floodlit pitch. Sat around the half-way line are two old men dressed almost exclusively in beige, drinking from Thermos flasks. If they have come expecting something approaching finesse that Netley’s status as defending champions may suggest then they will both leave disappointed.

If today’s performance is anything to go by, the foundations of Netley’s season were not built on dilly dallying - especially at the back. They have no qualms booting off for a throw-in in the opening exchanges, ands appear to be in a hurry to get this game over with in time for Wednesday’s semi final. Our squad has been reduced to thirteen players.

This includes manager Paul Dyke, who names himself as substitute. The most significant absence is goalkeeper, Ryan Jones, who declared himself unwell on the morning of the game. Paul Andrews steps in to replace him. He has played in goal for us several times before. He does little to reassure us by saying that he is shitting it.

As we settle into the opening minutes of the game we go and do the worst thing possible by taking the lead. Chris Pye’s centre is laid back by Martyn Barnett toward Sam Schwodler, who thumps in from eighteen yards. This rattles Netley’s cage. They strike the underside of Paul Andrews’ crossbar twice in as many minutes.

 It is a taster for things to come. Netley score twice before half-time, both goals coming via corner kicks. This is something that our centre backs, Kev Willsher and Marc Judd, are furious about. The second-half is a spirited affair with little memorable goal mouth action, other than a comical goal line clearance from Marc Judd.

Having already rounded Paul Andrews, a Netley attacker strode casually toward the six yard box to side foot past Marc Judd, whose plans to block the ball seemed hopeful at best since he’d lost his footing. Judd then managed to raise his backside to the ball, deflecting it wide of the post by the narrowest of margins. We lost, as did Netley on Wednesday night.

GK: Paul Andrews, RB: Mark Reeves: CB:Kev Willsher, CB:Marc Judd, LB:Dan Allen, LM:Chris Pye, CM:John Rix, CM:Mark Sanderson (Rob Mills), CM:Martyn Barnett, RM:Sam Hewitt, CF:Sam Schwodler