Edenstone v Clifton FC (Friendly)

A bumper crowd (3 local old boys, Fran, 6 assorted children and the Ref's wife) were treated to lots of goals and some great football in Lower Sydenham on Saturday. A sunny day, decent pitch (within walking distance of home for the acting skipper - more of this please) and opposition who are known for trying to play a bit of football laid the groundwork for a good game, which is exactly what happened. Alberto was traditionally late, and arrived with family in tow, and Dunc also turned up 2 minutes before kick off and both had to quickly get changed by the pitch. As did Stu who arrived late and with badly torn trousers after going to Catford by mistake. Rough old place Catford. After this mild kerfuffle and the resulting last minute reshuffle of personnel, and after Hoops had given up trying to get a ball back from the industrial unit he'd wanged it into during the warm up, forlornly shouting for someone, anyone, who wasn't there, we kicked off. With Marvel and Scott unavailable this week, a new look midfield of Hoops and Lendog was tried (to good effect); Ricky & Stu reprised their old Sunday League little and large unit up front for the first time in a while, while Mark Morris, a late replacement for Reevesy, was between the sticks, so it was not a familiar line up. What was familiar was Clifton's slow start to the match. A nervous and error strewn first 10 minutes didn't cost us any goals but it could have, as Edenstone looked to break quickly, but going forward we started to look dangerous and started cutting though their defence with regularity. Set pieces, yup, set pieces started to cause us problems. Edenstone's tall midfielder, who looked very much like a hungover and grouchy Keith Harris, was very good at finding space and getting his head to crosses and he caused us problems every time they had a corner or free kick. 15 minutes in and Edenstone took the lead when grouchy Keith was given as much time as he wanted to nod in a flicked cross from close range as his marker switched off. Perhaps this was what we needed because suddenly Clifton were popping the ball around confidently, probing and patient, carving out chances with sharp moves involving players all over the pitch. It was good to watch and be a part of. We didn't have long to wait for dominance to be rewarded as Hoops cut through and pulled it back for Darren to finish with his nuts from close range. We were 2-1 up shortly afterwards when a great move down the right saw Ricky clip in a perfect near post cross which found Hoops bursting into the 6 yard box, meeting the ball with a leap and a set of studs. It was a rapid turnabout and we were playing some of the best football seen this season, but Edenstone had pace up and remained a threat especially at set pieces. Mark Morris made a stunning finger tip save to stop one top-corner-headed screamer and a flurry of set pieces just before the break saw panic and indecision break out and grouchy Keith continued to win more headers than he should have. From such an occasion a goal mouth scramble ensued, when the ball should have been cleared by wasn't, Lee stick out an arm on the goal line to block a close range header. As it was a friendly there was no red card for Lee but with the last kick of the half Edenstone's danger striker put the spot kick in the top corner, despite a valiant effort from Mark Morris to save it. 2-2. It would have been easy to get bogged down at half time and into the second half by what went wrong and about defending set pieces and all of that, but lots had gone right, and we used that positive attitude for the rest of the match. The second half performance was better than the first. We scored 4 goals but it could have been a few more than that. An Edenstone defender headed the ball against his crossbar after a freekick from the acting skipper before Hoops cracked the game open with a stunning 20 yard dipping volley over the keeper after bursting into the inside right channel. What a goal, 3-2. Ricky, lively and hardworking throughout and probably having his best game of the season, bagged the next two. The first one was also a cracker, outpacing the defence the little magician only went and smashed it in the top corner from 15 yards and an angle. The crowd went wild. Fireworks and smoke bombs, blocked aisles, the lot. Scenes. 4-2. It was 5-2 before Edenstone could work out what was happening to them. Ricky read a fluid situation and used his pace to reach a bouncing ball before the keeper, rounded him and stroked it gleefully into the empty net. Stuart had a great header clawed out of the top corner by their keeper and Lendog was unlucky with a couple of half chances before Hoops tucked the game up in bed and completed a great hat-trick and performance with a salmon leap and bullet header from Alberto's left wing corner. 6-2. Edenstone chucked bodies forward as they tried to salvage something from the game, even if it was only a bit of pride. Barry enjoyed his regulation mini-scuffle and frank exchange of views with a midfielder pushing on, and after a couple of half chances Edenstone's rapid forward slipped through to beat Mark Morris to the ball, round him and slot it into the net past the sliding in Dunc. 6-3 That was that really. For long patches it was the best football we've played all season. Good performances all round but Hoops (obviously) and Ricky were excellent. Lendog also put in a good shift in the less glamorous engine room. If we can take that hard work, quality and good attitude into the next 3 games we'll be fine. Well played everyone.

Final Score - Edenstone 3 Clifton 6 (friendly) Gaffers Comments after the game - Gotta say lads, some of the best football we've played in a while - popping the ball around, crisp and quick passing. Excellent stuff.

On to the next (league) game.

Come on the Mighty Clifton!