Match Report: Ashtead FC v Athletico Croydon: 7 - 0 Home Win (League)

(Match Report by Matt 'Elvis')

And so the season begins!!!  Sunday was always going to be easy against an under-strength Athletico Croydon with only 9 players.  But there is still a lot of lessons to be learned from how we played over 90 minutes.

Most of the goals came in a tantalising first half.  There was action right from the first whistle with Ashtead attacking with intent, but we were dealt a blow within the first 5 min when yours truly was injured in the box.  Surely Ashtead would struggle without me?? Nope...I wasn't missed :(  In fact Ashtead played one of the best first halves I've seen them play this season; first touches were sublime, passing was fluid and varied, crosses were accurate and all players looked hungry for the ball.  We scored 6 goals in the first half:   Elston made the breakthrough goal early on, and added 3 more goals before half time! All these were well taken, but the best goal was a great back-post finish off a wonder cross from Piers.  Chris also slotted home well in the first half, running onto a well timed pass by Jack and cooly rounding the keeper to finish.  The best move of the match was still to come, and it involved several players; a few one-two's, a penetrating ball into the box, a cut-back, and then a tidy finish by Jack. We would have beaten any team in the first half with such a fluid attacking display.

The second half was a different story...
Chris managed to score his second goal, but this was one of the few postives of the second half.  We should have used this as a training session and finished them off clinically.  Instead we made the wrong decisions time and time again: badly chosen passes, mis-timed runs and long-distance shots.  As a result we gave Athletico too much time to gather their breath and they started to enjoy the game a bit more.  Luckily our defence were switched-on so our loss of attacking prowess didn't ruin our clean sheet, but I doubt many players enjoyed that second half of football.

Player Ratings:
James 6.0 (not his fault but he had nothing to do)
Matt 5.0 (subbed within 5 min - who owes me £3?)
Pat 7.0 (solid, definitely still thinks he's a striker!)
Louis 7.0 (solid as ever)
Dan 6.5 (defended well but not enough going forward)
Elston 8.0 (4 goals, great work rate)
Jack 7.0 (1 great goal...and 1 epic miss ;) )
Michael 7.0 (beast)
Chris 7.5 (2 goals, good work rate and tackles)
Piers 7.0 (great first half, frustration crept in in the second half)
Andy 7.0 (good control, probably deserved more of the ball)
Joe 7.0 (sub)(made a few wrong pass choices but work rate was excellent)