VWFC vs South Godstone
19/11/2016 Virginia Water 1 - 0 South Godstone
Surrey County Cup
Report by Steve Cox
Waters’ County Cup campaign continued as they entertained Redhill & District League 1 champions South Godstone. This was a tough test for the Waters Reserves as a well organised, confident and combative Godstone had come here with only one thing on their agenda, victory.
The first half really belonged to the visitors, although Matt Hargreaves was always on the alert he had few shots on target to deal with. Once again defensively Waters stood firm - Dean Guy, well supported by debutant Dylan Haslam, 16 year old Tom Flower and Paul Butler gave no quarter. Fine hard working performances by Dave Guy and skipper Luke Sperling were also vital in keeping Godstone at bay. In fact although not gilt edged, Waters may have had the best chances to open the scoring but never quite made the best of exploiting Godstone’s back three.
After the halftime break with Levi Jefford replacing Scott Ancell and Alex Saunders replacing Gary Clark, Waters seemed to fine a new resolve and took the game by the scruff of the neck . It was the home team now who looked the most likely to break the deadlock as they fully tested the Godstone defence. Dave Guy thumped the cross bar with a long range effort and some good wing play by Saunders that supplied some good testing crosses caused problems to the away defence.
Finally the deadlock was broken as Waters’ pressure finally told. Dave Guy’s fine 30 yard cross field pass picked out Sam Devoil. Taking the ball on his chest he drove into the box unmarked and as the keeper advanced he coolly planted the ball into the empty net, 1-0 and the least Waters deserved on their second half performance. More chances came as the classy Jefford constantly out thought the Godstone defence. The back on the field Ancell (utilising the roll on and off substitute process) should have made it 2-0 but fluffed his lines after great play by Jefford.
Into the final 10 minutes it was left to Waters rock solid defence to keep Godstone at bay as they gallantly strove for an equaliser. It was not to be and even when they finally got the ball into the net an offside flag halted their premature celebrations.
MoM = Paul Butler
Line up:
Matt Hargreaves
Paul Butler
Dean Guy
Dylan Haslam
Tom Flower
Sam Devoil
Dave Guy
Luke Sperling
Gary Clark
Scott Ancell
Dimitrious Bouras
Subs:
Alex Saunders
Levi Jefford
Rob Lamb