Abingdon United Dev vs VWFC
06/01/2018 Abingdon United Development 2-1 Virginia Water Reserves
Hellenic Division Two East
Report by Steve Cox
Virginia Water’s reserves almost enjoyed the journey to Abingdon United; a great ground to play on, a nice club to visit and it was a good match to watch - over 90 minutes there were lots of very good performances from the Waters side, but only one thing was missing again - the result. A lack of goal power and, once again, a couple of silly mistakes meant a fine Waters effort resulted in another defeat. It feels this season the fates will not give Waters a break, but the truth is you have to make your own luck in football. Over the course of the season so far, Waters have not had enough quality in front of goal, and have had to suffer quite a few bad results that could have been potentially been victories with a more prolific scorer in the team.
Today Waters defended well virtually all game, but a sloppy goal conceded after 20 minutes - initiated by some odd refereeing and poor concentration at the back - left them 1-0 down. They fought back well, created some decent chances and played some good football but didn’t score. Then, 5 minutes before halftime, a soft free kick was punished as the shot saved by Mark Pisani was somehow carried into the goal with him, as he appeared to lose his balance. Waters were 2-0 down at the break but overall had played, so well it felt like a major injustice, but only had themselves to blame in truth.
The away side came out in the second half and carried on where they had left off; playing well and looking like they had the desire to get back in the game. Waters scored in the 50th minute when Alex Saunders’ 22-yard shot embarrassed the home goalkeeper by sneaking under his body. Now 2-1 down Waters pushed so hard for a deserved equaliser but the feeling was that it just wasn’t going to come. Waters just don’t seem able to get players in the right place at the right time when the ball is in the opposition’s penalty area, so they huffed and puffed for a goal but came up short. To be honest Abingdon, who spent most of their time defending, had the best chances to add to their score, however, Pisani redeemed himself from his earlier mistake by making two brilliant saves - the second was truly top class goalkeeping.
The game ended with another galling defeat, Waters deserved better, but the positives were a fine team effort that gave above average efforts from Mike Chambers, Luke Sperling, Sam Dennison, Aaron Nevitt and new boy David Lopez, and of course, hope for the future as more performances like this against decent opposition must surely reap their rewards.
MoM: Michael Chambers
Line up:
Mark Pisani
Dean Guy
Michael Chambers
Dave Atkins
Alex Saunders
Aaron Nevitt
Sam Dennison
Luke Sperling
Steve Mills
David Lopez
Jack Deabill
Subs:
Sam Meadows
Tom Flower
Liam Shannahan