Old Challoners v Shene Old Grammarians

Team: Raithatha, Redpath, Cawley, Gardner, Walsh, Croucher, Allen, Lowes, Fallon, Baker, Brown Sub - Weisz for Cawley (55)

Attendance - No one from Old Challoners turned up

## The following report should not be viewed by a person of any age without parental supervision or any Old Challoners 1st Team Player of a nervous disposition ##

At this crucial stage of the season Old Challoners made the trip to Barnes looking to make a radical improvement on recent performances. With our 2006 form mirroring a Souness reign at …………….. (fill in with your personal choice) it was vital that the effort and ability was to the levels expected by manager, Rob Weisz. The "Weisz Out" campaign had fallen on deaf ears over the last few weeks due to our successful results but our brand of football has had a lot to be desired, leading to murmurs that the boss had "lost the dressing room".

The game started brightly for Challoners with a strong opening 10 minutes, dominating the midfield and creating opportunities up front, and within this period we took the lead in fine style. A ball down our right side allowed Fuz to stretch the Shene defence and deliver the ball into the box for Baker to move it onto Fallon who finished with aplomb.

Within the next ten minutes Challoners took a two-goal lead with questionable deflected "power drive" from Lowes. A Fallon corner from the left found its way to Lowes on the edge of the area and his "clearly going in the top corner" effort took the faintest of deflections into the net. An independent AFA committee is to meet this week to confirm who will receive the plaudits and, in a sign of true team spirit, the whole side are hoping for an Own Goal.

At this stage the game turned with Shene changing their midfield to a flat four and Challoners inability to adapt. Shene got themselves back into the game before half time with a strong move down our left flank, crossing the ball along the face of our goal and their left winger finishing with a late run.

Half time comes with Challoners 2-1 up and a lot of hard work to follow. Weisz made his point very clear at half time - "We're better than this, we know we are, so let's go and show it"! Nothing could be further from the truth.

The second half started as it had finished with both sides battling to retain possession. However, Shene began to take control of the ball and with this took control of the game. Challoners were unable to gain quality possession and found we found ourselves dropping deeper and deeper defensively, leaving our strikers with limited support. Shene capitalised on this with a goal midway through the second half. A right hand ball across the box was left for someone else to deal with and the Shene striker thanked us all individually, along with sending us all an email confirming the goal was about to go in, before knocking his shot into the net. 2-2.

As Challoners invited Shene closer and closer to the goal a winner was inevitable. So annoyed to see this happen that I've forgotten where the shot came from (probably my fault). All I can recall is that a shot came in which Sunil saved well, only for the Shene striker to pick up the rebound and slot it home. 3-2.

Although Challoners pushed for an equaliser Shene had done enough to win the match and may even have scored a fourth to put the game beyond doubt, but the game was won 3-2. Shene were worthy victors on the day and deserved the result. After other results came in the picture is not so pleasant in the league. Challoners are now fifth in the table, 8 points behind Sinjuns but with 5 games in hand. Our early season form is now long-gone and must be forgotten for the good of our egos.

With a massive two weeks coming up Challoners must make a huge improvement in every area to keep our chances of success alive. We're in Didcot, Oxon, for the B&B Cup next week and hopefully this can be a positive turning point for the team…..only time and a few deflected shots will tell!

Fallon's MOM - Take a guess
MOM - Not sure if we have one but if pushed I'd have to say Richard "Sicknote" Cawley for 55 mins.