New season beckons

And so the new season kicked off after a turbulent summer of off-field activity. Following on the from the failure of JC to keep the 2nd XI up a shadowy consortium snapped up the club over the summer.

The injection of money providing a new playing pitch and clubhouse came with strings attached. And so it was that Paul Biddle came back to take the reigns as JC was consigned to the history books as the least successful captain ever.

Biddle had been busy over the summer looking for talent from all over the country and the team had an unfamiliar look to it. The young talent was getting a chance with another season from Jono Fisher an experienced player but still a youngster, the introduction of the pacy George Lightfoot and the breakthrough of young Thomas Bacon too.

Valley started brightly and after some neat interplay between JC and Lightfoot, JC should have finished better. The game was finely balanced in the first half as both sides started to shake off the summer inactivity.

Valley were unlucky with their Short corners when attacking and quite composed when defending. After some sustained pressure Cheam got a lucky break and took the lead with a soft goal.

As the second half wore on Cheam were in the ascendency and forced a large number of short corners, which they were unable to convert. With time running out Cheam changed their Short Corner personnel and a fantastic drag flick found the back of the net to seal the game.

[Ed: Thanks to JC for the match report ]