Yet another different Captain – welcome back Nuti

First fixture of 2008 and the return league fixture against Sanderstead. This was an early start too – leaving Chertsey at 8.45am for the match to start at 10.15 at Monks Hill Sports Centre. Sanderstead beat us in the earlier fixture 3-1, so we were looking to turn this around with different looking team from that fixture. A welcome back to Newts returning from injury who came straight in a centre forward with the captain’s armband. Ash was also back from injury so we set off with high hopes of being able to get a result.

The game started well with a lot of crisp passing between the Valley players – Josh, Ash and Andy combining well with support from Ben and Gerry at the back. Then, having done the work to get the ball up field, there was some excellent work by the forwards, Andy and Newts, with some excellent crosses coming into the D. This led to some good goals in the first half. One of them was started from a good tackle from Ben who laid the ball off to Ash, who then played a first time pass to Newts, who ran round one player, cross field pass to Josh, who then passed on to Andy, who then crossed the ball into the D where the ball was crashed into the net – great movement and an excellent goal. Sanderstead also scored towards the end of the first half after a series of short corners, the final one seeing the ball deflecting in off Gerry’s stick, who was annoyed that he couldn’t quite keep it out. 3-1 to Valley at the break.

Second half was real end-to-end stuff with the game possibly swinging either way. However, Valley managed to pick up two more goals whilst Sanderstead were never able to capitalise on their positions. One goal was a real “goal of the season” (so far!) from Andy who amazed everyone with his second strike of the day leaving the keeper stranded and smacking the back of the net from just inside the D.

Game therefore finished up 5-1 to Valley – a great team effort. Well done lads! Thanks to Gerry for umpiring.

Man of the Match: Andy Ford for all round performance and the 2 goals.

[Editor's note: Thank you to 'View from the left' for the match report]