Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

Old Meadonians 7 Old Ignations 1

This was the moment when Old Meadonians’ top scorer of last season, Craig Jones, finally joined in the party. In Meads’ opening match against the champions, two weeks before, he’d put in a cameo half hour as a late sub during which he showed he hadn’t lost his cutting edge and last week he wasn’t available.

Now he exploded to the top of the score sheet with a four goal spree to demonstrate his deadly use of the abundant possession afforded him by his unerring positional sense which gave colleagues plenty of opportunity to sharpen their delivery. On Saturday, although it took Meads a good half hour to subdue youthful visitors to Riverside lands, Old Ignatians, even before that they had found Craig Jones too hot to handle, his first effort on ten minutes being just wide of the post.

In this opening spell centre back Ali McCombe was also unlucky with two headers over the bar. However, Meads’ opening goal came just after the half hour from their surging five man midfield as the marauding Will Gerrish cut in from the right to find the far corner of the net with a fierce low drive. Meads had to wait ten minutes for their second, beating the ref’s half-time whistle by just two: Ryan Bright showed a clean pair of heels down the right and his pin-point centre cut out both intervening defenders and the keeper to hang temptingly at the far post where Craig Jones’ perfectly timed run and balletic ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ leap, wand in hand, allowed him to head home unhindered. The early second half saw a steady accretion to the home score via another two from Craig Jones and a Ryan Bright penalty before Craig Jones and Jordan Mace iced the cake in the dying minutes.

The opening shots in any new season’s football campaign can rarely be said to be decisive even if indicative of the future. Hence, with three games played, the fact that only two teams have a 100% record, although not insignificant, is hardly a pointer to the 2015 end game. At the moment Meads sit atop the table by virtue of a superior goal difference of 13 against second placed Enfield Old Grammarians’ tally of 5, the North Londoners having conceded a telling, if not totally revealing goals against total of 8. It has to be said that of these two teams who meet this coming Saturday, Meads appear more likely to be in danger from complacency, a criticism which might have been levelled at them two thirds of the way through Saturday’s match.

In the first half colleagues looked on in admiration on three occasions as outnumbered defenders single-handedly and it has to be said competently, cleared up a little local difficulty in their penalty area and even then Meads had added three more before their luck to run out to allow Ignatians to notch a solitary consolation goal similar to Gerrish’s earlier effort. Nonetheless, it would be as well for joint coaches, Rory Vermeulen and Paul Rumley to nip in the bud any incipient claims of omnipotence on behalf of the squad and set their feet firmly on the ground. Craig Jones was unanimously acclaimed MoM.

Squad:- Robinson, O’Sullivan, Pointer, McCombe, Bright, Shea, Gerrish, Brennan, Mantel, Glover, C. Jones, A. Jones, Quinn.
October 2, 2014