Old Meads Extend Their League Lead to Six Points

AFC Premier Division: Old Meadonians 3 Honorable Artillery Company 0

Back on the league trail Old Meadonians moved into a six point lead at the top of the table with a game in hand over second placed Old Wokingians following Saturday’s comfortable win over visitors to Riverside Lands, Honorable Artillery Company.

In the post match briefing Meads’ management was pleased with the ninth win on the trot and another clean sheet. For joint manger Luke Graham however, the temptation to count chickens was strictly taboo as he made clear. The end of season melee with a fixture card crammed with cup games means there is still plenty to be done and the team needs to remain fully focused moving into such a crowded period and to take each game as it comes.

Meads started with left back Charlie Cain back after a month out and, with Mike Richards carrying a niggling groin injury, included Simon Richardson. Meads were soon on the attack but in the fifth minute striker Craig Jones was taken by surprise by the pace of the ball as it rebounded to him six yards out. He snatched at the chance which went over but just to prove the point, before ten more minutes had expired, two similar chances had been put over by his colleagues, caught out in the same manner.

However, in the twentieth minute Meads’ keeper Gary Robinson broke the deadlock with a quick clearance and Richardson combined well with Nick Wilson whose low cross was swept in by Ryan Bright. Ten minutes later Craig Jones atoned for his earlier loss of touch when he applied a superb diving header to a second Wilson cross to double Meads’ tally.

Half-time instructions to press for a third were destined to be obstructed by the tireless visitors who, for the first twenty minutes after the restart, cornered possession of the ball but without making a single dent in Meads’ defence. In the meantime Craig Jones usual hypnotic command over the ball had frustratingly deserted him for his dogged perseverance to be rewarded with fifteen minutes to go when he cut in from the left dummied twice to go outside defenders and slammed the ball over the keeper into the far corner. Matt Britner was named MoM for his superb marshalling of the defence.

Squad: Robinson, Costello (Pointer), Chapman (C), Britner, Cain, N. Jones, Gowers, Bright (Richards), C. Jones, Wilson, Richardson (McKenna).

January 17, 2017