Saturday 6th March AFA Intermediate Semi Final vs. Old Aloysians won 2-0

At last a dry week! So it was game on for the Intermediate semi final. Semi finals are always tense affairs. It takes a lot of work to get there and if you suffer defeat you have nothing. Win a semi final and you have your day out secured.

Whilst it was great to have a completely dry week the sun and wind had really dried the pitch out which meant we entered stage 3 of the season. Stage 1 when the pitches are good and well grassed, stage 2 when it is muddy and now stage 3 where it gets bobbly. I never thought I’d say it after last week but the pitch could probably have done with a sprinkling of water.

In truth this wasn’t a particularly good game, against in truth not great opposition. I saw that Aloysians were struggling bottom of the league, but having seen Pompey progress in the FA cup prior to kick off it showed that that can mean nothing. They arrived early and came with a full complement of 14, and they were certainly up for it. Lucky for us they lacked any real cutting edge up front.

First half we edged without creating too much, it was mainly goal mouth scrambles that we could quite convert. Aloysians looked like they could be dangerous on the break, but really weren’t.

0-0 at half time with Aloysians the happier with that scoreline. It was important that we were patient as it was clear we were the better side. 2nd half was not much better fare for the supporters with the pitch continuing to get drier and bobblier. We were camped in Aloysians half but our possession wasn’t really tidy enough. Despite this chances were beginning to come but somehow a mixture of goalkeeper and defenders kept the ball out.

Half way through the half with frustration building that it could be one of those days where we just could not score I pushed Tim up front and dropped Joe back into midfield to use his boundless energy to better effect and to get more of a physical presence up front.

Then after a few more close shaves finally on 80 mins the deadlock was broken. Tim found some space 25 yards out, dropped the shoulder to beat his man and from 20 yards curled a pearler into the corner.

Aloysians who hadn’t mustered a shot on target all match had nothing left and in stoppage time we finished them off. A free kick from the dead ball line was curled to the back post for Tim to head home and send us to Finchlians (again) for the Intermediate cup final.

Not our best performance of the season but semi finals and finals aren’t about performance they’re about results and we stayed patient when it would have been easy to lose it and got the job done.

We now have the perfect fixture next week to forget about the cup final as we face the best reserve team around in Nottsborough. This should be the perfect game for them too as they also have a final to look forward to. We can go there with the pressure more on Notts knowing they can’t afford to lose. But if we are going to take a giant step toward the league title we must be at our best. With more good weather forecast for this week the lawns of Tolworth should be perfect for two teams who like to pass ball. I’m looking forward to it already.