Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

Old Meadonians 5 Old Manorians 2

Old Meadonians moved smoothly into the next round of the London Old Boys’ Senior Cup without breaking into a sweat against Old Manorians from three divisions below at Riverside Lands on Saturday and could have doubled their tally but for a number of fluffed chances and mystery off-sides which rescued the under-powered visitors from a bloodbath.

The under dogs could well have done without the disastrous start which gifted Meads an opener within two minutes as Ed Glover soared to flick on the first of a series of headers he provided for the duration and a tortoise paced back pass was hared onto by Meads’ leading scorer Craig Jones for him to gratefully slot past the stranded keeper.

Throughout, the visitors never came to terms with the pace of the pitch, coupled with the fluid four, three, three formation Meads employed which meant that attempting to stem the mercurial thrusts of Jones and Glover backed by Ryan Bright’s mazy dribbling was as useless as King Knut’s efforts might be to hold back the tide on Morecombe Bay. If you add to this the joyous abandon with which right back Laurie Pointer streamed into the space which opened up in front of him to supply the overlap and constant centres, the visitors were rarely in with a shout.

However, at this point they did give themselves a glimmer of hope when a long throw in was touched on to thread its way into the far corner of Meads’ net. The visitors’ relief was short lived as, with ten minutes to go to halftime, Glover picked up the ball on the half-way line and lanced twenty yards through the mind-field to release Jones down the right. Jones’ cut back was neatly dummied across himself by Fred Champion and dispatched clinically from just inside the box. Craig Jones got Meads’ fourth on the hour cutting in from the right and firing across the goalie and after the visitors got a second on seventy minutes Bright dibbled through traffic on the right to give sub Ben Fox a tap-in. Ryan Bright was named MoM for his brilliant work on the ball and his impassioned application.

Squad:- Robinson, Pointer, McCombe, O’Sullivan, Quinn, Bright, Meredith, Boynton, Champion, Jones, Glover, Costello, Fox.

October 21, 2014