Southgate 3’s 6  – 2 Richmond 3’s

Match Report : Todd Lomas

MOM: Jackson Trathen

Goals: Rob Schilling, Todd Lomas (2), Noah Lavy, Tom Murphy, Cameron S.

Last Saturday the Southgate Mens 3s faced their first opponent of the 2021/22 Season, Richmond 3s. It was a match of 8 goals, including penalty strokes, drag flicks and yellow cards. We only do drama in the 3s. 

From before PB we were all raring to go. After a mighty effort from the 4s, led by stand in captain Kabir, as 3s captain I knew I had to put even more of a show on to trump them. With the weapons I had in my arsenal, Andy Richardson, Rob Schilling, Veysel Demir to name a few, I knew this wouldn’t be hard. 

Lining up in a Guardiola like 4-3-3, Rob held the fort at CM alongside the tenacious Ben Berndes-Cade and Tom ‘Cool as a cucumber’ Murphy. From the outset, we dominated the ball and moved it around like a team under the aforementioned Spanish football manager, at a pace set from the front by myself, Jackson ‘Blondie’ T and Cam S. Who were shadowed from the back by Andy R, Lucas J, Aman S and Sam M. Within the first 10, we won a short corner which I flicked at the keepers pads (too warm him up) then followed up with a rebound shot into the net. 1-0.

The half ensued with another goal from the speedy counter attack of Jackson and goal scorer Noah L, who both made mincemeat of the Richmond defenders on multiple occasions (sometimes too much, resulting in a yellow card for the less blondie one). To wrap the half, after some lovely team play and individual skill, Cam upped the score line to 3-0.

Entering the second half the 3s boys were relentless in their hunt for more goals, evidently due to the half time team talk. Shortly after, we won a short corner, and with a sharp injection from Ben, a clinical stop by Rob and an average drag flick (wasn’t average) bottom left from me, that made it 4-0. Richmond had some handy players, and they did score once in open play, not very memorable as I can’t remember it right now. However, perfection isn’t always obtainable. After a tussle in the D, with a certain right back coming across his man to win the ball and both ending up like upturned beatles, our own Justin Edwards awarded a penalty flick, which Veysel unfortunately conceded despite a match of almost no mistakes. 

At 4-2, Richmond may have thought their comeback was on, but no, it wasn’t. I received the ball from the back on our 25 and the only option was a reverse aerial up the line to Tom M, who passed to Jackson then Ben who slapped it back post for Tom to dive and deflect in. Shortly after followed by Rob S with a goal of pure class and finesse. What more would we expect. As a team that had 1 sub mostly, a pretty good effort. Can only bode well for the coming season.

Team: Veysel D, Lucas J, Andy R, Aman S, Sam M, Rob S (1), Tom M (1), Ben BC, Jackson T, Noah L (1), Cam S (1), Todd L (2)