Richmond 3s 2-0 Southgate 4s
Report by Tom Davies
Southgate travelled to the depths of southwest London on Saturday optimistic off the back of a thumping 10-1 win the week before. From the first whistle, however, it was clear this was going to be a different game entirely. Richmond were an organized and skillful lineup, and put Southgate under the cosh early on. Southgate defended stoicly, putting stick and body (in particular heads) on the line to protect the clean sheet, and Richmond squandered chance after chance.
Captain Scott was evidently confused by southgate wearing an away strip, continually passing instead to the red home kit of Richmond. Halfway through the first half, Southgate’s defences cracked and Richmond were ahead. The lads continued to show real grit up against sustained pressure, carving out a few chances and squandering a golden short corner ‘#call2’ routine. Lion Dan held the midfield together and Southgate began to build into the game, with optimism at a half time score of just 1-0. With renewed vigour, but a comparable lack of skill, Southgate strode out for the second half. The crowd had grown, as the late afternoon show match reached it’s crescendo. A few familiar faces were on hand to disrupt the normally unbreakable facade of Tom Davies, who fell from hero against Chiswick to zero against Richmond as he foolishly succumbed to temptation and broke the 5 yard rule, earning a green card.
That incident followed another similar occurrence ten minutes earlier as lion Dan was dispatched to the umpires bench for 2 minutes. Throughout the second half, Southgate battled and battled and defended valiantly. In particular, lion sam in goal pulled off a number of remarkable saves, injuring himself (and the oppositions attacker – ‘he didn’t touch him ump’) in the process. With energy exhausted, Southgate finally caved to the pressure late in the game as defensive errors cost them again. A 2-0 final result was fair but masked a plucky effort from the lads. Truly, we left it all out there. We go again on the water against old rivals Hampstead & Westminsteron Saturday.
MotM – Lion Sam
DotD – Tom D