Richmond M4s 2-4 Cheam M2s

After schlepping through what seemed like half of South London in an effort to get to the Quinton Hogg Memorial Ground, the soothing sights of Richmond Park had done nothing to counteract the frustratingly silly amount of traffic on the roads… Cheam arrived grumpy and ready for a challenge.

The opening stages didn’t quite go to plan, with Richmond starting brightly and moving the ball around well across the dunes of their home beach. Cheam saw themselves pegged in by an early flurry of Richmond short corners, but fortunately the defence (marshalled by AJ) held firm and kept the ball out. In fact, it took a comically tragic moment for Richmond to open the scoring, as a long aerial glided through the air grasping the full attention of both Taylor and Sohail. The pair were so entranced by the flight of this majestic sphere that they didn’t see each other running full pelt in the same direction. One crashing thud later and the ball had skipped between the two crumpled bodies on the floor, allowing Richmond to round AJ and slot the ball home.

This was the motivation needed to awaken a lethargic Cheam side, who quickly responded to level the score. To be honest, I can’t remember if it was James Clack or Luke Farrell who scored Cheam’s opener, but they both scored at some point in the match so… Well done to the pair of them! With the game on a knife edge in a tetchy first half, Gary Allen went full Thanos and said “Fine, I’ll do it myself,” taking matters into his own hands. Picking the ball up just past the halfway line, Gary produced a wonderful zig-zagging run with so many twists and turns I think I heard Mick Jagger clapping with appreciation from the side-lines. Gary shuffled off at least three defenders to coolly slot past the keeper in a Wild West-esque one-on-one duel. Unfortunately for Gary, Richmond once again went route-one down the right, with one bull bypassing our defence and their striker found the backboard to level just before the break.

After some honest words at half-time, and an acknowledgement that we could and should do better, Cheam came out in the second half ready to step up another gear. With some great pressing at the front (shout out to Gary, Luke, Clack, and Johnny), and some lovely organisation at the back (props to Nick, Sohail, Taylor, and AJ), Richmond barely caused Cheam any problems. Instead, Richmond began playing Uno and seeing how many green cards they could accrue from their umpires with some questionable and rather naughty tackles. Cheam on the other hand doubled their score to put the game to bed. Realistically we could have scored more, with two goals disallowed due to a whistle-happy umpire, and another two shots unfortunately bouncing off the frame of the goal.

It was a strong effort overall, with Cheam showing that they could rise to meet the moment and take all three points. With solid performances all round, the DOTD vote was a little harsh (fun, but still harsh).

SCORERS – Gary Allen x2, James Clack x1, Luke Farrell x1.

MOTM – A brace and an excellent solo-goal was enough for Gary to clinch the MOTM vote, despite injuring himself after doing his best Mario jump impression… Wahoo!

DOTD – The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Unfortunately for Clack, the self-proclaimed ‘Big Game Player’ came unstuck for forgetting all his kit. Ignoring the fact that he heroically made the journey back from university to help a short M2s side, you always need to come prepared!