Football Chiswick W4 London

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Old Mead's gritty effort topples league leaders

Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

- Honourable Artillery Company 1 Old Meadonians 2

A gritty and dour effort by Old Meadonians toppled league leaders Honourable Artillery Company to their third league defeat and to third in the table at Mottingham on Saturday, although this feat was aided by wins by Albanians and Bealonians who have now leap-frogged to first and second positions.

This was very much a clash of B teams as both sides had a handful of their best missing and it showed as, on an unflattering surface and interference from a blustery wind, neither side could rise much above what could be described as a scrappy performance.

Meads took the lead on ten minutes, Kevin Quinn diving to head in Colin Hawkins’ in-swinging corner. With perfect timing this lead was doubled with five minutes to go to half time when Alex Hugh Jones took his season’s tally to six, glancing in a long throw at the near post.

The second half saw more of the same as the hosts’ more measured approach foundered on Meads’ obdurate back three, and while Meads more robust methods kept their strikers amply supplied, the latter were out of sorts and inclined to fruitless meandering.

With ten minutes to go the Gunners decided to embarrass their guests with a long-range barrage with instant results. First debutant John Walker scored from just inside the box and immediately had a ten-yard rocket saved by Meads’ keeper Kris Sayers.

Finally, in the last minute, Sayers excelled himself by pushing a point blank header onto the post and back into his arms. Sayers was named MoM.

Team: Sayers, McCombe, Butler, Kearney, Lovell, Hugh Jones, Bond, Quinn, Rhone, Glover, (Adomah), Hawkins.

 

March 7, 2006