A tremendous performance on saturday, particularly considering it was our first game since the beginning of Dec 2003. We started well in the beautiful sunny surroundings at Amberley. The makeshift back four : Simon, Chalkie, Jez and Brian looked solid from the start and despite the bumpy pitch fed some good balls to Bran and Geoff in the centre of midfield. The breakthrough came after Chris beat a couple of the Amberling Amberley defenders down the left, the ball came to Danny who fed a perfect ball to Keith, who took the ball on his chest before swinging a cracking volley into the top left corner. 1 v 0 at half-time. The Coalie kept up the pressure in the second half and it looked like finishing 1 v 0, until Amberley leveled the score a few minutes from the end with a good cross and header. But the Coalie were not sunk. After brilliant attacking work from Lee Good, Keith took a speculative long punt which looped into the far corner of the goal to put the Coalie 2 v 1 up. Despite big pressure in the last two minutes and a string of Banks-like saves from John we held on for a fantastic win. Bookings : Chopper Clive.
Another hard-fought battle against our old West Sussex rivals the Ambassadors. It was a cold and blustery day at Avisford Park and the Coalie squad was deleted by injury and accident. Ambassadors went two goals clear and there looked like no way back for the Coal Exchange, but then a mix up in defense after a long goal kick from Jon saw the Ambassadors defense gift the Coalie an own goal. After that the Coalie pushed forward with Keith and Lee Good terrorising their defense. Geoff, Bran, Scholes and Chalkie masterminded the midfield while Brian, Andy, Aaron and Clive keep things solid at the back. It looked like Ambassadors would take the three points until a late corner, Bran rose like a salmon (tinned) and headed the Coalie into one-point wonderland. The ref blew the final whistle and the Coalie had secured a hard won draw.
It was a tough game on a cold and windy day at Fortress Emsworth. New Town Villa Reserves played some good passing football but the solid Coalie defense keep them at bay...until.... a long wind assisted clearance from their keeper bounced over Andy and Scholesy's heads and landed at the feet of their centre forward....1 v 0. We fought back with good support from the midfield quartet, Fellows, Chalkie, Geoffer and Charlie 'Nicholas' Reed. Keith stole an equaliser before half-time. Bran came on to add some legs to the midfield and the Coalie pushed on, but the Villa scored another to make it 2v1, despite sterling efforts of full-backs Jez and Simon, and Jon the Cat in goal. Clivert came on for the injured Charlie. The Coalie never give in and we pushed on and scored a sensational equaliser. Geoffer swung in a pin-point cross and Lee Good rose to power in a goal-of-the-season header. A good tough game.
Another Cup defeat this week for the mighty Coal Exchange. Pulborough had recruited lots of new young players since we beat them last season and they ran rings round us today. John pulled off some excellent saves to keep us in it, and Andy, Ollie and Wez ran their socks off in the defence. After conceeding an early goal we did fight back well and had a good goal disallowed for off-side. Keith scored a neat goal to make it 2 v 1 at half-time. In the second half Danny, Chalkie, Chris, Jez and Scholesy continued chasing shadows in the midfield, and Keithy and Lee Good kept chasing our up-and-unders, but no luck today and as we pushed forward we conceeded a couple more goals. Brian came on for Wez in the second half and Clivert came on for a run at the end.
The fireworks all came at the wrong end of the pitch this weekend. We came up against Over Wallop in the Hants Cup. They turned out to be a wise old team and gave us a bit of a passing lesson in the first half. Ollie, Brian and Simon worked tirelessly in the defence, and stand-in keeper Clive pulled off some good catches, but despite a good fight back and a great headed goal from Lee Good, we went in 3 v 1 down at half time. The second half was better. Charlie came on to help out Danny, Chalkie, Geoffer 'bite yer legs' Bartlett, Scholes and Jez in the midfield (and they needed it on the Wembley sized pitch). keith and Lee battled away upfront and Lee slotted another cracking goal, but we finally went out of the Hants Cup. Great sofas in the pub though.