Old School

In recent years the matches against University of Kent have been hard fought. Generally, it is best to play the students in the morning at home, when the hangovers are still raw and their first team are playing at the same time. Arriving at the University on Saturday afternoon, the opposition had a new look about it. The match got underway with Valence bracing themselves for the youthful onslaught from the home team, which, according to their Twitter account, was how it happened. This was stretching it, as Valence were the better team from the start. Steve Parker was welcomed back to the heart of the defence, which, although it was lacking Russell Blanchard, the rest of the line-up was otherwise unchanged.
Valence exerted pressure on the University’s D from the start and exposed their fragile defence. It was not long before the Wilcher, Angel, Willson combination outfoxed the students and a short corner was awarded.
The ball came out slickly. Stopped. Robinson swung, just wide. It was clear that they could exploit the defence if they got more set pieces. It was not long before they got another opportunity. Again, the ball came out well,
Andy Lee skipped past the on-coming defender and rifled the ball home. 1 Nil.
Pitch Captain Angel gave the instruction for more of the same. He was not going to be disappointed. Valence kept the pressure on. The visitors had brought their passing game and were working hard off the ball. Into the D Ryan Robinson went to round the keeper, the ball went lose. The keeper forgot where he was and held onto Robinson rather than defend his goal. Outraged that the umpire had not seen this injustice Robinson had a minor hissy fit and was lucky that the officials also missed this! To add to his anguish, shortly after a free hit was awarded against him when a UoK foot was missed in the build-up. Now with steam bellowing from his ears, the striker was going one of two ways. He got the ball, found the baseline and squared up for a reverse stick strike. It beat the keeper, it was heading for the goal. It didn’t beat Chris Stille, who helped himself to a tap in. 2 Nil.
Valence kept the pressure on, forcing UoK into mistakes. The home umpire was excellent, awarding countless decisions against UoK’s infringements. The short corner count was stacking up and the frustration overflowed at one point. A defender’s verbal outburst saw the first green card of the match shown. The crowd came to life, ‘he’s off, he’s off, he’s off’ they chanted. From the following short corner, it was Robinson’s turn to strike. 3 Nil.
‘Prince’ was the shining light in the UoK team and he did drive the home eleven forward at times, roared on
by the home crowd. Rarely does the second eleven play in front of such a vocal fan base, but the 12 fans made themselves heard and were equally supportive and disruptive to the home team. However, supportive crowd or not, Valence’s defence ensured that Stuart Young (Capt & keeper) between the posts enjoyed a quiet afternoon (which he deserved, following the peppering he received in morning ‘practice’).
Half time speech was very simple. More of the same, don’t lower yourself to playing their level. Remember
the hairy second half that was had against Folkestone after being 3 nil up at half time.
The students had obviously given themselves a talking to at half time and showed more ambition in the second half. This gave the Valence defence more to do, albeit, they never really looked in trouble. Moreover, the unit was playing well, but oldest man on the pitch, Rob Ife, was playing exceptionally well. Those, “I can’t make training, I’m going for a run instead” statements cannot have been a complete fabrication. He marshalled the defence, supported attacks and didn’t throw his toys out the pram once (if we ignore the time he sprinted to the opposition D, only to be snubbed by Willson, who favoured his usual of running off the baseline with the ball rather than pass.
On the ball in the middle of the pitch Wilcher had time, as the students weren’t closing him down. Ife screamed ‘aerial’; Wilcher obliged. Johnny Walker was after it, knocking it around the onrushing defender with his first touch and beating the keeper with his second. 4 Nil. The University were not finished, pressing forward, with willing runners and putting a string of passes together. They even tried breaching the Valence defence from the sky. Clearly distraught by an injury from a wayward strike caused to his defensive colleague, Turnill, Alex Hodges set about putting the game even further beyond the home team. He started his run from the Valence 23, with a few passes along the way, but he didn’t stop running until he slotted the ball home to complete the victory. 5 Nil.
A well fought and deserved victory which Valence complimented with a good showing in post-match teas, whilst discussing next week’s match, the local derby against flying high Marden. Bring it on.

MOM: Rob Ife