Valence always ahead, but only just…

For the second week in a row Sutton Valence competed in a mid-table battle for league position, needing to
bounce back from losing the previous week’s game. They started quickly dominating possession in the middle of the park, learning lessons from the previous week’s game, Sutton Valence passed the ball with confidence. They soon took the lead courtesy of SV’s 3’s youngster, Dylan Queen, who used his pace to enter Holcombe’s D and fired a shot into the bottom left corner.

The goal was quickly followed up by Chris Sheldon scoring another two quick goals from open play giving Sutton Valence a 3 – 0 lead. That was the trigger point for Holcombe to up their game, and they started to play better as a team and soon overloaded the Valence defence, nicking a goal back before half-time.

The half-time talk was around how well Valence had contained Holcombe, but not to let their foot off the gas.
The second half started with Sutton Valence again taking early possession, but against the run of play Holcombe scored another, taking the game to 3-2. Needing to restore more than a one goal buffer Valence turned to in-form striker Chris Sheldon who scored from a short corner with just 10 minutes left in the game.

The final 10 minutes were a little nervy, with SV sitting too deep in their half inviting more pressure on themselves. Holcombe pushed more men forward and eventually slotted home another goal with just 3 minutes left on the clock.
Needing to just retain possession, Sutton Valence’s midfield and forwards thought the best form of defence was attack. With play stretched, due to Holcombe pushing more men forward, Dave Lewis found himself in space down the left wing. There were calls from the back to take the ball into the corner, but Dave had other ideas. Passing the ball across the pitch he found Dylan Queen on his wing who sped into the opposition D, taking the ball to the base line before firing a quick pass across the goal to Alex Sandberg who’s shot brushed the post and went in, taking the final score to 5-3 to Sutton Valence. On balance they deserved to win by a couple of goals, but Holcombe were never out of the contest.
There were a number of people in the race for MoM, but it was eventually awarded to Chris Sheldon for his hattrick. The team are still awaiting the jug of beer that should have followed!

MoM: Chris Sheldon