Sutton Valence travelled to Canterbury looking to bounce back from the previous week’s defeat. Upon arrival they were treated by playing on the main show pitch in front of the club house. The start of the half saw both teams probing each other’s defence with little luck, so most of the play took place in the midfield area of the pitch. Valence looked assured on the ball and recycled it well when moving up forward wasn’t a viable option. Unfortunately, they suffered an early blow when Steve Parker, Valence’s usual rock in central defence, realised he hadn’t entirely recovered from the injury he sustained the previous week, and had to substitute himself in the first 10 minutes. But Louis Robinson, his replacement, was more than up to the task for the game.
It was Valence that opened the scoring, with the skipper, Mark Whitmill, taking a quick free hit, passing it quickly to Tom Willson at the top of the Canterbury D. Tom worked his usual magic in the D and found Chris Sheldon, who slotted the ball into the back of the net for them to take a well-earned lead. The half continued with both teams having opportunities, Canterbury had 5 or 6 short corners that were successfully defended, but they were awarded a controversial short corner in the dying seconds of the half, where a Canterbury attacker kicked the ball into Scott Montgomery’s foot after he’d made a clean tackle. Canterbury, against the run of play, converted the chance with the half time whistle blowing straight after.
Although initially angered by the decision, Valence focussed the half time team talk on the positives of the half and there were many of them. They needed to get back to recycling the ball more often when nothing was on, as that had put them in more goal scoring positions early in the first half.
Both teams started the second half in a positive manner, with multiple chances for Valence and Canterbury. As the half continued, Valence managed to get a high press on Canterbury, who struggled at times to get the ball out their half. The continual pressure eventually paid off when Chris Sheldon found Alex Hodges in the D who restored their lead. As the game entered its final phases Valence kept their high press, but Canterbury were able to break out on a number of occasions.
With the end of the game approaching Canterbury broke out once more, and moving the ball well outside the Valence D, but two instances of crossing were not picked up by the umpires, which resulted in Canterbury taking a shot on goal. Surely lightning couldn’t strike twice with a controversial umpiring decision, not this week…. Finlay Wishart the Valence keeper made an initial save and the follow up shot was parried round the post in a last ditched save by Andy Barr. Shortly after the save the final whistle was blown and SV had secured all 3 points in a well-earned win.
After the game and over a post-match beer the team voted Alex Hodges as Man of the Match, for his relentless work rate over the 70 minutes and for securing the win with his goal. Andy Barr came a close second in the MOM stakes, but even his round of beers couldn’t swing the vote!

Goals: Chris Sheldon; Alex Hodges

MoM: Alex Hodges

Team: Finlay Wishart, Mark Whitmill, Louis Robinson, Andy Barr, Chris Sheldon, Chris Stille, Alex Hodges, Ben Tragett, Steve Parker, Scott Montgomery, Tom Willson, Richard Turnill, Stuart Edmed.
Umpire: Iain Simmons

Next week the 2nd Xl are at home (SV Prep School) against Folkestone 3rd Xl.

Match report by Mark Whitmill.