This week Valence 3rds travelled to Gore Court on a cloudy and chilly morning. The news came in early that the team were a keeper down and with a bare XI, so as the team slowly turned up after some directional malfunctions the ‘Kit’ was placed on the astro, sniffed and then everyone looked around for a willing victim/volunteer to stand between the posts for 70mins. Being an agricultural type of guy Roger Fermor was happy to oblige although his pace on the right would possibly be missed. The match started with both teams passing the ball around, mostly to their own team with some silky movement from the Bartlett twins keeping possession in the middle on the park and Andy McVarish marshalling the defence. Some probing balls into the opposition’s D couldn’t quite find Chris Sheldon as he was being closely man marked by the Gore Court centre-back, so chances on goal were scarce. The deadlock was broken after a Bob Bartlett pass pin-balled its way through the crowded D and onto the reverse stick of Darren Thompson who put the ball between the keeper’s legs to put Valence ahead. Their lead didn’t last long though as 5 minutes later a long ball beat the mid-field leaving McVarish with a 2 on 1 situation and with a free shot at goal the Gore Court forward scored giving Fermor little chance. Even a succession of chainsaw-tackle induced short corners couldn’t help Valence score a second, with Chris Sheldon having a couple saved, leaving it 1-1 at half time.
After a rousing half-time rouse from Jurgen Willson Valence set off determined to win the game but it was Gore Court who had the early possession with their youngsters doing the running whilst their more experienced players did the shouting and the whacking putting the Valence defence under pressure with a high press. Some good defending and tidy passing from Olly Sheldon helped limit their chances and Mike Nettle showed that a small moustached veteran can indeed outpace a 14-year-old and make the important tackles. Gore Court had a couple of short corners but they couldn’t make them count through a combination of some bad luck and a misaligned goal location device. In the final 10 minutes Valence started to turn up the heat with the youth of Tom Bartlett slicing the Court defence on a few occasions, and after a quickly taken long corner Thompson found Chris Sheldon in the D whose initial shot was saved only for the ball to fall to the predatory Henry Humphrey who clipped the ball home to put Valence ahead.
The final minutes of the game were hectic with Gore Court pushing forward in numbers and with a minute or so left there was a foot in the D and whilst the advantage was given the short corner wasn’t. The resulting booting of the ball off the pitch by the possibly rightly disgruntled Gore Court centre forward wasted precious seconds and before the ball could be retrieved and the game re-started the final whistle went, deservedly giving Valence the win.

Goals: Darren Thompson; Henry Humphrey.

Team: Roger Fermor; Mike Nettle; Andy McVarish; Bob Sagrott; Bob Bartlett; Henry Humphrey; Darren Thompson; Paul Linaker; Tom Bartlett; Chris Sheldon; Olly Sheldon.
Umpires: Provided by Gore Court.

Match report by Darren Thompson.

Next week the 3rd Xl are away at 16:00 against Ashford 6th Xl.