Postponed match settled

Following a pre-Christmas postponement, Sutton Valence 3rd XI welcomed Gillingham Anchorians 4th XI to a bitterly cold Prep School pitch.

Sutton Valence started strong, retaining possession, picking their passes wisely and moving off the ball with intelligence. However, so did Gillingham. The first 10 minutes of the match was a hard battled stalemate, which saw a very well struck Gillingham goal overturned, deemed to have been hit outside of the D.

Sutton Valence managed to break the deadlock not long after, after a lovely run down the sideline by Ed Hawes-Gatt, who slipped the ball back past the defenders to an unmarked Rob Cockayne to slap in.

The lead was further extended five minutes later with a fantastic deceiving pass in the D by Chris Sheldon to Rob Cockayne, who had lost his defender and tucked a shot into the far corner of the goal from a tight angle.

Gillingham managed to pull back a goal not long before the half time whistle after the defence were unable to clear goalkeeper Dave Turner’s pads.

Sadly, Gillingham managed to pull back three further goals to take the lead during the second half, despite the valiant efforts of Ed Hawes-Gatt to score two last minute equalisers (both of which he fluffed).

2-4 loss for Sutton Valence against the league leaders.

Goals: Rob Cockayne (2)

Team: David Turner; Rob Cockayne; Ed Hawes-Gatt; Adrian Gander; Chris Sheldon; Alex Stanford; Darren Thompson; Michael Rolph; Julian Mills; Alastair Robinson; Rod Harcourt.
Umpires: Bob Bartlett; Rob Harrison.

Next week the 3rd Xl are away against New Beccehamian 3rd Xl at 13:30.