Valence 3rds win again to top League

Following a convincing display the previous week, which saw them put Marden back in their box, Valence looked to continue their winning run in the League against another local rival, Maidstone.
The Valence team was an eclectic mix of youth and experience and they started very strongly, absorbing early pressure from Maidstone and counter attacking well with crisp short passing to capitalise on the gaps left by the Maidstone team. Eventually they made the breakthrough through Tom Cavell, who made excellent attacking runs throughout the match. In a rarely seen moment, Cockayne supplied a short pass across the D (some say it was a mishit shot), to Cavell, who applied a cool finish to send Valence 1-0 up.
From here the floodgates opened until half time, with Valence's passing and movement repeatedly proving too much for the Maidstone defence. Valence found themselves 5-0 up at half time thanks to a Cockayne hat-trick (what back injury?) and a goal from Darren Thompson, adding to his tally from last week.
At half time the team talk focussed on not getting complacent and, more importantly, maintaining a clean sheet.
Given the situation in the game it would have been easy for the opposition to have fallen apart. To their credit they stepped up their performance in the second half and Valence spent much of their time defending as Maidstone created several chances. However, they could not find the goals they were looking for, thanks to some good defending, including an excellent goal line clearance from a late Maidstone short corner courtesy of Phil Morris and a number of solid saves from Goalkeeper Finlay Wishart.
Valence also created several attacking opportunities during the second half, although none as clear cut as those in the first half. They only managed to add one more through James 'Bear' Wilmott. This led to them finishing the game deserved 6-0 winners.

MOM: Tom Cavell

Goals: Cavell; Cockayne (3); Thompson; Willmott

Team: Finlay Wishart (GK), Andrew Wishart, Rob Harrison, Phil Morris, James Abrahams (C), James Wilmott, Duncan Field, Adrian Gander, Ollie Laing, Darren Thompson, Rob Cockayne, Tom Cavell
Umpire: Richard Turnill

Valence welcome Sevenoaks next Saturday, hoping to continue their winning run.

Match Report by James Abrahams