Sutton Valence 3rd XI travelled to Holcombe knowing they would face a tough game, off the back of a heavy defeat in the reverse fixture. Sutton Valence sprung out of the blocks at the start of the match putting intense pressure onto the Holcombe defence. Uncharacteristically for Sutton Valence they opened the scoring from their first short corner, a feat that this reporter cannot remember happening for a long time. A rapid injection from Darren Thompson saw Rob Cockayne drill the strike from the top of the D into the bottom left corner so precisely that any goalkeeper would have done well to keep it out. This early lead gave Sutton Valence even more drive and it wasn't long before they doubled the early lead again through another fiercely hit Cockayne strike, this time from open play.

Holcombe didn't roll over though and through some lazy marking from the Valence defence and some well struck shots by the opposition strikers, managed to level the scores before half time.

The second half was a hotly contested affair with both sides working hard in both the defensive and offensive halves. The number of times that Valence put the ball into the Holcombe D, only to see it evade everybody and emerge on the other side, exceeded this reporters ability to count (so more than 4). Holcombe on the other hand were far more ruthless in front of goal and converted two more chances to take the game 4-2 - leaving Valence to wonder what might have been.

Teamsheet:
John Edmed
Adrian Gander
Andrew Bye
Andrew Wishart
James Abrahams
Tom Bartlett
Alastair Robinson
Lewis Mitchell
Darren Thompson
Duncan Wills
Rob Cockayne
Chris Sheldon
Charlie Tucker
Duncan Field

Goal scorers:
2 x Cockayne

MoM: Adrian Gander
DoD: Duncan Wills