Ottershaw                                                             4

Keens Park Rangers                                             2

 Goals: Woodsy, OG

Man-of-the-Match: Chris Buttler

On a day too warm, on a pitch that should have been too nice, Keens Park faced the team that they awarded 6 points to last year. This was the only two wins that Ottershaw achieved in the league last year.

The pitch was a new and 3G, typically the perfect surface for football. Unfortunately, it appeared 20 tons of rubber granules had been dumped on the pitch making the pitch at times bobbly and certainly slower than you would expect on a 3G surface. Nonetheless both teams were going to have to play on it.

It was clear that this wasn’t the same team faced last year but the golds got off to a good start. Moving the ball around and keeping patient were the demands of  the manager, Gary Mitchell, and it appeared as though the starting eleven had actually listened. Creating early chances there were two one-on-ones missed by Woodsy, one of which the keeper left a gap wider than one in young Bruce’s teeth. Notably Billy and Liam also missed a good chance each in the first half.

Young Bruce

Our first goal came from slightly fortunate circumstances, a corner bending away was cleared to the edge of the area where Dan Way struck the ball “fiercely” toward goal taking a heavy deflection and ending up in the bottom left corner.

The first Ottershaw goal came from a poor freekick from near the halfway line that was flicked up in the air by off the head of number 9 and ended up dipping over Mullins desperate hand. This began the first murmurs of a new nickname for the Keens Park keeper.

The golds went back into the lead after a tackle was made by Chris Butler leaving the ball conveniently at Liams feet who whipped a ball into a gap to Woodsy’s feet. Taking no time to think about it the assistant manager pulled out a “Woodsy Chop” from his right and onto his left and rather than slide Seamus in decided to curl the ball over the keepers head.

The end of the half came and the golds were on top, things were about to take a bit of a dive.

Ottershaw decided to up the ante and were on top for the most part. Their second goal came from a good ball into the box between centre backs where the smallest man on the pitch  had a simple task or nodding it home.

Throughout the game the Ottershaw sideline were talking more nonsense than Chinga at 2am on a Sunday morning. Finally one of the opposition “geezers” took things too far and was rightfully instructed by the referee to take a hike. The final nail in his coffin coming from his pathetic moans over which team should have a throw-in on the halfway line.

Keens Park had stopped playing football, the ball wasn’t coming to feet and every misplaced pass and every 50/50 was ending up at opposition feet. Eventually the pressure told as the third went in. Mr Lobby will be seeing this every time he closes his eyes for the foreseeable future.  A horrible looping volley, travelling at the speed of Mick climbing stairs, bounced in front of the advancing Mr Lobby and over his head into the back of the net.

Even after the change to bring on Tommy Newell for a weary Liam came to no avail, it simply wasn’t happening. To finish it all off, the fourth goal came from a terrible cross that gently drifted through the air and inside the near post.

It is safe to say Keens Park did not give up and should the performance of the first 45 minutes begin to develop into a whole 90 minutes we should have a very interesting season indeed.

Notable performances came from Chris Butler and Chinga.

Keens Parks Rangers is a Guildford based football club and we are always looking for new players and sponsorship opportunities. Get in touch with us through our website or our social channels.

This match report is sponsored by Broadstreet Cars