London Old Boys Senior Cup Semi final

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London Old Boys Senior Cup Semi-final

Old Suttonians 0 Old Meadonians 2

This match, in fact a rematch of last season’s London Old Boys’ final won by Old Meadonians, was also notable in that Meads set an example followed by Manchester United the following day as, two up in thirty minutes, they took their foot off the accelerator to allow hosts, Old Suttonians, an invitation back into the game. However, Meads avoided the disastrous consequences suffered by United in F.A. Cup clash with Chelsea on Sunday, simply because their opponents, on Saturday, even though presented with the ball regularly in the second half, hadn’t the skills necessary to break down Meads’ defence.

If the truth were known, Sutts would have been beyond recall, dead and buried long before half-time if their keeper Chris Parlett had not been on superlative form in keeping out Craig Jones’ second minute header and at least three further first half goal-bound efforts, including one each from Will Gerrish and Ed Glover, generated by the visitors’ permanent occupation of home territory. Meads’ first came on twenty-five minutes when Parlett was sold short by a legless back pass and Jones nipped in to take advantage.

Ten more minutes of unflagging pressure saw Andy Thompson beat the defence to Jordan Mace’s in-swinging free-kick to flick a header into the far corner for Meads’ second and put clear water between them and pursuit. Despite being at the bottom of a hefty slope Meads started the second half as if intending to remedy their lack of first half goals by going straight on the attack and were unlucky not to double their score within ten minutes of the restart through Jones and Glover but then settled back as if they could coast the rest of the game.

The sum of Meads’ keeper Garry Robinson’s first half work load, apart from tidying up behind the defence, had been to stretch out to his left and catch a stinging twenty yarder down by the post but even now he just had to add cutting out the odd high corner which he did with aplomb, quickly distributing the ball to good effect. With just over half an hour to go, a lack of off the ball support having been diagnosed, the fresh legs of Misha Mantel and Dave Brennan came on to bolster the mid-field, with veteran Kevin Quinn joining them for the last fifteen to see out time. Andy Thompson was named MoM. Meads are now safely in two finals and rejoin their league campaign with a visit to league leaders H.A.C. in what will a testing ‘end game’ period for their scanty squad.

Squad; Robinson, Pointer, Thompson, McCombe, Bright, Mace, Gerrish, Costello, Chapman, Glover, C. Jones, Mantel, Brennan, Quinn.

 

 

March 13, 2013