Ascot United 2nd X1 Veterans v Army Crusaders Masters Veterans

Decent performance, wrong result. That’s the key takehome from the V2s’ contest on 27 March with Army Crusaders.

Ascot United’s V2s have not been in the best of form of late. Home defeats against West Kensington Kings and Wandsworth Borough left them dangerously close to the relegation trapdoor. That trapdoor opened yet more following Friday’s loss, but, if positive narratives are your thing, then the hosts did at least put in a much better performance than they managed to churn out in those two previous defeats.

Chris Purdue was very much at the centre of that. The tall Mancunian was the pivot in a strong midfield three. They kept firm control of proceedings for much of the night. Skipper Steve Dando and combinations of Adam Abusweder and Loz Stephenson stifled much of the Crusaders’ attacking threat, and indeed helped set up some enterprising attacking play from the hosts. Mano Chahal buzzed merrily in the ten, whilst Andy Lunn was a persistent thorn in the visitors’ side up top. Fling in the enigmatic Guka Teverizde and Ascot consistently caused Army problems.

The wider issue was that Ascot were chasing the game more or less from the get go. A defensive mistake let the Crusaders’ centre-forward race through. He made no mistake in blasting home. Another defensive slip saw that lead doubled and all of this with barely 15 minutes on the clock.

The visitors bounced back; Purdue skipped impressively through the defense to bring the deficit back to one goal, but any momentum was lost when Crusaders again broke and again scored. 1-3. Again, however, Ascot responded; the Yellas won a free kick about 30 yards out and to the right of the box. The ball was quickly played to Teverizde, he twisted and turned his way into the box before scoring with quite some aplomb.  2-3 as the half-time bell rang.

The second half soon settled into a very similar pattern. Possession-wise Ascot were in a good place. The midfield troika had control of things but that equaliser just wouldn’t come. Indeed, the by now almost inevitable happened; the Crusaders’ broke, the Ascot defensive unit gamely did all they could to stop them, but, well, couldn’t. 2-4.

Did heads’ drop? They did not. Andy Lunn stepped up to do his best Jonny Metgod impression from a free kick a good 25 yards out. Sure enough, he pinged it home.

Five minutes remained, and the kitchen sink – in the form of Jon Keough going up front – was unwrapped. Ascot hurled all they had at their opponents, and indeed one final chance did fall to Keough. Alas, the header went agonisingly wide and the Crusaders could breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Moving forward the Yellas now need to win two of their last four to stay up. Poly (home) and Wandsworth (away) look like the games to focus on…..

Squad. Eryk Nawala, Lawrence Stephenson, Karl Small, Chris Purdue, Ed Dubois, Jon Keough, Matt Newall, Mano Chahal, Adam Abusweder, Steve Dando (c), Andrew Lunn, Zak Dimitrovski, Guka Teveridze, Dan Hough and Zak Dimitrovski.