Walton Strollers v Ascot United Supervets

Report

21 October 2023

Walton Strollers 1-0 Ascot United Supervets

A solitary first half goal was enough to give Walton Strollers the victory in an entertaining contest with the Ascot United Supervets. Mike Tomlinson’s side had more of the possession and certainly more of the chances, but try as they might they just couldn’t find a way past an outstanding home goalkeeper. Or the bar. Or the post. Or the last ditch tackles….

Sometimes it just isn’t meant to be. The Ascot United Supervets battered the proverbial door down at Molesey FC on 21 October but they just couldn’t score. They hit the bar four times in the second half, whilst Chris Watney, Stu Birkett, Stu Flurry and Paul Hamblin also saw good chancessomehow not quite find their way into the back of the net.

For their part, Walton Strollers defended well and periodically looked dangerous on the break. Indeed, stand-in keeper Adam Abusweder made two excellent saves at the end to prevent the hosts extending their lead. 1-0 it subsequently ended.

For the visitors, Steve Hill and Dave Freer were the standoutperformers in a solid first half. Hill put his foot in impressively, Freer made great use of the wet conditions to indulge in some of his trademark slide tackles. Further up, Mike Tomlinson, Andy Gleave and Stu Birkett enjoyed plenty of the ball in the middle, whilst Mike Hynes sprayed the ball around nicely on the right.

It was nonetheless from the left that Ascot caused most problems, Chris Watney enjoying plenty of the ball. He pinged in crosses galore, but somehow Paul Hamblin just couldn’t scramble any of them home. That feeling of “it’s just not happening” was already looming large.

Gaffer Tomlinson shuffled his pack at half time, but that didn’t cause much of a change in the narrative. Ben Spence linked play up nicely on the right, Stu Flurry quarterbacked in the middle, Jad Sidhu looked solid at left back whilst Islam came on on left to press high. Again, the chances came, and again none went into the back of the onion bag. Frustrating.

In the end, with Ascot hurling the kitchen sink at the Strollers, the game inevitably became a bit stretched. Doug Page came on and linked up play well in the middle but, to be fair to the hosts, the Strollers very nearly too advantage of Ascot hurling everything forward to extend their lead. They twice broke impressively, firing two excellent shots in that Adam Abusweder did well to fingertip round the posts.

Everyone plays to win, but the Supervets still weren’t too despondent at the outcome. Ascot had played some decent football and had had some decent shepherd’s pie after the game. What’s not to like…

Team: Adam Abusweder, Steve Hill, Dan Hough, Chris Ferdinand, Dave Freer, Mike Tomlinson, Andy Gleave (c), Stuart Birkett, Mike Hynes, Paul Hamblin, Chris Watney.

Subs: Ben Spence, Islam, Stu Flurry, Doug Page, John Heard