With a thin squad coming together to field a team versus Old Wimbledonians, the Surb were depleted but as up for the game as they had ever been. The match-day squad comprised of J. Molloy in attack, M. Underwood making a rare appearance following a long loan stint abroad and M. Gurkkal in his second outing for Surbiton Town FC.

Old Wimbledonians kicked off proceedings on a gusty yet sunny morning in South London, and during the opening few minutes neither team was able to carve out a clear-cut chance, due in part to the congested playing surface and low-fencing that resulted in a record number of lost match balls.

The first half-chance did come as a Wimbledonians attacker moved into the Surbiton penalty area and hammered his speculative effort into A. Banks from point-blank range before deflecting out for a throw-in. The referee’s whistle drew curiosity from both sets of players who enquired the decision, much like they questioned his insistence on not having a linesman on either side.

Regardless, the result was a penalty and the Wimbledonian player calmly slotted past S. Baxter who may have left his agility at the bar the previous evening, guessing the wrong way and seeing the Surb fall 1-0 down to an early goal.

As the first half drew on it was best categorised as ‘one of those days’ for the boys in green who had the majority of possession and saw a series of outstanding saves from the Wimbledonian goalkeeper prevent them from drawing level. Close-range headers, volleys, low and hard drives, nothing Surbiton done could penetrate the 10-men that Old Wimbledonians planted behind the ball.

With Surbiton frustrations mounting, J. Crawley was briefly substituted following a late challenge on the Wimbledonian full-back before the best chance of the half, a ball that played L. Snowdon in behind the defence and virtually one-on-one with the goalkeeper, resulted in disaster. The wide-defender was caught the wrong side of Snowdon who was about to pull the trigger before being body-checked and sent hurtling to the ground – clearly off the ball. To the amazement of players and spectators alike the referee saw the ball run out of play and awarded a Wimbledonians goal kick despite what may have been the most obvious penalty decision to have gone against the Surb in their history.

To compound Surbiton frustration, L. Snowdon had to leave the field of play and be rushed to hospital – a nasty triple break to his collarbone resulted in him undergoing surgery early the following morning, ruling him out for long into the new year. We wish him a speedy recovery.

At half-time the score was somehow still 1-0 in favour of the Wimbledonians but the Surb came back out fighting, having switched to a front-three featuring R. Geer flanked by C. Banks and J. Molloy.

The game reached the hour mark and despite being camped in the Wimbledonians half, the Surb were kept at bay.

That was until K. Topson, who had moved to wing-back in place of the injured Snowdon, picked up the ball in space and rifled a shot towards the opposing net. Speculative perhaps, but Topson made the right decision as he caught the shot with considerable force and saw it swerve into the upper-most right-hand corner of the net to draw the boys level and leave the entirety of the Wimbledonians, who had been defending gallantly, in awe.

Surbiton could sense that the match was there for the taking and as the game approached it’s final 20 minutes, a rare foray forward for Old Wimbledonians resulted in a free-kick deep in the Surbiton half for a foul on K. Russell who stepped in to command the back-three. D. Shortt placed the ball on the spot and leathered a cross-field ball to C. Banks who had beaten the offside trap and coolly brought the ball down to find himself before he calmly deposited his shot past the onrushing goalkeeper.

With that, Wimbledonian heads dropped and the Surb ran away with the game, M. Gurkkal wreaked havoc by cutting in from the left flank and was rewarded with his first Surb goal, a calm finish from close range to make it 3-1.

R. Geer also continued his prolific campaign in front of goal and having worked the ball well between himself, Banks and Molloy, was able to wrap up all three points for the Surb and maintain their challenge for the title, leaving the final score 4-1.

UTS x

Matchday Squad: S. Baxter, A. Banks, D. Shortt, K. Topson, K. Sweeney, J. Crawley, K. Russell, L. Snowdon (RIP), C. Banks, R. Geer, J. Molloy, M. Gurkkal, M. Underwood.