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No pitch inspection is planned but a double socker is forecast as we welcome new friends St Albans to The Grove this afternoon. Until recently, the former-National-League-South opposition arrive having lost their last two games and just one point below us.
Kick off at 3pm. See you there!
Three wins on the bounce for Leatherhead, although Chatham certainly made us work for this one as we somehow escaped with all three points after spending much of the second half defending as if our lives depended on it.
The first half could easily have finished with a hatful of goals to each side. Both sides created more than enough chances, only to discover that the two goalkeepers had apparently agreed amongst themselves to spoil everyone’s fun.
Fortunately, Nathan hadn't received the memo. He put himself in the right place at the right time to force home the goal and give Leatherhead a 1-0 lead. At the other end, Sonny produced a string of excellent saves to ensure we somehow reached half-time still in front.
The second half then developed a fairly straightforward tactical pattern: Chatham attacked and Leatherhead tried desperately not to let them score and to be fair, we turned out to be quite good at it.
Chatham threw everything at us, but shots were blocked, tackles were made and Leatherhead players hurled themselves in front of the ball whenever required. And if Chatham did get through, Sonny was there to stop them.
By the closing stages, sophisticated tactical analysis had largely been abandoned in favour of simply wanting the referee to blow his whistle. Eventually he did and it ended 1-0.
Three points, three wins in a row, up to eighth and an excellent team performance in thoroughly miserable conditions.
Onto Saturday then, when we welcome St Albans to The Grove…
After a weekend off, where Mark Waters looked to be Man of The Match while playing 5-a-side, we make the midweek trip to Chatham in the league.
Our hosts have sit above us in the league table with one more point, but below us in the form guide with one less.
Kick off at 7.45. Directions can be found here. Good luck fellas!
Whilst the New Ground Klaxon sounded for me, this was not our first trip to Brentwood, having lost 4-1 there back in 2015. Having won at the weekend, we went there hoping for a lot better.
It certainly started out like this was going to be straightforward. We were playing with confidence and put the hosts under sustained pressure. The breakthrough came after just 17 minutes when a loose ball fell to Anas, who fired in a powerful shot that the ’keeper could only palm into the net. 1-0.
By now, though, the referee was beginning to agitate even the most placid of supporters, as his arm seemed to point only one way and the hosts appeared to get every decision. This was perfectly demonstrated when the assistant awarded us a throw-in, only for the ref, who was further away, to award it the other way.
We lost our minds in the second half when Hogan looked to have come away with the ball after challenging a defender, only to be pulled to the ground just outside the box. The shirt pull was obvious, yet the ref saw nothing wrong with it.
Our second goal therefore came as something of a relief when we won a corner that Mark Waters headed into the net. Unlucky, ref. 2-0.
As the second half wore on, it was becoming increasingly likely that Brentwood would score. The pitch, which had already looked big at the start of the game, was beginning to resemble a polo pitch. They had already had one ruled out for offside, much to the ref’s disappointment, and kept pressing for more. They finally got one in the 92nd minute. 2-1. Still plenty of time for us to muck it up.
The Lip’s Marcel Barrington had been brought on to give us a real outlet, and it looked like it had worked a treat when he muscled a defender off the ball and found himself one-on-one with the ’keeper. He opted for a cheeky lob but underhit it and the ball was easily saved.
He redeemed himself a minute later, letting fly with a powerful shot that the ’keeper could only parry away for a corner. The taking of which ate up enough time for the ref to finally give up on his project.
Back-to-back wins and a Saturday off, but before the buzzing players start thinking about trips to Ibiza or Mykonos, the manager may have other ideas about how to prepare for a difficult trip to Chatham Town on Tuesday…
With a win very much needed, Saturday became our Stanway to Heaven, as we took all three points, scoring seven goals in the process.
We got off to a flying start when Date beat the defender to a low cross and deftly flicked the ball into the far top corner. 1-0.
It didn’t take long for Leatherhead to go Leatherheady, though, giving Stanway far too much space on the right to pick out a player in front of goal and fire on target. 29 minutes in and it was 1-1.
Then came a ten-minute spell that put the game out of reach. First, Waters thundered in a header. 2-1. Soon after, Stanway gave us a helping hand by attempting to play it out from the back, but their No. 4 had his pocket picked and Date was on hand to tap in from the resulting cross. 3-1.
Then Anas was brought down in the box and Date picked up the ball to take the penalty. A supporter offered the advice of “follow it up, Leatherhead”, which was hardly a vote of confidence. If that penalty had been taken against Eastbourne it would have been saved, but this time the ’keeper went the wrong way. 4-1.
Stanway didn’t give up and a speculative shot went in when, from where we were standing, it looked like saving it might have been the easier option. 4-2.
Second half, and it all went Leatherhead’s way. On 56 minutes, Connor Harris hit the ball into the ground, taking the pace off it, but the ’keeper was unsighted and couldn’t react in time. In it went. 5-2.
Ten minutes later, Murphy went on a mazy run and slotted the ball away to make it 6-2.
With Leatherhead on the ropes, they needed another goal to make the game safe, so naturally we turned to The Lip’s Marcel Barrington. On 76 minutes, a cross was lofted into the box and Marcel flew in like a torpedo wearing a green pinstripe jersey, heading it past the ’keeper. 7-2, and the three points were ours.
The games come thick and fast now, with another chance to move up the league on Tuesday when we make the trip to Brentwood Town…
Leatherhead’s away record has taken a bit of a beating over the last seven days, falling from unbeaten, to “unbeaten in the league”, to just beaten, as we lose on the road at Welling.
Our downfall was created early in the first half, where we looked thoroughly on the back foot. Welling United had their tails up and we were hanging on for dear life. A headed goal inside ten minutes looked like it might be the first of many, but we saw out the first half just 1-0 down.
Half-time was enjoyed by taking in the sights of the stadium. If you ignore the dangerous wall behind one goal and the trip hazards involved in walking down a darkened alleyway behind one of the stands, it had an authentic charm that is often lost with more modern constructions. A worthy sounding of the New Ground Klaxon.
Onto the game, and Leatherhead came out a different animal. I wouldn’t say we were battering them, but it felt more 60:40 in terms of momentum, as opposed to the 20:80 we had suffered in the first half.
We were getting increasingly frustrated by the referee, though. He had already blown his whistle for a foul when, had he played advantage, Kofi would have been through on goal. Welling then went on to give away a string of fouls in the final third. I hadn’t seen so many fouls on the edge of a box without a card being shown. The ref spoke to a player, then warned him that was his last warning, then spoke to the captain to say that was his last warning... and, just to infuriate us even more, the first tackle Cam gets wrong, the ref dives into his pocket.
Leatherhead’s unbeaten record could have been saved in the final five minutes when The Lip’s Marcel Barrington had a shot blocked by a defender. Then a ball from a set piece (another foul, ref!) fell to Anas at the far post, forcing a fine save from the Welling ’keeper. From the resulting corner, Sonny came up and got on the end of the cross, only to send it over the bar. The ref then blew for full-time.
A worrying slump in league form, but we get the chance to put that right on Saturday with the visit of Stanway Rovers...