NEW REGIME STARTS WITH A WIN

A hot, dry September Saturday in the Surrey hills, sounds picturesque…. although the reality was that the weather resulted in playing on a turned-up, rock hard, bobbly, ankle-breaking pitch not to forget a mile long walk to get to the pitch.

Despite the conditions and the pitch, Boro were ready for a cup battle with a strong squad and good number on the bench with a backline consisting of an average age of 40 years old who brought the experience but sadly experience does not bring pace. It seemed Andrews’ pace had diminished after a few too many cocktails on a Greek island this summer whilst others were hard at work for pre-season.

The first half started fairly evenly with Boro playing up-hill and against the wind on the farmers field but maintained pressure and Lee Grant put a lovely ball through to Joe Smith on the wing to cross it nicely into Billy’s feet to make it 1-0.

After that, the game began to open up a bit but was fairly scrappy which is unusual for this level of football and a Guildford player crossed in a ball which was poked in to make it 1-1. Boro now starting to wake up, picked up the ball in the centre and passed it through to Archie who wriggled away from two defenders and came one-on-one with the keeper. He shot low which the keeper got a hand to but it was not enough and the ball trickled over the line to make 2-1.

Late on in the first half Guildford's corner was swung into the near post and somehow got in between three Boro players with a dodgy call from one of the three (unknown player) saying ‘clear’ which they all stood still to watch it go in - 2-2.

HT.

Boro now downhill with the wind felt like this was their half to dominate and win the game. The second half started off well with a lot of possession coming from Boro, they were pressing as a unit and were starting to win the 50/50 loose balls, which leads to the next goal from Jamie who took advantage of a shocking ball from the keeper to make it 3-2.

The game passed (very slowly) with Boro not letting Guildford out their own half and A LOT of good through balls which were not converted but as Guildford tired in the heat Boro were applying the pressure and the corner count rose, which leads to an unmarked Andrews, who failed to hit the target from one yard out from a good corner - horrific miss. However, later on in the game Ali stepped up to show Andrews how to head a ball into the back of the net which was delivered from an ‘accurate' (finally) Lee Grant corner 4-2! Ali’s first headed goal for the club.

Boro now in complete control and Guildford's players giving up and moaning at each other, turned up the pressure another notch with sublime through balls coming from midfield, noticeably Wallace putting Grant through with a delicious ball only for Grant to smash it over the bar from a one-on-one, seems the rugby World Cup got the better of him. However, Billy decided to show him how it's done and slotted the ball in the bottom corner from another sublime ball from Wallace to make it 5-2.

Overall a very solid first game with familiar faces putting in a shift and new additions looking good in all areas of the pitch.

Joe Smith did not know how to react with not being Captain and Boro 3s actually winning a game which means we have already matched last year's win record with a long season ahead. Shout outs to Rayan and family and Joey’s mum for the support.

UTB!