WIN FORGOTTEN AS TREASURER WORRIES ABOUT TORN SHIRT

The 5s made the long trip down to Dorking, looking to keep their winning run going, having won the opening three games of the season. The outfield squad looked strong, but with both regular goalkeepers unavailable, Tom Gannon was forced to don the oversized gloves.

First to arrive at the ground were Mark Pringle and Jack Cooper, who were quick to comment
“this is nice, very nice” in the WhatsApp group about the location of the pitch. Situated at the foot of Box Hill, on what is basically a large village green, this is probably the most
picturesque of away venues in AFC Division 5 South.

Unfortunately, the locals, namely the Dorking Cricket Captain, were not as welcoming as their village green, twice getting unnecessarily agitated when we first started warming up on the pitch that we were due to play on... and then when we dared to tread within 20 yards of the square.

Aside from Gannon in goal, Borough made one change from the win the week before, with Mark Pringle returning up front in place of George Neame - and it was Pringle who made the
breakthrough just five minutes into his return. Midfielder, Mark Hinkins won the ball on the
edge of the Borough area and sprayed a long ball over to Joe Charsley on the left-wing, who
took it down beautifully and dribbled clear of his marker. Charsley hit a low cross along the
six-yard box, and with the keeper stuck on his line, Pringle bundled it in to make it 1-0.

From there, the game was fast-paced and end-to-end with tackles flying in from both sides.
The referee was pretty over-zealous on penalising Boro on a number of occasions,
presenting Dorking with several free-kicks in quick succession around the edge of the Boro
area, which was really Dorking’s only hope of scoring.

Midway through the first half, the game threatened to boil over when midfielder David
Agostini made a hard but perfectly timed tackle on his opposite number (think Eric Dier on
Sergio Ramos), only for the referee to blow for another free-kick. Borough were incensed, but managed to regain composure and had the better of the chances before half-time.

Borough came out in the second half determined to keep possession and get Dorking chasing the game, and were firmly on top for the first 15 minutes of the half, creating a couple of good chances. In truth, Dorking didn’t have a huge amount going forward, but did have a big lad in centre-midfield who won a lot in the air and had unbelievable chest control. The midfield pressed him well and managed to nullify most of his creative threat.

As the game drifted on, it seemed like Borough would be in for a very nervy finale. But with 15 minutes to go, Borough won a free kick on the right-hand side. Dorking cleared the initial cross, but the ball landed at the feet of Charsley who crossed to the back post to find Agostini unmarked. Agostini slid to meet the cross and knocked it past the keeper to put Borough two-nil up.

The goal capped a great performance for Agostini, who after spending much of pre-season hungover, has become one of Borough’s stand out performers and fully deserved his first goal of the season.

Dorking fought hard to try and pull one back, and with five minutes to go, won a contentious
free-kick on the edge of the area - the robust Number 8, going down far too easily under minimal contact from Borough’s smallest player. The same player recovered quickly to take the free-kick and drilled the ball towards the bottom corner, but Gannon was equal to it and pulled off the save of the match to tip it round the post. From the resulting corner, the Number 8 got to grips with Boro Number 8, Hinkins, ending up with an enormous tear down Hinkins’s shirt. The referee turned a blind eye to this, awarding Dorking another corner, which was cleared by Cooper.

Set-pieces had been Borough’s weak point so far this season, but despite the vast amount of free-kicks conceded around the area, and number of corners that Dorking had, particularly in the last 10 minutes, the Borough defence dealt with it all astutely.

In truth, Borough were pretty comfortable throughout, and this was summed up by Agostini
nonchalantly heading the ball back to Gannon on the edge of his own six-yard box from a
Dorking cross with a couple of minutes to go.

The game finished 2-0. Four from four so far this season with two clean sheets. Man of the
Match was a close-fought contest between Agostini and Jack Tecwyn, with Tecwyn narrowly
coming out on top.

On to the next one...