Knaphill (H)
Saturday rolled around, excitement and good vibes were felt from the moment you stepped into the scenic Imperial Fields car park. We entered the day in a great run of form, six wins out of seven is great going and the prospect of making it seven out of eight against Knaphill was certainly on my mind and left many, including myself, very excited for the game.
Before heading to Imperial fields I found myself at a pickup game of football myself, which is always a wonderfully humbling experience, watching the ball squirm all over the place after you attempt to control the ball, skying a one on one miles over the bar and turning at the speed of a truck to be outpaced by everyone around you. Perhaps I’m being slightly harsh on myself, I bagged myself a goal and two assists (a Mario esc stat line), but playing really does put a bit of perspective into the difficulty of things that players on the pitch make look so easy. Next time you think “Even I could’ve scored there!”, I’m sorry to break it to you, but you’d have ended up on your arse listening to the Bog End sing the Benny Hill theme, whilst fearing for your life as you're being stretchered off by the stewards.
I arrived at Imperial Fields with plenty of time, which is more than can be said of most of Knaphill’s squad, apparently a closed junction between South London and Woking left Knaphill with a depleted squad and only two subs on the bench. One team's misery is another’s fortune, and I was delighted knowing we'd be facing a top opposition without their full squad.
Kickoff came. I won't go into a minute by minute recap of the game, as we never got going and struggled to get any foothold in the game. You could see why Knaphill found themselves in second. An experienced, well organised team that would be a challenge to break down. Their 7 won every aerial duel, a back four of defenders who were extremely well organised and looked dangerous going forward, especially through their 18. The only goal of the game came from a corner and you could sense that a corner would be the route of a goal for Knaphill when they won their first. They were whipped in accurately and with pace, always looking a danger, and after hitting the crossbar twice from a resulting corner in the first half, it was finally bundled home and Tooting were 1-0 down.
In the second half we didn’t look much better, Knaphill knew how to work the clock and the ref, skills which those at the top of the league seem to have a great hold of. We went down to 10 men in the second half, when Gonsalves was judged to stamp on a Knaphill player. It was the other end of the pitch, so I can’t judge whether there was much in it, but at that stage of the game we entered a “They appeal and ref gives” stage.
I know it's boring to touch upon and it's not an uncommon occurrence, but the ref had a stinker. I can forgive bad offside calls, dodgy decisions and missed fouls, but when an official changes their decision purely because the opposition scream about it, it can boil the blood of the most mild on the terraces.
Alas, we lost to a good team at home, it’s happened before and it’ll happen again. Sights get turned to fixture we’ve been eyeing up for a while, Farnham away. The team who’s won every game so far this season, a streak to rival the great Undertaker, and although we’re a game or two late we need to channel our inner Brock Lesner and shock the (non-league) world.
Onto Farnham, were it seems there’ll be masses in the Black and White.
📸 Tim Marcus
