Surbiton (H)

Score: 1-0 (W)
Goals: James Laszlo
Man of the Match: Fin Dawg
Dick of the Day: Larry

After a good set of pre-season results and a warm welcome to some new and old (but youthful) faces - Pavitar Hanspal, Sam Betts, James Laszlo, Matt Wells and Nathan Hunt, the men’s 1s were ready to go and get the league campaign up and running against Surbiton 2s. Surbiton moved across from the London league following the restructure of the leagues and we were keen to show them just how tough this league is. In order to match the youth of the Surbiton squad, we successfully fielded the youngest Staines men’s 1s team in years with the exception of a few old (but gold) faces still showing their quality and showing everyone that form may be temporary but class is permanent.

The game got underway with Staines dominating the possession and creating some great chances. Surbiton had their fair share of chances but the back line stood firm and Fin pulled off some acrobatic saves throughout to keep us in the game. The deadlock was broken just shy of 15 mins when we won a short corner which was flicked from the top on target by Alex and stopped on the line by a Surbiton foot, leading to a p-flick. The infamous James Laszlo stepped up to take responsibility, on his return from to his home club, and slotted the ball past the keeper into the back of the net. 1-0 Staines.

From then on we absorbed a lot of the pressure that Surbiton created and dealt with it very well, not allowing them to create many clear cut chances. We also had a fair few chances of our own to seal the game off but the Surbiton keeper pulled off some good saves, which meant that game ended with a 1-0 win for the boys in blue. Great start to the new league season, and 3 points on the board for the mighty #legionbleu.

Onwards and upwards to next weekend where we are faced with a long trip down south to newly promoted Bournemouth.