After the Lord Mayor's Show

Balham 3 Walton & Hersham 0

It seems strange to title this week's report 'After the Lord Mayor's Show', but the Whites were really flat today after the adrenalin of last week. With a few injuries, there were not as many options as usual, and a very hard pitch made for tough conditions on a sunny, breezy day. Nonetheless, another victory saw the Whites stretch their unbeaten run to eight, with four clean sheets on the trot.

In the first ten minutes, both teams struggled to get to grips with the bounce of the pitch, leading to a flurry of misplaced passes and a disjointed game. After ten minutes, Balham showed a passing game could still be played, with a lovely move through midfield ending up being blazed over by Max. If it were not for a wonderful block from the Walton defence, Jude would have opened the scoring a couple of minutes later. The away side were spending a decent amount of time in our half, but never really threatened Jacob's goal. At the mid-point of the half, Balham took the lead from a corner. Alex's initial cross came back to him which he lofted to the far post. George unselfishly headed the ball back across the box for a simple AJ tap in.

Shortly afterwards, the boys had a golden chance to extend their lead. George played a delightful long ball down the left flank which AJ did superbly to chase down. Making the most of the chance, he placed a ball directly across the goalmouth which Damian could not quite finish. Joa came on as striker for the last ten minutes of the half and made some good touches. At the other end, George's alertness prevented the away side's first shot at our goal. The same player scored a slightly fortuitous second goal when the stand-in goalkeeper let a lofted free-kick straight through his hands. There was almost an identical replica on the stroke of half-time, when a free-kick looked like it may have gone in. It was unclear whether the ball had gone in, although the away linesman insisted it had. Given the referee had played too long in the half, thinking it was a full 45 minutes, everyone agreed that it should not count, and Balham went into the break 2-0 up.

The second half had an end of season feel to it, with the away side finally having more chances to score. The boys remained resolute though and prevented them from doing so. Junior fired over from a cross-shot, but a third came just afterwards, again in slightly bizarre circumstances. Jude's rifling shot was exquisite, but it arrived at his feet from a deflected defensive clearance which hit one of the players directly in the face.

In the last ten minutes, with the match well won, Charlie was so close to scoring his Balham opener with an excellent floated free-kick which the keeper saved brilliantly from his top left-hand post. Jacob nearly scored with his first outfield touch after a brilliant cross from AJ, but he could not wrap his left foot around the ball. The match came to an end shortly afterwards, with Balham's undefeated home record intact. One of their players said something to the referee at the end, for which he said he would be giving him a red card - an unexpected end to a match that was played in a sportsmanlike way throughout.