Balham bow out to holders

Balham 1 FC Battersea 5

On a bitingly cold day, Balham were served a harsh lesson by last season's London Cup winners, FC Battersea. Much like the FA Cup this weekend, the game kicked off at an unusual time of 3.15 due to a switch to Aspire's 3G. With home advantage gone, sadly there was to be no Cup shock, much like most of Round 3 of the FA Cup this year.

The boys will kick themselves for a poor first-half, with two own goals, and a lack of composure when we had the ball. Battersea looked dangerous up front, playing several diagonal passes to the right wing; and an exceptionally fit front three pressurised our defence consistently. When a superb strike from a corner made it 3-0, albeit a ball that should not have travelled across our penalty area as it did.

The second half saw an improvement but Battersea showed how mistakes can be punished at this level. A poor pass out of defence gifted the dangerous striker a fourth, nearly replicated a couple of minutes later. Balham were having much more posession though and were battling much harder for the 50/50 balls. Despite this, the side in orange looked dangerous every time they attacked and again punished us with a swift break after a crunching tackle in midfield.

The boys kept their heads up and pushed for a goal. George played a lovely ball through to AJ whose cross was met by Junior. A slight deflection took the ball in the net. The Whites nearly scored a second after a great move saw AJ through, but the keeper somehow managed to smother it. In the end, the boys were well beaten by a better side, but showed some good heart as the match went on.

A tough start to 2025 continues next week with an away match to league leaders Carshalton, who surprisingly beat Colliers Wood 6-0 today. They now sit four points above Balham but have played three more matches, so a great opportunity for us to put a marker down for the second half of the season.