Balham complete season with battling draw

Balham 1 Reigate 1

On the hottest day of the year so far, Balham played out their final ever Sunday morning match with much rotation across the 80 minutes. The away victory at Reigate was probably the stand-out performance of the season to date, so the boys knew they would be in for a tough match. Thankfully, there was less fouling and late tackling from the opposition, although disappointingly it came to life in the last ten minutes. Balham were profligate in front of goal, and had chances to put the game to bed, but were hit by a late equaliser and lived to rue their chances.

In the first twenty minutes, the Whites were not on it at all, with a series of misplaced passes and a lack of positional rigour. The pitch was bouncy and hard, but the performance was way below expectations and the boys were lucky not to find themselves behind. Reigate had a massive chance after springing the offside trap but the striker tried to lay the ball off when he probably should have shot. Minutes later, shoddy defending led to another chance which was blazed wide. After we then gave away a silly free-kick for pushing an opposition player in the back, Jamie rang the changes for the first rotation.

Immediately there was a diference and Balham played the last twenty minutes of the half on the front foot. AJ and Damian combined well instantly but the chance was blocked at the last; Jude then had a our first chances on target but the keeper saved comfortably. A first big chance of the half came when a wicked inswinging corner by Alex was headed off the line, unlucky in itself not to creep in. Jude picked up the ball from the edge of the box and unleashed a brilliant effort which rattled against the crossbar with the keeper well beaten. The Whites continued to press forward with greater confidence and should have taken the lead after some excellent skill from Jude at the edge of the box. Having made himself a glorious chance, the ball bobbled as he went to take a left foot shot and the shot was blazed over. At the other end, from an increasing rare Reigate counter-attack, Dom put in a wonderful sliding block to prevent a breakaway.

The Whites started the second half as they finished the first, showing great stamina in the heat. George continued to regularly bring the ball out of defence setting up a number of attacks through Wilbur and Igor. One incisive move saw Wilbur's through pass picked up by Lucas on the right having dumbfounded the defender for pace. A perfect cross was met by AJ but somehow the keeper leapt across the goal to deliver a pinpoint save - one of the best stops we have witnessed all season. From the resulting corner though, Wilbur's perfect corner was met at the far post by George who thumped the ball in with an unstoppable header.

It looked like there would only be one winner but Balham could not put the ball away. Alex and Max both had chances from a corner but the ball ended up dribbling wide. After some brute strength from AJ, he then showed excellent skill to set up Jude whose shot was saved by the keeper. The two combined in reverse almost immediately but AJ could not finish. Reigate's chances were few and far between, and typically from long balls. From one of them, Jacob saved smartly at his near post from the right winger.

With about fifteen minutes to go, a Reigate flurry down the right ended up in a well taken effort into the corner of the net and they were level. A shocked Balham looked to bounce back, but there were a couple of occasions when it looked like the boys were trying to walk it into the net. In fact, Reigate came into it more at the end with one chance just over from a dangerous free-kick.

Disappointingly, the away side started to put in late tackles towards the end with both Wilbur and Igor on the wrong end of some really poor challenges. It led to an unsavoury atmosphere at the end after a hard-fought match. Reigate will not be in the same league as the Youth Team next season so the boys will not have to put up with it again - despite the coach asking for a friendly at the end. Maybe not!

So, a glorious season comes to an end with the boys undefeated at home. They have picked up 45 points, an average of 2.5 points per game, with a whopping goal difference of +49. Whilst the title was wrapped up a few weeks back, Balham can look back at the final league table with great pride. 6 points clear of Carshalton, 13 of Colliers Wood, and 18 of today's opponents.

We wish a special thank you to Chris, Dylan and Damian R who have all contributed superbly over the years and have been critical members of the squad. We wish them all the best in their future sporting careers and hope to see them watching some Balham matches soon. For the rest of the boys, they have a big step-up to look forward to as midweek Youth football starts next year.