Ballsy Balham bow out of London Cup in balmy battle

Balham 5 Elite Development 6

Balham have a history of receiving tough draws in the Cups, and this season has been no exception. The boys faced the leaders of the Tandridge Premier League, who are unbeaten in 15 months, including winning a couple of Cups over that period. Many of the team were well known to our players, and overall they were a physically strong and skilful outfit. Balham put on an excellent performance throughout, consistently snapping into tackles, denying the opposition space and looking dangerous themselves in attack.

After the downpours of the last few weeks, the match was shifted to a 3G in Selhurst. A very narrow pitch, it created conditions for a ding-dong battle with both sides pushing for it and creating chances. The match could have ended up ten a piece; in addition to the goals, both sides hit the woodwork twice and both keepers made an array of saves.

The Whites started well, and it was clear early on that the opposition coach was not expecting a match of this difficulty as he vociferously criticised his players throughout the first half. The reality was that Balham were making life tough for them, with some excellent pressing from all players as instructed. It was from such a press that the first goal came: both Patrick and Chris harried and hassled opposition players, Joe picked up the ball on the edge of the box, squaring it to Jude who swept in a wonderful finish for his tenth goal of the season. Almost instantly the boys nearly doubled their lead from a Wilbur corner which evaded everyone including onrushing Balham players with the defence and keeper beaten. The team in yellow looked dangerous though and grew into it more as the half progressed. Jacob made three excellent saves, including a wonderful tip round the post down to his left and a 1 on 1 block with the dangerous striker clean through. The away side scored an equaliser with a highly disputable goal, George clearly being pushed facing the goal when in control of the situation. The attacker took advantage and scored a simple finish, despite the linesman calling the foul and every single player appealing.

It was a disappointing end to the half, but the boys were in a good position to push on in the second half. A half that no-one could see coming - nine further goals in a crazy forty minutes of Cup football.

The Yellows struck first with a freak goal nestling exactly in against the post after a hopeful punt saw the ball ballooning into the air. It was an underserved goal, but the away side struck again soon afterwards and showed their attacking prowess to punish a sloppy pass as Balham tried to play out from defence. Elite Development were starting to look dangerous every time they attacked, with a familiar Igor playing some excellent through balls and a pacy right winger showing excellent skill on the flank.

Balham struck back though from one of many lofted free-kicks from George, most of which causing consternation in their defence. Patrick followed up from a goalkeeper spill and the boys were back to 2-3. Sadly, the boys conceded another goal pretty quickly and found themselves two goals adrift again after an attack down the right.

With Balham shifting to a 4-4-2, the last 20 minutes then saw an astonishing passage of play with chances galore for both teams. Having had a strong shot saved, Matthieu bundled one in competing with the keeper after George had hit the crossbar - to be fair probably disputable although it looked like the ball might be going in anyway. As the match turned into a basketball-style affair, Jacob tipped a shot on to the bar, and Wilbur's mazy run and left-foot shot was well saved. Then came two sucker punches within the space of a couple of minutes, including a beautifully placed curling goal, for Elite to take a 6-3 lead.

To be fair to the boys, not a single one of them gave up and it was all Balham for the last ten minutes - an incredibly resilient and dogged effort from every single one of them. Bizarrely, it could have ended up going to penalties so dominant were the Whites in the last period of the match. Matthieu's chance was well saved on the line, and George hit the post from a free-kick, before Max rifled in a lethal left-footed finish for the fourth. As the boys pressed forward, they had a couple more chances including Max hitting another powerblazer just wide, and Ty being fouled on the break. It was Ty who got the boys fifth with some great strength to beat the defender and pop a left-footed shot in with three minutes to go. Agonisingly, with the last chance of the match, George's free-kick very nearly resulted in an improbable equaliser but the shot was a foot wide of the post and the chance was gone.

Balham can be so proud of the way they played today. The opposition coach was highly complimentary at the end, and they can now look forward to the League with renewed confidence after their last two performances. They have the chance to avenge their only League defeat of the season next week against Reigate and really should be looking to cement their place towards the top of the division.

In the League today, surprisingly Moor Mead hammered Woking 4-1, and Epsom & Ewell beat Croygas to extend their lead over Balham to 5 points with one more match played.