Depressing deja-vu against Reigate

Reigate 3 Balham 1

There are some perplexing little mysteries in life, one of them being why Balham consistently lose to Reigate. Even a less biased observer than this one would say that the boys are a better footballing side and should be beating sides of this quality. Nonetheless, the opposition ran out winners again, and to be fair created a niggly game which suited them, and broke up most of Balham attacks well. There were too many late and inappropriate tackles but a lenient referee let them get away with it, and the home side's direct style of football won out again.

In the first half, the Whites were the superior side but yet again had to come from a goal down to draw level. George created a corner in the first 30 seconds from a lovely sweeping ball to Ethan, and then was a foot away from registering an opener from the inswinging cross. Wilbur and Ethan combined on several occasions down the right and it looked like the lovely 3G pitch would suit the boys. The home side grew into it though, but it was from a mistake that they scored their opener. Jacob mishit a Patrick back pass directly to the centre forward who scored a simple finish.

The boys continued to pass the ball around well, with Patrick showing lovely composure on the ball on numerous occasions, and Sammi battling hard in midfield. The Whites' passing was lovely to see and it was frustrating to see a barrage of fouls preventing attacks. Balham should have drawn level pretty soon after the unfortunate opener, with an unmarked George heading over from a corner. It really was starting to feel like a carbon copy of the reverse fixture with Balham having most of the attacks. Ethan continually caused the left-back problems and forced the keeper into a decent save when perhaps he might have squared the ball across the area. Both Wilbur and Ethan came close in the same attack with some excellent smothering saves from the keeper. Max, who had scored with a header against the same opponents a few weeks ago, missed a headed chance but it was the centre-forward who equalised two minutes before the break. A poor clearance from their keeper was picked up Wilbur who calmly volleyed the ball through to him to score in his sixth consecutive match.

As Balham came in for half-time, they felt confident about pushing on in the second-half, and they should have taken the led in the first attack. A fine shot from Matthieu was saved, but Semi hit the post with the rebound. The Whites were pushing for the goal, with Max and Semi combining well again.

It was a false dawn though and the Whites could not keep up the pace for the rest of the match. The home side continued to put their foot in to break up attacks, but Balham can only blame themselves for repeatedly taking too many touches on the ball, turning into danger regularly and not delivering their crisp passing game. Reigate had not looked particularly dangerous but were literally handed a lifeline after Chris unfortunately blocked the ball with an outstretched arm. The penalty was converted and Balham found themselves behind again.

Whilst the boys continued their efforts to the end, they could not really fathom many chances despite having the bulk of the possession. Pressing forward, the Whites left themselves very exposed at the back, with Jacob pulling off an excellent 1 on 1 save with 15 minutes to go. The home side organised themselves well though, and on the rare occasion they were stretched, they managed to stop the attacks. With one poor tackle on Patrick resulting in a sin-bin for their rapid right winger (the wrong decision, as a sin-bin can only be given for dissent - he should have been shown a card), it looked like their attacking threat may be diminished. Sadly that proved wrong as they scored a third in the dying minutes with the bulk of the Balham players attacking and out of position.