Carshalton Athletic 4 v Whyteleafe FC 3 - Bostik Isthmian League (South)

Saturday 14th April 2018
Bostik Isthmian League (South)
at the War Memorial Sports Ground, Colston Avenue
Carshalton Athletic (0) 4
Tommy Bradford 48, 90+3
Ola Sogbanmu 71, 33
Whyteleafe FC (1) 3
John Scarborough 23, 61, Bola Nkori-Venceslas 63
Admission £10
Programme - available ex-gratis, as a smartphone download, via the club's own free wi-fi service
Attendance 588
Point and hope THE66POW photo gallery link: Part 1
Point and hope THE66POW photo gallery link: Part 2

We caught the silly o'clock first train to London from Retford, which was also being used by the infamous Worksop branch of the Canvey Island Supporters Club,whose excellent company we also had the pleasure of on the way home too.
My granddaughter had been wanting to do the 'tourist bit' around the capital city and my meticulous planning, which was almost scuppered when our open topped tour bus overheated and broke down, meant that while the rest of my family alighted at the Natural History Museum to

spend the afternoon looking at old stuff, I was catching the Thameslink rail service from St. Pancras, that takes around forty minutes to reach Carshalton station, where you turn right out of the station, go right at the bottom of the hill, walk eighty yard and turn left at the mini roundabout into Colston Avenue until you reach the sign depicted below, whence the football ground is at the the bottom of a lane which is bordered by allotments.

The home side went into today's game, knowing that a win this afternoon would guarantee promotion and also put them into a strong position to become outright Champions, if the results of their remaining games better those of Lewes, who are two points ahead of the Robins, but have played a game more. Obviously, actual points are always preferable to games in hand, but having stretched their unbeaten run to eighteen games by virtue of this result, during which time Peter Adeneyi's side have collected twenty eight of the last thirty points available, you wouldn't bet against Carshalton bridging the gap and knocking Lewes off their perch.

Especially if they continue to show the same level of fortitude and fighting spirit, that saw them overturn a 1-3 deficit, with three quality finishes in the last quarter of this epic encounter.
When these two sides last met in November, the game had finished 1-1, so a close game was anticipated this afternoon too. And to that end, credit where it is due, because Whyteleafe gave the champions elect a really good test of their credentials today.

Of course, 'Leafe' were also looking for a win themselves, as they are still have an outside chance (albeit and extremely long odds outside chance) of being in the mix to compete for a place in the end of season play offs. But that would, by now, probably only be by way of a consequence of a complex mathematical equation, that would take even the combined mental dexterity and numbers prowess of both Rachel Riley and Susie Dent all night to work out, as the final countdown looms over the horizon.

In the build up to the game, the Robins Manager Peter Adeniyi had made a public 'call-to-arms' via the clubs impressive array of media sources, appealing for fans to turn up in large numbers to back his side in this massively important fixture, saying: "I'm hoping to see over 500 at Colston Avenue on Saturday, the boys are giving their all to get us over the line and the fans support means so much to them.
"We approach the game with confidence, but we haven't won anything yet, so we can take nothing for granted. Whyteleafe are a very good side and we will have to deliver a top performance to get the three points we need.

"Please come along on Saturday, bring your family and your friends, lets get over the 500 mark at Colston Avenue."
Well, the football supporting public in the locality certainly took heed as 588 of them turned up on this pleasantly sunny afternoon, to top this season's previous best attendance of 424 who had turned out on Boxing Day for visit of Corinthian Casuals.
And judging by the stampede of young children around the ground all afternoon, those present had certainly taken heed of Mr Adeniyi's words and made a family day out of it.

Carshalton Athletic officially cite their year of formation as being 1905, when they were still called Mill Lane Mission.
It was initially two years earlier that the Mill Lane Mission was originally founded, but in those early days it served as a place of recreation for young teenage boys... and the senior side came into being during the Summer of 1905, when they formally registered with the Surrey FA.
After only playing friendly matches during the first twelve months of their existence, Mill Lane Mission then moved into the Croydon & District League.

Meanwhile talks were being held with another local club, namely Carshalton St. Andrews that eventually led to the two of them amalgamating at the end of the 1907-08 season. Though in preparation for the merger, Mill Lane Mission implemented a name change, and became Carshalton Athletic in 1907.
The Robins nickname, that is still in use to this day, was adopted from Carshalton St. Andrews, as were their club colours of red and white. Although there are a few black and white archive photos on t'interweb, of St Andrew's church, after making a few enquiries locally and searching online, I discovered that it had been demolished in 1964.

Carshalton St Andrews themselves were formed in 1897, by the Reverend. C.W. Cleaver, who was the vicar of St Andrews, and began life in the Surrey County Herald League, until 1902 when they gained promotion to the Southern Suburban League Division 2 West. After agreeing to fold and amalgamate with Mill Lane Mission, under the new name of Carshalton Athletic still honoured their commitments to the Southern Suburban League until the end of the 1907–08 season. Which was jolly decent of them.

Meanwhile, the first ever game Mill Lane Mission played after becoming Carshalton Athletic, took place on 7 September 1907 at their then home of Wrythe Green Recreation Ground against Westbrook, of Thornton Heath.
Carshalton Athletic's present home, the War Memorial Ground, has been used by the club since 1921, after pitches at Carshalton Recreation Ground, 1907-14 and Culvers Park, 1919-20, were used during the interim years. The current ground has had floodlights since December 1967, when Crystal Palace visited the Robins to mark their official opening and first use.

Today's visitors: Whyteleafe FC have existed since 1946, when they were formed to replace another club called Whyteleafe Albion, who had plied their trade prior to World War II. In their formative years, Whyteleafe competed in local junior leagues, such as the Thornton Heath & District League, until they started competing in senior football in 1958 and entered the Surrey Senior League that year, along with moving into the Church Road ground, which is still their current home.
But I will do a bit more research into the history of Whyteleafe FC, when I actually visit their ground for a game, which will most likely be during the next couple of seasons some time.

Upon arriving at the turnstile, I was informed that Carshalton didn't issue printed copies of their programmes any more, but if I logged onto the free 'stadium-wifi' on my phone and went to the club's menu, that I could download a PDF copy of today's match programme instead.

I have seen people on the ground-hopping circuit who would be having a nervous breakdown at this point, upon hearing their was no actual paper issues available, but it makes perfect sense to me to do things this way... and besides, you can print one off yourself if you want to add it to your collection. 

By going down the PDF route, clubs incur no printing costs, there are no piles of unsold programmes, there is the opportunity to update information right up until the last minute, instead of presenting out of date league tables, inaccurate line ups and the like, or having to resort to the tried and tested editorial get out of: "I am writing these notes before our midweek fixture at Herne Bay, because of printing deadlines" type spiel, and no getting your programme creased or ruined by a downpour either. 

It's a vision the future for non-league football publishing, I'm telling ya. 

And I guess it also helps those hardworking salesman who are peddling wi-fi enabled smartphones, who are on a commission.

But if you are one of those 'no paper - no party' individuals, who would have run back to the station and hopped on the train to Mitcham, in the hope that Dulwich Hamlet hadn't sold out of programmes for their home game against Thurrock today, upon hearing that there was no such thing as a Carshalton Athletic match day magazine, with real staples and adverts n' stuff; the Robins do actually issue team sheets that you can acquire, for 'nowt, by knocking on the door of the vice president's lounge and asking politely. But don't tell them that I sent you! 

Of course, I'm personally not one of these 'paper-chasing' types that you hear about, but I had one anyway, if only to help me compile my notes for this blog match report.

The other thing that I was told at the turnstile, was that the kick off was being delayed, "currently by around forty five minutes", because of the late arrival of the referee, Damith Bandara, whose flight into London from Albania had been delayed. Blimey! I hope that the host club didn't get clobbered with his travelling expenses.

Originally I had thought the 'excuse' was a joke and retorted: "Couldn't they get anyone from Surrey to do it then!?", but it transpired that Mr Bandara genuinely had been out of the country... and when he eventually turned up (the game kicked off at 3.52PM), it had been worth the wait, because he had a flawless game and proved to be, from my position of complete neutrality, a most excellent match official.

I texted my other half to inform her that I would be running late, to which she replied: "No worries, we'll head to Oxford Street, we've got that new limit on the card" 

Bloody hell referee!

Carshalton Athletic and Whyteleafe FC both play on 3G pitches and in Peter Adeniyi (the Robins) and John Scarborough ('Leafe), they both have player managers too. You can thank me later, when that comes up during the next episode of 'A Question of Sport'.

Match report:
It became apparent quite early on, after the home side had started on the front foot, that Whyteleafe hadn't merely travelled to Colston Avenue to make the numbers up, as they showed every intention of snaffling the limelight away from the Robins, while gatecrashing their big party and promotion extravaganza knees up.

Bobby Price's right wing delivery skimmed off of Adeniyi's head in front of the visitors goal... if that had gone in there would've been another: fascinating titbit of the day to share with you, as in as much as both managers would've ended upon the score-sheet today.
After soaking up a spell of pressure, during which time Olu Sogbanmu put a shot fractionally wide of the right hand upright, Whyteleafe began to grow into the game and were almost ahead, when Joey Taylor's cross to Bola Nkori-Venceslas opened up the Robins defence, but it was a too far ahead of the 'Leafe number 9 for him to divert it into the goal.

Shiekh Ceesay saved well from Omar Koroma, but Whyteleafe attacked again, with Sam Clayton surging forward down the right hand side of the pitch, before delivering a hanging cross to the far side of the area, that Scarborough stooped to conquer and headed downwards, sending the ball bouncing past Billy Bishop to open the scoring.

1-0 to Whyteleafe

Tommy Bradford played the ball wide to Adeniyi on the left before continuing his run into the visitors area and as the Robins gaffer crossed the ball towards Koroma and Bradford, Scarborough tripped the latter and conceded a penalty.
Koroma planted the ball to the keepers left that Ceesay got down and pushed away at full stretch, but only as far as Christie Pattison, who smashed an angled shot towards the post, that Koroma helped on it's way into the corner of the net... but he was denied by a raised linesman's flag.

Ceesay, obscured by Scarborough, saves a penalty from Koroma

Koroma was playing like a man possessed and having left his marker standing he crashed the ball against the foot of the post, before testing Ceesay again moments later, but the visitors keeper made another good save to his right.
Whyteleafe were just about managing not to buckle under the strain of numerous Carshalton attacks, but  just before the break, they foiled another forward move by the Robins before countering at speed, and Sam Clayton went very close to doubling his side's lead with a great chance that was blocked near the right hand upright.
HT: Robins 0 v 'Leafe 1

During the interval, excitement spread among the home crowd, when news came through that promotion rivals Corinthian Casuals had thrown away a two goal lead and were now drawing 2-2 at Ramsgate... and if that score stayed the same (and ten minutes after the restart it was confirmed as a full time result) then Carshalton would be promoted and heading to the Bostik Isthmian Premier Division, with a one way, non-stop ticket.
Straight from the restart, Koroma won a corner off Brad Simms and though Ceesay punched the ball away from Jordan Cheadle's flag kick, Kalvin Morath-Gibbs retrieved the ball on the edge of the box and shot on the turn into the side netting.

Amidst an ever increasing atmosphere of joyous excitement, inspired by a favourable result in Ramsgate, during a frantic exchange on the edge of the visitors area, Sogbanmu nudged a sideways pass to Bradford who was lurking with intent to his left and he belted it past Ceesay to level up the score.
Koroma and Bradford both went close and then Ceesay made two excellent blocks from Bradford in quick succession as Carshalton threatened to run riot, with Pattison thumping the ball against the post after a shot from Adeniyi was deflected into his path.
The home fans were in very high spirits now as they chanted: "We are going up!"

But, amidst all of the celebrations, Whyteleafe unhatched a cunning sub-plot of their own just after the hour mark, when they forced the issue and scored, not just once, but twice, in the space of two minutes.
Nkori-Venceslas (looked out, on the feast of Stephen), slipped a through ball into the path of Tom Pearson, whose half volley was turned away by Bishop at the expense of a right wing corner, that Clayton took and picked out Scarborough, who netted his second of the game, with another diving header. And before Carshalton could regain any impetus, the visitors broke forward quickly again, with Nkori-Venceslas leaving Morath-Gibbs in his wake before drilling the ball past Bishop to give Whyteleafe a two goal cushion.

Carshalton dusted themselves down, and collectively decided that they wanted to go up  as champions instead of runners up and set about giving their resilient opponents a demonstration into how to make two comebacks in one game, while showing why they were title contenders.
A non-stop bombardment of the visitors goal area ensued and it was going to be no place for the squeamish or faint hearted for the remainder of the game, as a string of chances went begging.

The first of Ola Sogbanmu's two headed goals

Cheadle picked out Sogbanmu with a corner kick and he directed a powerful header across the face of Ceesay's goal and into the far corner. And within two  minutes, the Robins were level, as Adeniyi took the ball towards the dead ball line on the left, before pulling it back to Rian O'Sullivan, whose first time delivery also found Sogbanmu, who repeated a symmetrical version of his header from the opposite flank to level things up.

Whyteleafe continued to defend deeply while hitting their hosts on the break, which almost paid dividends when Hassan Ibraham slipped the ball through to Clayton inside the closing moments of the scheduled ninety minutes, but as he approached the advancing Bishop, he miss hit his angled shot and cleared the crossbar... maybe his effort had been carried over the goal on the wave of euphoria that was sweeping around the ground now.
Another Cheadle corner kick (I lost count of how many he took this afternoon) dropped invitingly for Sogbanmu, who almost made it 4-3 as the game went into added time.
But incredibly, Carshalton still weren't finished; a measured diagonal ball from Adeniyi released Bradford through the left channel, who finished calmly with a knock across the face of the goal before running behind it to celebrate amongst the ecstatic Robins fans.
FT: Carshalton Athletic 4 v Whyteleafe 3

If I don't see another game of football this season (as unlikely as that is), I will have ended a very enjoyable campaign on a particularly high note.

Today, having made something like a 370 mile round trip to be at Colston Avenue, I reckon I couldn't have picked a better moment to make my first visit to Carshalton and the journey was well worth all of the logistical effort.
Well done to both teams for the part they played in a truly memorable game.