A youthful SCR made up of 95% of the U23’s squad (and the majority of those 16-18 year olds) bowed out of the Surrey Senior Cup against an impressive Walton & Hersham side. The hosts, looking for their own confidence boost, fielded a nigh on full strength side, and it was literally men against boys – reminiscent of our own first team against Staines Town Academy (back in October 2018 in the Southern Combination Challenge Cup).
Adam Aziz returned from his loan spell and their was a first start for Folarin Awoleke, but those two aside it was a full U23’s who took to the field. Immediately the difference in class was notable, with several of our lads appearing understandably nervy in front of probably the largest crowd they had played for.
Walton started on the front foot, and in truth never stepped off it. In the opening exchanges, goalkeeper Louie Erotokritos Staussi had pulled off three excellent stops, to prevent the prolific Dawid Rogalski from firing the hosts ahead, although it has to be said Rogalski somehow fired over from inside the six yard box and with no defender to beat.
Our back line was overworked, but the tireless efforts of Jacob Jordan, Selasi Foli, Ryan Crowder and Ruebuan Zamorano were somehow keeping the hosts at bay, whilst going the other way, Billy Wells was getting short shrift from former Altrincham centre half and ex Northern Ireland U19 international Joey Jones.
The wall was finally pierced on 22 minutes, and a quickfire double by Rogalski gave Walton a 2-0 lead. We continued to work hard, but with the midfield overrun it was often a last ditch block/challenge that prevented further scoring and it wasn’t until five minutes from the break that Walton increased their lead. A long range effort from Jones bought a stunning stop from Staussi only for Walton to react quicker and Anis Nuur fired home the loose ball; unfortunately their was still time for Rogalski to seal a hat-trick and we went in 4-0 down at the break.
A bright start to the second half where we forced a couple of corners soon ended and ou already impossible task was made even harder five minutes into the second half when a low cross
was turned goalwards and with Staussi beaten Crowder handled the ball on the line and saw red, with the penalty being converted by Johl Crowder.
Almost immediately it was 6-0 when substitute Alex Body found Nuur who rolled the ball beyond Staussi. Body made it 7-0 with 20 minutes remaining and with ten to go Nuur completed his hat-trick for 8-0.
Scoring was completed a minute later when Body poked home from close range for 9-0.
And that was that – a brave effort by the lads but the gulf in class, experience and everything you can think of that wins football matches was far too evident last night, as you would have expected with effectively a Step 9 side going up against a Step 3 side. Our lads are very good at their level and individually there are some very good players, but to compete as a team against a Step 3 side was too big an ask. They will come back much stronger from this and will be all the better for the experience. A word of note for Staussi, who despite conceding nine was outstanding and actually helped keep the score down.