Bengeo Tigers FC

Cold, wind and rain added to the already saturated pitch for Sumatran’s first encounter of the season with Cuffley and a real battle it turned out to be. Sumatrans, through illness yet again, were still unable to field a full strength squad, this week starting with Sam Rider in goal, a back four of Zack, Chris, Richard and Ben, midfield of Warren, James Levy, Craig, Robert, Calum with Andrea up front and substitutes Jack, James Brett and Sam Milne ready on the bench.

The game opened with both teams fighting the sticky conditions to gain possession for long enough to do anything with the ball. The visitors succeeded in being first to open the scoring when they netted in the 5th minute. Sumatrans countered 5 minutes later when Warren played a good ball through to Robert who’s shot was saved but had better luck 5 minutes later when good passing between Chris and Craig fed Robert another opportunity, this time sealing the equaliser. End to end football continued. A Sumatran break on the half hour left Robert with a shot on goal which Cuffley’s keeper did well to block but, unable to hold the slippery ball, allowed quick thinking Warren to follow up but couldn’t find the net. Robert was substituted for a breather and patch-up while Jack took up his usual role in defence allowing Chris to push forward. Andrea sealed Sumatran’s second in the 35^th minute and managed to hold the lead against their battling opponents into the half time break

Sam Milne took over the goalkeeping for the second half and saw his team take their third goal when Warren followed in an earlier shot to score 5 minutes after the re-start. Cuffley put up strong opposition and always looked in with a chance. Sam shut down a Cuffley attack moments later to clear the ball but it was the visitors who scored next when they converted a penalty to draw the score back to 3 - 2. Robert returned to the field of play to give Calum a rest and soon got himself in the thick of the action when Craig’s well-weighted forward ball was collected by Robert who ran it up the field to score Sumatran’s 4^th with 20 minutes to go. Plenty of action continued with both teams looking for more goals. Five minutes later Cuffley’s Tigers clawed (sorry!) another goal back to narrow the score to 4 - 3 and looked odds-on to score again had it not been for frantic defending and Sam’s determination. With Jack substituted after being sidelined by a crunching tackle, Sumatrans battled on. Even in the last minutes Bengeo’s sealing of their fifth via Robert’s well placed penalty was replied by Cuffley nicking their 4^th and, with seconds to go, it felt the match could still have gone either way. Thankfully the ref’s whistle blew crediting Sumatrans with the win and the end of a physical match.

Well done to both teams for their spirited and gritty performance, particularly in such poor conditions and for setting up what looks to be a thrilling return leg. Impossible to find a Sumatran’s Man of the Match again this week as all contributed so much – well done boys.