The PO accompanied the Reserves to their tricky looking trip to Ashdon. The ‘Villa’ had emerged from the pack in recent weeks to become serious promotion challengers, a home victory would reduce the arrears to one point but an away win would give Whittlesford a seven point cushion. The PO preferring this match to the home game as this six pointer was more important in the context of the Club’s development. With the rumoured attendance of Club owner Suleiman Al Fahtie (‘just call me Larry’) it would also provide a good opportunity to discuss the Club’s finances and the latest gossip about the Club’s ownership. However, as I aqua-planed into the damp car park there was no sign of his Bentley. Just before the start Al Fahtie (pictured right) and his minder Sat-Man making a hi-vis entry after arriving on their bikes looking like a couple of refugees from a road sweepers’ convention. Dannie Griggos, was quoted as ‘it looks like Al Fahtie is wearing lots of extra padding’, but it turned out that he was only wearing a t-shirt under his hi-vis jacket!

Manager Paddy Van Ancarrepairs had a reasonable squad to choose from but was still deprived of defensive lynchpins Marco Turnero, Hesser and Eddie Gallagher. His cause was not helped by the absence of skipper Darren Ansell (knee op) and the ‘injured’ Josh Clements. The defence was re-jigged with Pistol and Big Ben being supported by full-backs Nasa and Kay. Ed came into the midfield and the fit again AJ and Si were on the bench. After a brief walk across the pitch, to greet the referee and ex-team mate, it was clear that football would not be easy on the sloping and heavy pitch. The patchy and at times thick fog also made things difficult.

The game started patchily as both sides struggled, whilst attempting to play football, to get the ball under control. At times it looked more like pin-ball that football. The visitors attempted to get the ball out of the mire in the centre of the pitch and utilise Tubes and the ‘re-styled’ Ginger on the flanks. The home side had a clever front two; one sturdy fellow who came short, often dragging Big Ben out of position, and a smaller nippy lad. The home side’s tactics were dominated by attempting to get the ball quickly forward to exploit the pace of the quick forward. Early attempts were largely thwarted by miss-timed runs leading to a number of off sides. Golder went close with a shot, just wide of the right upright, following a strong run. The home side had a couple of opportunities when the visitors had trouble clearing their lines; the first was spurned by a poor shot but the other required a good block from Ant. This warning wasn’t heeded as moments later the ball was smashed home following a melee on the edge of the six yard box. The visitors attempted to get back into the game but wasted a lot of possession with long balls through the centre. The grateful home centre-half dominated this aerial challenge. The home keeper mysteriously opted for a peaked cap; his ‘fog cap’ appeared to do little to improve his visibility as he misjudged a series of in-swinging corners. Two of which required a goal line clearance; one from a superb delivery from Arge. The home side then spurned a couple of good opportunities one from a free kick that the visitors struggled to clear, and the other when the off side trap was sprung by the fleet forward. The visitors then had a good opportunity when Golder was fouled twenty yards out just right of centre. Nasa, obviously used to working in zero-gravity, attempted the impossible by trying to curl, his well struck right footer, around the wall and up the considerable slope. Gravity taking over as the ball continued on straight and passed the right upright. Ashdon then capitalised on Whittlesford’s inability to clear to punish them again with another scrappy goal. Ant then had to make a couple of decent saves as the home side threatened to overrun the visitors.

Half time 2 v 0 – Al Fahtie denied all speculation regarding the state of the Club finances and the pending change of ownership. However, he looked a little embarrassed admitting that he had cycled since the Bentley and his fuel card had been ‘temporarily’ taken back due to the finance company ‘mistakenly’ not allocating his payments. His minder, Sat-Man (a strange looking fellow with no-neck) had to step in when Al-Fahtie reached the front of the tea queue having bought a round only to discover ‘he had left his wallet in the Bentley’. The home side clearly not requiring the extra motivation of a team talk returned to the pitch early. Van Ancarrepairs needed the full allocation to attempt to inject some life into the strangely muted visitors, and get them back on track to maintain their unbeaten league record.

The second half started like a repetition of the first half, with the visitors over reliant on the long ball and the home side attempting to utilise the pace of the front man. The visitors required a good save from Ant and an excellent last ditch tackle from Andy Kay to keep the score down. An injury to Ed led to the introduction of Si. An excellent channel run from Golder led to him putting in a dangerous cross from the right, this time the home side failed to clear and eventually David Ginger stabbed the ball home. The visitors at last began to play to their strengths by getting the ball down on the deck, with Arge, Tubes and Nasa combining well down the right to supplement the tireless running of Dan. Despite never fully escaping the attractions of his defensive marker, he did run him ragged and created space for his colleagues. The visitors dominated, without creating any clear chances, but looked vulnerable on the break. However, Arge then equalised with a right foot volley, following a half clearance from a corner, with the keeper rooted to the spot as the ball bounced into the corner. The visitors continued to chase the win but were defeated by their naivety. They had ignored a couple of unsuccessful breaks before the speedy forward again found himself one on one with Pistol, once Big Ben had pushed forward and lost the ball. The forward raced toward the box and hit a reasonable shot that Ant could only parry and he made no mistake with the rebound. There was just time for AJ to get himself booked twice in the same incident to cap a poor day at the office for the team.

It was disappointing to lose our unbeaten record with an under par performance, despite our late rally, albeit against determined opponents (with a clever forward line) in difficult conditions. We clearly missed the leadership, experience and defensive nouse of skipper Ansell, Gallagher, Hesser and Turner. However, this is only our first defeat and if we learn our lessons from today then we can still have a positive and productive season. We need to defend better as a team and do the simple things better.

Supporters MoM – Pistol was chosen by the assembled fans, particularly for his first half efforts. Dan pushing him close with his line leading efforts in the second.

Al-Fahtie cycled off into the sun set, somewhere behind the mist, hoping that his minder’s spatial awareness was fully switched on, so that they could avoid repeating the loop around the Haverhill by-pass that spoiled the trip to Ashdon. Sat-Man was overheard saying ‘That they may go back via Walden, Newport and Quendon’. They were last seen alighting a train at Stansted; I hope Sat-Man had decided to go North!