S
AFC PORTCHESTER V MONEYFIELDS
As the teams faced up and the referee checked his watch
to start this match – a match that, over the years, has
become one of the fiercest local rivalries in the league
– one of the Portchester players clapped his hands and
implored his teammates to “get straight in”.
would have been plenty, based on the first 30 minutes of
That sort of rhetoric is usually just trotted out as cliché but,
today, they took their colleague at his word and, in under a
minute, the home side had forced a penalty. There weren’t
any huge appeals and the Moneyfields back line looked
bemused, but the referee (stamping early authority on
what would turn out to be a superb display of officiating)
had spotted an errant hand and so, on 2 minutes, Alex
Baldacchino scored the match’s opening goal.
calmly and deftly, he sent the ball into the far corner with a
AFC capitalised on their start and began to exert yet more
pressure, the Moneyfields left flank proving fertile hunting
ground for the again impressive Louis Castles and the
ever-willing running of Rob Evans.
On ten minutes, they had doubled their lead – Baldacchino
this time picking the ball up on the right flank, cutting
inside and putting several defenders on their backsides as
he dummied and danced towards the area, before striking
left footed from 20 yards out. Joe Hunt in the Moneys goal
couldn’t hold the shot and Jason Parish reacted first to
slam home the rebound.
Any danger from the away side was only ever going to
come from their physically imposing number 10, Steve
Hutchings, who spent the opening exchanges of the game
appealing forlornly to the referee for perceived fouls and
trying in vain to intimidate the inscrutable central defensive
pairing of Jos