An excellent team performance from Godalming deservedly won them three points against title challengers Met. Police. Godalming made the Police look ordinary as they took control of the game and held onto their first half lead with relative ease.  Kicking off with a red football to mark the Ryman League’s involvement in Comic Relief, the game took a while to settle down and when it did Godalming took control and started to create a few chances. Chris Wales saw his free header fly over the crossbar from Brahim Eloumani’s free kick before Glen Stanley nudged the ball wide at the near post from Andy Ottley’s curling free kick. James Mariner, making his 300th appearance in a Godalming shirt, went closest with a lob over Mo Maan’s crossbar from Graeme Purdy’s flick-on.

Purdy & Mariner

Godalming were having the best of the game and they deservedly went ahead on 33 minutes through Graeme Purdy’s tap-in. Glen Stanley was fouled right on the edge of the penalty box by Ron Edwards, who received a yellow card for the challenge, and Graeme Purdy was first to pounce on Brahim Eloumani’s deflected free kick from a yard out. Godalming looked comfortable with their lead and coped with the increased pressure from the Met. Police well with Rodney Chiweshe hardly having anything to do. However, as with all good goalkeepers, Chiweshe was ready to perform when he needed to, saving Steve Sargent’s curling free kick which spun around the Godalming wall and was palmed away at full stretch by the ever-reliable Chiweshe.

After the half time break, the Met Police were eventually forced into substituting their injury-prone goalkeeper, Mo Maan, who had clearly been struggling with a variety of injuries since the beginning of the game. Mann was substituted for Will Packham who didn’t really have much to do during the second half.  Thankfully for Godalming, Packham’s opposite, Rodney Chiweshe, didn’t have much to do either and the game slowed down with Godalming happy to sit back and rest on their lead. In a bid to avoid complacency and add a bit of variation to the Godalming attack, Chuck Martini replaced the fading Ottley the hard-working and intuitive Adam Haddad who turned into Godalming’s major attacking threat.
However the second half was no less interesting than the first and controversy erupted when Will Packham caught a ball that Nicky Humphrey had flicked into the air into the keeper’s direction. The referee saw it as non-deliberate despite Godalming’s appeals that Humphreys had intentionally passed the ball back to Packham.

Towards the end of the game Godalming fans were starting to get a little nervous at their slender lead and although the Met Police did not test Chiweshe, there was always the possibility that a team with the quality of the Met Police’s could hit back late on and rob Godalming of all three points. In contrast it was actually Godalming who threatened the game’s second goal with Adam Haddad seeing his shot tipped wide by Packham. The Police’s golden chance to equalise came through Craig Brown, but Chiweshe did really well to hold onto the midfielder’s shot.  Godalming held on to record a very commendable victory against one of the top teams in the league but they know that a repeat performance will be needed if they are to get anything out of Kingstonian next Saturday.

Godalming: Chiweshem Pestle, Kiri, Wales, Mariner, Taylor, Ottley (Haddad), Paka, Purdy, Eloumani, Stanley

Greg Lewry