With the 1st, 3rd and 4th XI’s matches all Postponed, the 2nd XI knew that Storm Dennis was absolutely no contest for the Poplar Road pitch and their match went ahead as scheduled.
In a close and well contested first half the Ruts secured a 2 – Nil half time lead against Old Boys Clapham FC, this was thanks to a Steve Berry goal following a decent team move in the 27th minute, then in the 34th minute Alex Blenkinsop impressively doubled the Ruts lead.
The second half was equally well competed between the two sides and the Ruts thought they’d added a 3rd goal, although it was ruled out for Offside.
Around the 70th minute Ryan Kennett came off of the bench only to be back in the dugout very shortly afterwards, From our position it did not look anything like a Red card offence, possibly yellow at worst, although we are hoping OBCFC will be sharing footage with us to confirm either way.
The visitors fired a decent goal back to make the finale tense. The Ruts circumstances were then compounded when Baker saw yellow, followed by a nonsensical sin-bin, which left the lads to see out the match with 9 players. Pleasingly, the lads held firm and defended resolutely to secure a well deserved 3 points.
Joint Manager Jon Mapp claimed ‘ this was a well ground out 2 – 1 win for the Reserves to leapfrog Old Boys Clapham. The effort shown by the boys after going down to 10 and then 9 was exceptional. It’s now time to check my blood pressure’.
Old Ruts Football Club 