Match Report versus Virginia Water (8/3/22)

By Steve Williams

Tadley Calleva 5 Virginia Water 1

This was a confident, controlled and energetic team performance from Tadley Calleva. The home side dominated the play from the outset, but did find themselves trailing after the normally assured young full back, Aiden Harris, conceded a penalty on 15 minutes. Virginia Water skipper Casey Bocarro stepped up to put the visitors one up, although Tadley keeper Craig Atkinson was unlucky with his attempt at the save. Record scorer Brett Denham had two earlier chances for the home side where, by his standards, he would have hoped to do better. On 20 minutes, unlucky wide attacker, Ryan Stephens (only recently returning after a long injury lay-off) limped off with an achilles problem to be replaced by promising youngster Kalum Cousins. Despite these set backs Tadley continued to dominate, with new signing from Basingstoke Town, Jack French, prominent in midfield. Good play by Ben Wright, feeding the lively Cousins, saw a calculated cross which French converted on 30 minutes. Just before the half time whistle, Cousins added a second with a fine diagonal shot after further clever build up play. Centre backs Brad Neal and Andrew Charsley dealt well with the sporadic Virginia Water attacks, especially commanding in the air in a composed Tadley back four. (HT 2-1)

In the second half the home side continued to dictate the majority of the play and went further ahead on 64 minutes after a shot from Ben Wright was deflected upwards for Cousins to head home. The hard working Callum Cleary added to the tally, profiting from Brett Denham's clever flick which took him past a couple of defenders to drive the ball wide of Water's keeper Matthew Jones to make it 4-1. With managers Ben Dillon and Joe Lawler bringing on the impressive five man bench without any let up in the performance, Lucas Burt scored the fifth sweeping home on 89 minutes following a cross from Brett Denham and involvement by Ben Wright.

The management team, coaching staff and players can rightly be proud of a good night's work. (FT 5-1)

Tadley's next match is at home to Spelthorne Sports on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

Tadley Calleva: Craig Atkinson, Aiden Harris (sub 77' Kieran Maylen), Tom Walsh (C), Brad Neal, Andrew Charsley, Callum Cleary (sub 75' Lucas Burt), Jack French (sub 75' Scott Kinge), Ousman Darboe (sub 65' Aaron Parfitt), Brett Denham, Ben Wright, Ryan Stephens (sub 15' Kalum Cousins).