West Wickham 1 - 3 Old Parkoninas (Southern Amateur League)

Parks emerged victorious from this incident packed encounter to continue their strong start to the SAL Division 2 campaign.

On a massive pitch both sides seemed keen to get a stranglehold on the game, and there were a few eager challenges in the early minutes. No real chances were created in the first quarter of an hour as both sides struggled to keep possession, but it was Wickham who should have taken the lead.

Parks lost the ball on the edge of their own box, and when the cross came over, Mason did one of his renowned needless pushes into the back of the forward, as the ball sailed about two feet above both of them. The resulting penalty, however, was blasted wide of the upright. This let off spurred Parks on, and soon after, Chadwick's flick found Knapman running through from midfield, but his shot was saved at full stretch by the keeper. Kemp was beginning to make good progress down the right, as was Bernstein coming from the back.

The game was turned on its head, when a skirmish between Nicholls and a Wickham midfielder resulted in Nicholls being pushed to the ground, and the Wickham midfielder receiving a red card. He then decided to really go for it, and ended up semi-punching Nicholls who didn't have Crazy to back him up! Eventually he left the pitch and had a nice hot shower all to himself!!

Two minutes later and Parks took the lead. Mason's corner was nodded in at the back post by the onrushing Bernstein. The visitors then began to dominate the game up to half time using the extra man to good effect with Parmenter winning everything in the air. At half time all we had to do was keep our shape and use the extra man to our advantage. This worked well for the first ten minutes, but then Wickham began to get back into the game, due to a combination of hard work and Parks giving the ball away cheaply.

A couple of Wickham corners were impeccably handled by the excellent MacCallum, and a quick break saw Mason find Jamieson, who crossed precisely to the far post. The in-form Chadwick finished with a neat volley which seemed to go straight through the keeper's fingers. Parmenter had a chance to put the game beyond Wickham's reach soon after, but he shot at the keeper who tipped the ball over the bar.

Parks then took their foot off the pedal and the home side started to gain the upper hand, with Parks struggling to clear their lines. It was from this pressure that Wickham pulled a goal back. A deflected clearance cleared Parks' back line, and allowed the Wickham player to steer his shot past MacCallum, and in off the post. Wickham continued to press for an equaliser leaving gaps at the back, and it was this that was their undoing. Neil Smith came on for his first team debut with about 8 minutes to go, and what a start for the debutant. Another superb MacCallum take saw his throw out release Mason. Knapman continued the move feeding Smith across the box. Neil Smith took one touch to steady himself and the second to slot coolly under the advancing keeper. 3-1 job done, but it could have been so very different had Wickham remained with their full quota of players. So, Parks have 10 points from 15 and they definitely would have settled for that before the start of the season.

Scorers: Bernstein, Chadwick, Smith
Man of the Match: MacCallum
Team: MacCallum, Kemp, Gaughan, Bernstein, Nicholls, Keogh, Jamieson, Mason, Knapman, Chadwick, Parmenter. Sub: Smith

Report by Nappy