August 2012/13: The Beginning of an Era

With a great pre-season finished, apart from the 4-2 defeat early on, we were looking for a strong start to my first season in management in the Combined Counties League Premier Division.

Our first game of the season was against Bedfont Sorts FC, away at the Bedfont Sports Recreation Ground

We started the season with what I thought was the strongest starting XI in the league, and was looking forward to getting a big 3 points on the board from the first game.

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, P. Nzuzi, S. Galinski, Raphael Branco, T. Williams, D, Fazlic, C. Toner, M. Johnson, L. Head, V. Pericard, D. Bembo-Leta

Subs: S. Locke, J. Anderson, A. Ahmed, D. Lee, M. McCammon

Matt Johnson scored our first goal of the season, after he was able to hit Head's pull-back, into the net from 15 yards. Bedfont CM Vinny Hodge forced Mirko Ranieri to make a brilliant save, getting down to his near post to tip the midfielders 25 yard effort wide. Mason Bowditch eventually pulled the game level just before the hour mark, after he was allowed to get on the end of Beeney's cross, and volley into the bottom corner.

Substitute Mark McCammon won us the game in the 88th minute, when Galinski's long ball forward bounced over the defence, and McCammon was able to run onto the end of it, and poke it past the keeper.

Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the performance, but it was still early days, and I couldn't really complain with a win in the first game of the season.

Final score: Bedfont Sports 1-2 Wembley

Our next game was at home against Cove FC.

Cove were sitting in 19th place after a 1-0 defeat to Croydon in their first game of the season.

We made four changes to the starting XI, with J. Anderson, A. Ahmed, J. Baldwin and R. Limb replacing S. Polinski (Int), C. Toner (Fit), M. Johnson (Fit) and Liam Head (Fit)

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, P. Nzuzi, J. Anderson, Raphael Branco, T. Williams, D. Fazlic, A. Ahmed, J. Baldwin, R. Limb, V. Pericard, D. Bembo-Leta

Subs: S. Locke, B. Gayle, C. Toner, M. Johnson, L. Head

We took the lead after 16 minutes, when Ryan Limb played the ball into Vincent Pericard, who placed the ball past the keeper. We scored again in the 33rd minute, when Anderson was able to beat the Cove defender in the air, and head it into the back of the net. Cove almost replied instantly when Roger Blackwell was able to play in Jamie Brown, but Brown couldn't find the target. Cove then did pull a goal back, with a powerful 30 yard effort from Blackwell in the 41st minute. Cove's Robbie Monileux was sent off early in the second half, when he picked up a second yellow card after fouling Dino Fazlic. Fazlic was then denied his first ever Wembley goal, when the Cove goakeeper pulled of a spectacular, reflex save to deny the Bosnian from 8 yards. We then had to take Patrick Nzuzi off because of an injury, after a challenge from Roger Blackwell that went unpunished.

Another 2-1 win moved us up to 2nd place in the league, behind Sandhurst Town on goal difference

Final score: Wembley 2-1 Cove

The only downside of the 2-1 win against Cove, was that Dino Fazlic had suffered from a twisted knee after the challenge from Molinuex, and would be out of action for 4-5 weeks.

Our 3rd game of the season was against Farnham town, and I was a little pessimistic as to whether we would win this match.

Farnham were favourites, and we had some key players missing with injuries, and fitness issues.

We made 5 changes to the first team, with B. Gayle, M. Johnson, C. Toner, N. Durrant and L. Head replacing P. Nzuzi (Fit), D. Fazlic (Inj), A. Ahmed (Fit), J. Baldwin (Fit) and V. Pericard (Fit).

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, B. Gayle, J. Anderson, Raphael Branco, T. Williams, M. Johnson, C. Toner,        N. Durrent, L. Head, R. Limb, D. Bembo-Leta

Subs: S. Locke, S. Galinski, A. Ahmed, M. McCammon, V. Pericard

It took 15 minutes for the ball to find the back of the net, when Liam Head finished Matt Johnson's long through ball with a right footed volley. We scored again in the 63rd minute, when Ryan Head intercepted Neville's poor back-pass before chipping the ball over the goalkeeper and into the net. Limb then found the net again, after Liam Head's headed ball over the top of the defence found him, and he placed the ball right into the bottom corner. There was then a moment of panic at our end, when Raphael Branco nearly headed the ball past his own goalkeeper, however Mirko Ranieri was able to pull off a brilliant reflex save and tip it over the crossbar.

This was a great result, against the odds with only a half-strength side, and it kept us level on points with top of the table Sandhurst

Final Score: Farnham Town 0-3 Wembley

Shortly after the Farnham game, we signed 23 year old ST Chaz Wrigley as back-up.

Tom Betteridge had also returned from injury.

Our next game was at home against Colliers Wood United, and we knew that if we won, we could take the lead if Sandhurst failed to beat Egham, or if we won by more goals.

We made 3 changes to the starting XI with P. Nzuzi, A. Ahmed and V. Pericard replacing B. Gayle (Per), N. Durrent (Per) and  D. Bembo-Leta (Per)

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, P. Nzuzi, J. Anderson, Raphael Branco, T. Williams, M. Johnson, C. Toner, A. Ahmed, L. Head, R. Limb, V. Pericard

Subs: S. Locke, S. Galinski, N. Durrent, M. McCammon, D. Bembo-Leta

Both teams created early chances, but neither was able to take them, with Ahmed coming closest with a soft header straight at the Colliers keeper. The opener was scored in the 13th minute, when Ahmed skipped past the Colliers full-back, and put a cross in that was at a perfect height for Pericard to turn in with his head. Ryan Limb scored his 3rd goal of the season after heading in Tom William's cross in the 37th minute. We started the second half as we ended the first, with Adnan Ahmed skimming the outside of the post with his first time shot from Johnson's knock-back. Vincent Pericard then forced a great save out of Woodhouse, with an 18 yard shot heading straight for the top corner, which was acrobatically saved by the Colliers stopper. Ciaran Toner then scored his first goal of the season, and first goal for the club, with a brave diving header from Ahmed's corner. Toner then went close again, hitting the crossbar, after he hit McCammon's knock-down from 20 yards in the 81st minute, and then from the clearance, Matt Johnson forced a good save from the Colliers goalkeeper, with a scorching 25 yard effort, which Woodhouse was able to push over the crossbar.

This was a great result for us, and was our second 3-0 win, following two 2-1 wins.

Final score: Wembley 3-0 Colliers Wood United

A couple of days before our next game, we were hit with the news that Vincent Pericard would be out of action for 6-7 weeks with a twisted ankle after he tried turning sharply in training. This wasn't unexpected as Pericard was known for his injury proneness, but we were still worried as to how we would perform without a player of Vincent's quality.

Our next game was against Chessington & Hook United, who had just been left by their manager, who had just joined East Preston.

We only made one change to the starting XI, with Mark McCammon replacing Vincent Pericard (Inj).

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, P. Nzuzi, J. Anderson, Raphael Branco, T. Williams, A. Ahmed, C. Toner, 

M. Johnson, L. Head, R. Limb, M. McCammon

Subs: S. Locke, S. Galinski, N. Durrent, C. Wrigley, D. Bembo-Leta

The game got off to a boring start, with Liam Head coming closest to breaking the deadlock in the 24th minute, when he broke through the Chessington defence, but hit his shot straight into the arms of the Chessington keeper. Time and time again, we drove forward, piling the pressure onto Chessington, but we were unable to find the back of the net. We got a great chance to take the lead, when Lawrence Hanson fouled Liam Head in the penalty box, and the referee awarded us a penalty.Matt Johnson stepped up to take the penalty in the 64th minute, and he calmly placed the ball down the middle, past the diving goalkeeper, and into the back of the net. Chessington ST Ian McLoughlin then forced a save out of Ranieri, with a 20 yard effort that was heading for the back of the net.

Overall, it was a poor attacking performance, and was a bit of a let-off. We would need to be much more clinical with our finishing against better teams.

I also noticed that we created a lot more chances when playing Djeny Bembo-Leta in the poacher role upfront, compared to when we played Mark McCammon.

Also, thanks to Croydon drawing with Sandhurst, we moved into 1st, two points clear of 2nd

Final score: Wembley 1-0 Chessington & Hook United

Overall, it was a very good month for us. Five games played, and five games won meant we had a 100% record so far this season, however, I thought we would be very lucky to keep this kind of form up with two key players out injured.

At the end of the month, we were sitting in 1st place in the table, with 15 points from a possible 15 and a goal difference of +9, the highest in the league.