The Hornets started the season against Oxted - a good team who finished well up the table last year. The availability of players is always an issue to be dealt with and the late cancellation of another of the clubs matches (Due to the opposition pulling out) gave me the chance to play a full team.

The Hornets started well and were pressing for a goal from the start - a more attacking formation seemed to be working - though the first goal was scored by Oxted, a nice deflection past a diving keeper. (1- 0) Hornets doubled down and scored a nice combination goal - drawing out the keeper before a pass to Roly gave him a straightforward goal. (1-1) The game was low on short corners - both defences keeping the control in the late 23 making access to the D a difficult operation. Oxted had a couple of short corners late in the first half and managed to squeeze one of them into the bottom right hand corner of the goal. (2-1) Hornets continued to press and in another combination move, sent a long ball down the left to Robbie who drew the defence and keeper to the left of the pitch and then threaded a fine pass to Ifrahim alone on the right, gave hime a simple tap in. (2-2)

The second half was a lot closer as Oxted seemed to have sorted out their marking a bit better and Hornets found if difficult to get the ball through the midfield but Oxted are blocked by a stalwart defence for most of the half. They did have a couple of short corners and produced a short corner routine which allowed their injector to deflect the ball past the challenging Matt Roddy and into the goal (3-2). A good goal to take the lead which spurred Hornets on to greater efforts and John in the Oxted goal had a couple good saves to keep the wining margin. Despite the pressure from both sides it proved to be the last goal of the game.

The game was played in good spirits and all enjoyed the first outing of the year - given the strength of Oxted in the league it isa not a bad score for the first game of the season - onward and upwards.