HERALD CUP Rd 2 Stoke Gabriel 2nd V Marldon

I have only been to Stokes ground once before three or four seasons ago to watch Ant play for Spurs in a cup final against Upton Vale and what a game it was with Mark Loram thumping in four wonder strikes to ensure Upton came out the winners.

I was impressed with Stokes ground then and once again we see a small village provide a good quality football ground for its team and things are going to get a whole lot better when their new stand that will have the dressing rooms underneath and a club house on top is finished sometime around Easter.

A local lady left the club 130 grand in her will and the football development body awarded the club around 500 grand and its good to see money going into clubs playing in the lower level of football and long may that continue because clubs like Stoke Gabriel are smashing little clubs run by people who give their time for free simply because they love the game of football.

On my way to the ground and just before I needed to take a right turn off the main stoke road and down the lane to the ground, I noticed on my left a sign into a new Stokes second ground that is used for their second and third team games and once again it shows what a progressing small club Stoke are.

It was great to say hello again to someone I worked with many years ago who is a part of the setup at Stoke and the last time I saw him was at that cup game I mentioned and while Ant told me later he did not know him, the first thing Ron Cherry said to me was “I see your boy is back with Marldon again”

I took a picture inside the old Portacabin that has been the club house for sometime now of a picture on the wall showing the new stand and while I was unable to get an angle with no reflections on the glass, the picture is good enough to put up so you can see what’s being built at the ground.

On to the game and Stoke Gabriel 2nd team who play in division one gave Marldon a first half lesson on how to play football and the only real surprise was how Stoke did not go in at half time winning by at least ten goals as such was their complete dominance in the first half.

Marldons cause was not helped by their keeper have an injured right leg that meant he was unable to kick the ball over the halfway line and so the ball hardly ever got over the halfway line into the Stokes half.

Stoke took and early lead after a corner was send in and went over everyone and a stoke player was there at the back post to drive the ball into the net. Stoke were soon two up after a needless free kick was given away and the ball was floated into the box and a Stoke forward rose unchallenged to head the ball home.

Stokes number nine is only seventeen and a player to watch out for as he surely is going to make a name for himself playing locally and who knows might move onto better things. His running and pace and ball control was outstanding and he would have been my man of the match for the first half at least.

Attack after attack rained on the Marldon keeper and he pulled off a number of fine saves and the crossbar was hit a number of times and it was a real surprise to see totally against the run of play Marldon pull a goal back. It was the first time I have seen Marldons new sixteen year right winger and what he lacks in body size and strength he makes up for in pace and excellent foot work and he too is one I feel will make a name for himself in time.

It was from his great run and shot that the keeper saved but only managed to push the ball out to Marldons number ten who only then had to hit the target to score and he made sure he did. But it was soon three one and I may have got Stokes goals two and three the wrong way around but anyway the ball was hit long and as the Marldon keeper started to come out the ball was cleverly lobbed over his head and into the net.

It was still all one way traffic when they great new Marldon right winger robbed the ball off a Stoke player just inside the Stoke half and ran all the way to the goal and buried the ball past the Stoke keeper and I was then thinking I don’t know how Marldon have got the score back to just one goal behind when they game should have already been over.

The Marldon defence got very slack and let in two more goals before the half ended and I feared they would end up losing by a cricket score in the second half.

But playing more for pride than any real hope of winning the game they battled so well in the second half and always looked the more likely to score and came close a number of times and sure kept the Stoke team on the back foot but you always feared Stoke with the pace they had in their side could always break away and add to their lead.

There was a bit of handbags going on after a rather nasty challenge by a Stoke player on a Marldon one and it was the Marldon player who reacted and went after the Stoke player and while it may have looked like a mass braw was taking place I did not see any punches thrown by any player. The ref only booked the Marldon player and maybe should have book the Stoke player who committed the foul in the first place.

Stoke did score once more near the end of the game making the final score six goals to one but I saw enough in the Marldon side to know they should do OK in their own league and I did like their number ten and told my Ant that he might have a bit of trouble getting that shirt off of him.

The young ref I have seen before and he sure missed a number of fouls and got a number of decisions completely wrong and I think he made some rules up as he went along. Near the end of the game the Marldon keeper caught the ball in the air from a corner. As the players were making their way out of the box one Stoke player was on the ground injured. The ref stopped the game and got on the trainer and when it was time to restart the game he took the ball off the Marldon keeper and walked about thirty yards away from the goal and then turned and threw the ball back to the keeper to restart the game.

I enjoyed the match and what a stranger afternoon weather wise, one minute in sun then showers and then for three or four minutes a gale force wind that chilled me to the bone.