The Mens 2s played Purley Men’s 1s on Saturday and were aiming to bounce back after the disappointing loss to Tulse Hill in the previous game. Southgate started the game strongly, dominating the majority of possession and this early pressure resulted in Southgate taking a 1-0 lead after Harry Haynes converted a Sim Bird cross on the back right post.

Southgate remained in control, however were caught-out, minutes before half time, by a crashed reverse ball into the Southgate circle, which took the luckiest of deflections, beating Ollie Wickens at the back post. With the half time score at 1-1, Southgate needed to keep composed and trust in the game plan.

Sadly Purley started strongly, and another long crashed ball into the Southgate circle allowed Purley to work a pass to their centre forward who deflected the ball past Wickens to score their second goal. 2-1 down, Southgate stepped the tempo up, and a new boy Bautista delivered a cross pitch pass to Vivek Dongha, who carried the ball forward from the 25 yard line, into the top right hand side to the circle, and banged home an absolute rocket into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.

At 2-2, Southgate just needed to keep-up the pressure… They did this effectively, creating several goal scoring opportunities, however to no avail. Until, after a well worked series of passes, Southgate worked the ball to the right hand baseline of the Purley circle and a nice delivery across the goal mouth, saw Lewis Hollett pounce to score the winning goal! With the 3-2 victory in the bag, Southgate retired to the bar to support Scotland to victory in the rugby. McCrossan and Shepherdson were seen on Sunday, reciprocating the home nation support, wearing their England shirts! Well done lads.

Finally a big thanks to club hero Mitch Read who came in run the bench.