It was a frosty morning for the restart of the OCFC, with certainly a few frosty heads after a Saturday night out in London. With a quick trip up the A3 across London to Barnes, 16 of the OC finest ‘warmed up’ to play Barnes FC.

With the OCs arriving in dribs and drabs, meeting each other for the first time, there was a great buzz in the room, everyone excited for the first game of the season. After a quick warm up of shooting practice, Milo let the ball through his legs from 35 yards out. The tone was set, we were ready. The biggest crowd OCFC had for decades arrived in full voice and the whistle was blown for the start of the match. Shout out to Tom for a quick match summary, got injured in the warm up. Great start to an OCFC career.

The first half saw some pretty good football which frankly surprised the 22 players on the pitch and the travelling spectators of 9. Jerrick ran through the midfield several times, socks by his ankles, no shin pads and long hair blowing in the wind struggling with the final product. Unfortunately De Blabs, Mr Ironman, pulled his hamstring 15 minutes into the game chasing after the ball, maybe a better warm up is necessary. Chances came few and far between, Max Richards hitting the post, Fozzie missing a 3 yard chance off a corner and Max Bell blasting several over the bar. Suddenly JJ Bassil was put through on goal and just outside the box bent it over and past the keeper, into the back of the net. Really composed finish with their defence bearing down on him. 1-0 to the OCs!!! What a start for the team. Harry Adorian was everywhere on the left hand side and sometimes found himself up top chasing after some wayward passes from the team.

Half time came, not a lot was said other than, how’s the fitness and let’s keep playing the same way. Second half, Barnes turned up the heat. They had lots of chances, good saves from Milo but the defence of Zaid, Dave Foster and Scriv kept them largely at bay. Suddenly Barnes broke through on goal, knocked it round the keeper and tapped it in. Pace was something we were missing at the back. Subbing on the giant that was Charlie Mardon meant we had even more height on the pitch, but we lost a couple of yards of pace. Tensions were rising, fouls were becoming more frequent with Jamie Atkinson and Luke Boyd battling away hard in the middle. Boydy was finally shown a yellow card (about 10 fouls into the game). James Russell and Rob Zorab running down the wings causing chaos, Barnes didn’t know what to do. In the dying minutes Russell was put through on goal and dragged down in the box. Penalty, 93rd minute! Max Richards to step up and win it for the OCs… Now, if you’ve ever seen Harry Kane take a penalty or Marcus Rashford vs Everton last night, imagine the exact same finish, top corner, keeper no chance (anyone that was in Barnes, don’t ruin it). 2-1 OCs!! Full time shortly followed and the OCs claimed their first win!

MOTM – Zaid Muallah
DOTD – Luke Boyd
Team: Milo Haggas, Zaid Muallah, Jack Scriven, Dave Foster, Ed De Blaby, Luke Boyd, Jerrick Carne, Harry Adorian, JJ Bassil, Tom Farelly, Max Richards. Subs: Max Bell, Charlie Mardon, Jamie Atkinson, James Russell, Rob Zorab