Withersfield, league A winners last season, came to Chatteris with a solid 8-0 win against Saffron Walden last week in their pockets, so the boys knew they would be up against it. It looked like Withersfield were going to carry on where they left off last week, as they scored the opening goal within 5 minutes from the start, when their front winger got all the freedom in the world to run forward and he freely put one past the diving Matthijs. Not a good start then and Withersfield continued to put pressure on the defence and Matthijs, slightly helped (or hindered) by a strong backwind. Luckily Matthijs was again in fine form today, controlling his area, supporting his defenders and catching or kicking all balls coming in. The defenders and the midfielders battled hard to keep the threat at bay, notably Mitchell and Alex, but a lot of the boys were not quick enough to the ball, more often than not being beaten to it, allowing Withersfield to pressurise. At the other end Asa created himself a very good chance when a pass from the defensive area was headed on by Matthew and landed at Asa's feet. He still had to evade two outcoming defenders, but coolly worked his way round them and shot it over the keeper in the net to make it 1-1, to great relief from the team. Play flowed backwards and forwards, with Withersfield keeping the upper hand, but not scoring and Chatteris nearly scoring too when Jordan Dover saw that the Withersfield keeper was still far out of his goal after coming out to help. He lobbed it over him towards the open goal, but unlucky for him the ball hit the post and was then worked away. The teams went into half time at 1-1.

In the second half the boys were a lot more determined to get to the ball first and they started to create more chances upfront too. They were rewarded when Sam put the ball through to Alex who took a good shot, but it was saved in first instance. The ball was however not worked away far enough and Asa profited from the rebound to tap the ball into the net to put Chatteris 2-1 up. The boys all worked extremely hard to keep Withersfield at bay, not giving the wingers much room, although they still managed to create some chances. Jake K., Tom, Cameron, Ivo and Sam, or Matthijs, were however always there to intercept, but it went wrong when Withersfield were awarded a free kick about 30 yards out. The taker kicked the ball towards the defensive melee in front of the goal and although it was worked away at first, it landed at the feet of a completely freestanding attacker who ran outside a bit further and stood completely on his own to take a fantastic shot towards the near post, which passed a diving Matthijs as well to make it 2-2. Both teams were really up for it now, desperate to win. Withersfield came close a couple of times, but Matthijs got just enough fingers to the ball to make a great shot from the right hand side roll past the post and later on bravely came out to face down the incoming Withersfield attacker and got the ball off him.

The spectators more or less agreed, 5 minutes before the end, that 2 all would be a fair result for both teams, but the boys clearly had other ideas. They were awarded a corner, which was taken by Alex who put it beautifully in the middle of the goal area. The ball skimmed Dover's head and came down in front of Ivo, who lifted his leg high up to tap the ball into the net, to great delight of the boys and himself, as it was his first goal of the season. It was weird how quiet it was on the sideline though, as the Withersfield supporters were stunned into silence and the Chatteris supporters didn't seem to want to celebrate too much after such an intense match from both sides. The last couple of minutes appeared interminable and there was great relief on the Chatteris sideline when the referee finally blew the endwhistle.

Well done to all the boys. Who would have thought that you could beat Withersfield?!