In 1746 Lord Chesterfield wrote a letter to his son in which he surmised that “In truth, whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well, and nothing can be done well without attention.”. This affirmation is thought to have led to the old saw “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.”. But I prefer Lord Chesterfield’s original. One could certainly argue that if something is inherently worth doing, one need not do it “properly”, but merely to the best of one’s ability. Therefore to do it “well” is good enough.

Today at Fortyfoot Recreation Ground, as TAFC Lightning lined up against the current League leaders Ashtead Colts there was certainly a job to be done. Having gone down 8-0 in their last meeting this match was always going to be a gargantuan hurdle to o’erleap, but, as we know, the Lightning Lads never shy away from a fight and will always battle to the bitter end.

But let us begin at the beginning…It was a crisp, cold January day but thankfully the skies were clear of rain as the boys assembled. Lightning started in the same 3-5-2 formation as last week with Jake in between the sticks, a back three made up of both Daniels E and W and George. Nathan and Louis were once more the holding midfielders with Joseph in the middle, Jack on the left and Ray on the right. Luke and Stefanos were the twin strike partnership up front.

With what can only be described as a fearsome slope on the pitch, the coin was tossed and it was decided that Lightning would play uphill for the first half, leaving them the prospect of an easier downhill effort for the second. The game was afoot!

In the early exchanges it certainly looked like Lightning had come here to play. An early Colts’ free kick went wide, but George remained rock-like in defence and Nathan made a promising early run and forced a corner, but despite a good delivery from Louis there was no one in the box to meet it. Ashtead then had a wild shot at goal that flew incredibly wide, but as it turned out this was a prelude to the tactics that they were going to employ for the whole game, much to Teddington’s disadvantage. Louis put a lovely ball through to Luke up front but his shot rattled off a Colts defender, and Jake made a solid save from an Ashtead corner.

Then however, the Colt’s ‘bang it from distance’ tactic reared its head again as a speculative strike from a full 20 yards out sailed over Jake’s head and into the top left hand corner of the goal to put Ashtead 1-0 up. Joseph battled away in midfield and George, Daniel W and Chris continued their granite defence despite further waves of attack from the Colts. Eventually however, they found a way through and scored a second goal. Despite this, Lightning were still looking lively. Luke made a nice run and set up Joseph, who’s shot sadly went wide and Daniel W had a couple of promising free kick chances, but was unable to recreate his heroics of last weekend. Nathan made another run, but his shot went agonisingly wide and then another Ashtead shot from distance left the defence stricken once again and the Colts went 3-0 up.

To be honest, it was a score line that Teddington didn’t deserve, as they were playing really well. Undeterred by the deficit, they fought back. Louis made a run into the box only to be brought down and a penalty was duly awarded. Jack stepped up to take it and guided it firmly into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. 3-1 (check out the video in the highlights). As the clock ticked down and the half time whistle blew there was certainly a feeling that another epic comeback may well have been on the cards for Lightning.

Half Time – Ashtead Colts 3-1 TAFC Lightning

Clearly buoyed by the penalty score just before half time, and enthused by what I can only assume was a rousing call to arms from Richard, the Lightning lads came out at the start of the second half like a bullet out of a rifle! Nathan made another incisive run and won a corner, which was played out to an advancing Stefanos just inside the box, who launched it expertly past a static Colts’ keeper and into the top right hand corner of the net! 3-2! (Video expertly captured by Margaret also in the video section.) Could the comeback really be on?

Lightning were passing the ball around the pitch really well, but then the Colts broke again and made it 4-2, followed by yet another shot from distance that left Samuel, who had replaced Jake in goal, helpless. Teddington won another free kick, but it sadly came to naught. Stefanos made another good run, but just couldn’t find a way through the Ashtead back line but then Lightning’s defence fell apart once more and the Colts made it 6. The frustration was beginning to show a bit for Teddington, as they certainly should have been more in this game than the score line was suggesting and unfortunately Louis received a caution from the referee and was replaced by Diego. The relentless pressure from Ashtead continued and despite a good initial block from Samuel, the ball was forced in on the rebound to make it 7-2.

As dispiriting as the score line was looking with only about 15 minutes left to play, Lightning still knew that they had come here to do a job, and if they couldn’t win the game, they could certainly continue to do that job well. They piled on the pressure and Nathan was doing his best to penetrate the Colts defence whenever he got the slightest chance. Samuel made two more important saves, and just before the final whistle blew Jake got a chance to fly in with one of his now legendary slide tackles where thankfully he took out the ball and only the ball!

OK, so the result wasn’t the result we were hoping for, but the job had been done, and it had been done well. Sometimes things don’t go your way in sport, but if you can hold your head up high and say that you did your best and you did it well, then in your heart, you’re still a winner. Onwards and Upwards!

Full Time – Ashtead Colts 7-2 TAFC Lightning

Goals : Jake (33’ pen), Stefanos (37’)

Player of the match – Stefanos (What a strike!)