A wet and windy Woking Park was the destination for Moneys to face Westfield in an Isthmian League South Central Division matchup.

The opening exchanges looked like we had a fairly even game in store as both sides got the ball forward, but it was Westfield who took the lead. Caleb Wright headed in from a corner to give ‘the Field’ the lead, just inside 10 minutes.

Moneys recovered fairly quickly though and didn’t let their heads drop. Just a few minutes later, Louis Gates picked up on a loose ball on the edge of the area and had a shot from outside the box. It was however a fairly comfortable save and it was put out for a corner.

Further chances came inside half an hour, with the best being from a brilliant bit of play that started with Tayo holding the ball up and turning his defender with a drop of the shoulder. He put Max through into the box and his cross-cum-shot wasn’t quite close enough to the on-rushing Simba, nor close enough to the goal for the keeper to feel troubled.

On the half-hour mark though, Moneys did level the score. Jack Farrier, who was having a fantastic game in midfield, had smartly turned his way out of pressure from two Westfield players inside his own half, then played it through to Tayo inside the centre circle. Tayo was given space to run with the ball and decided to shoot from well outside the box where it brilliantly curled up and around the keeper!

Just 5 minutes later, Simba went to clear the ball inside the Moneys penalty area but as he cleared it, a Westfield player stepped in-front of him and was clipped by Mlambo to give away a penalty. Up stepped Manolis Gogonas for Westfield but his penalty was at a good height for a keeper to save and Malachi Osei-Owusu saved well, to keep it level at half-time.

Half Time – Westfield 1-1 Moneys

The first 25 mins of the second half was fairly uneventful in terms of big clear-cut chances, but both teams had spells of control and half-chances so you felt it could swing either way.

On 71 minutes, it looked like it was going to swing Westfield’s way. First, Westfield got through to have a one-on-one, but the striker waited too long to shoot, and Malachi closed him down well to save the eventual effort.

Then, just a minute later, a scene you very rarely see without the intervention of VAR. The referee adjudged a foul to have been committed inside the box as Moneys cleared the ball from a Westfield corner. Firstly there was no real appeal from Westfield, but once the referee did point at the spot, there was understandable fury from nearly all in green, with Simba Mlambo being booked for his protestations. The linesman from the opposite half of play called for the referees attention who pointed out there was no foul and he should overturn his decision. In a rare case, the referee did that and the game restarted with a Moneys free-kick.

Just under 5 minutes later, Moneys took the lead for the first time in the game. Westfield failed in two attempts to clear their lines and Simba Mlambo capitalised. The ball came to him about 10 yards out from goal, where he span 180 degrees to hit the ball across goal and into the bottom corner. A genius bit of quick thinking!

Just after the goal, Rudi Blankson came on for Adam Payce. Paycey had been a real thorn in Westfields afternoon, often breaking away with the ball and holding it up well to support Moneys moving up the pitch.

On 80 minutes Moneys won a free-kick on the left hand edge of the box, and Rudi confidently grabbed the ball to take it. He saw the keeper had left quite the gap to the left hand side of the his wall as he’d have looked at it. With some good pace on the ball, Rudi superbly whipped it across goal and into the corner of the net!

Westfield then tried to pepper Moneys goal with efforts, but Malachi again came up big, making a couple of huge saves as well as last ditch tackles and blocks from a number of players. That was however, all without success for the home side. A first league away win for a month since the win at Kingstonian, and Moneys reduce the gap to the third placed Hanworth Villa by 2 points, being only 2 points behind them now and with a game in hand.

Full Time – Westfield 1-3 Moneyfields