I went on a Tuesday night in the run up to Christmas, to see this Southern Counties East Football League Cup, second round match, pitching the bottom club in League One, Chessington & Hook United, with one of the high fliers in the Premier Division, Glebe FC.

Chessington were moved into the SCEFL league at the start of the 2021-22 season, having played previously in the Combined Counties League Division 1. Their current top scorers are Deje Alabi, with three goals in 9 games and Joe Avery with three in 4 games.

Glebe FC have had a great season and their top scorer Jamie Philpott has excelled with 24 goals in just seventeen matches, ably supported by Ryan King-Elliot with seven goals in 13 matches. If both sides played at full strength and things went according to form, their should be a lot of goals in this game.

The weather was warm and dry, as the game kicked off, although the ground was sodden from the recent rain. The Chalky Lane ground is approached by a very narrow lane but beware going past the entrance as turning is very difficult. A farmer allowed me to turn, having seen me struggle to turn, by opening up his driveway at the end of the lane but only after muttering “I should be charging for this!”. The ground itself has a nice club house and training pitch.

The main pitch has a seated stand along one side and some of the most powerful floodlighting I have seen at this level. There was also a bar and refreshment stand. The pitch itself is grass and there is quite a considerable slope from the clubhouse end to the opposite goal.

The game began with Glebe FC on the attack and they immediately put huge pressure on the Chessington & Hook goal. After just 5 minutes, the opening goal was scored, when a volleyed cross was headed home by Jamie Philpott.

Two minutes later the second goal was scored when Philpott fired home to make it two touches and two goals as Glebe took a 0-2 lead.

On 27 minutes Lauris Chin slotted the ball in to make it 0-3. Glebe looked dominant in all areas of the pitch.

The third goal rallied Chessington & Hook a little and they had a couple of good chances at the Glebe end. At half time the sides went in with the score 0-3.

The second half was a game fought in midfield with clear cut chances few and far between.

Once Philpott was substituted, Glebe’s attacking force waned and the remainder of the second half turned into a dour game where the goals and finishing of the first half seems to have deceived to flatter. Both teams struggled on a wet and slippy second half pitch and at the final whistle it was Glebe who went through to the next round with a 0-3 score line.