Middlesex County League

Premier Division

Saturday 16th February 2019

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 13.59

Brentham 1 PFC Victoria London 3, attendance 34

30’ 1-0

35’ 1-1

73’ 1-2

75’ 1-3

@ Brentham Club

38a Meadvale Road

Ealing

London

W5 1NP

No Admission

Programme, free, 8 pages.

The journey from New Malden had taken around 50 minutes, despite it being less than 14 miles. On arrival I found the place deserted, but then noticed the Referee and one of his Linesmen making their way along a path between the tennis courts, which went down behind the bowling green, with the football pitch running lengthways beyond here. The two teams were warming up behind a hedge on what looked like a small sided youth pitch. A club official handed me a free programme on arrival, which was a bit of a surprise, as I hadn’t thought to check if they even issued one, although the Middlesex League are one of the leagues that made it compulsory to do so in the past, although it was not always adhered to.

PFC Victoria are in effect a Polish club, who have had a rapid rise through the league since being formed in 2016. Successive promotions now sees them sitting in third place in the Premier Division league table, whilst Brentham are eighth. They drew 2-2 in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, so I was hoping for a good contest and that is how it turned out.

Brentham went in front after half an hour, somewhat against the run of play, before a shot from the edge of the 18 yard box levelled it up five minutes later. PFC took control in the last fifteen minutes of the match, with a mazey run finished with a shot that beat the onrushing ‘keeper, then rounded things off with a free kick into the top corner of the net a couple of minutes later.