Friendly

Monday 3rd July 2023

Kick Off 19.30 Actual 19.33

Chagos Islands 4 Falkland Islands 0, attendance 377

6’ 1-0

34’ 2-0

66’ 3-0

72’ 4-0

@ South Park Reigate F.C.

Whitehall Lane

Reigate

RH2 8LG

£3 Admission

Programme available, didn’t bother buying.

The Chagos Islands have two communities in the U.K. one in Manchester and the other in Crawley, hence the choice of Reigate to stage this friendly. The Falkland Islands are from the South Atlantic and had undertaken an 18 hour flight to get here, having driven through snow to reach the airport and then waiting for their plane to be de-iced! They are not here just for this game though. They were using it as a warm up for the up coming Island Games that commence this coming weekend in Guernsey.

The game attracted a very good crowd, albeit with free admission for children. How South Park would love to attract this sort of support. Unsurprisingly, there are no changes to the ground since my last visit here on Boxing Day. It is still soulless. I can’t see that ever changing…

The game was decent to watch. Chagos Islands went ahead early, when a pull back from the right was put in at the near post. Their lead was doubled ten minutes before halftime, when a shot squirmed past the ‘keeper with the aid of a deflection. Two goals in a six minute spell, midway through the second half, rounded off the scoring. A corner on the left was finished with a shot on the turn that went just inside the far post, whilst a long ball was flicked on before being fired across the ‘keeper into the far corner to make it 4-0.

I’m not a lucky charm for the Falkland Islands team. This is the fourth time I’ve now seen them play. The previous three games saw them lose 6-0 twice and 6-1. At least they’re improving!