As Old Parmiterians FC's first team move toward the denouement of the current season all talk about the Bank of England was not about when or 'how much by' base interest rates might change, but whether we could maintain an improving set of results with a victory at the home of their football team, located as it is in south west London. In the corresponding home fixture back in October we had got the better of a close encounter by two goals to nil, more of the same was hoped for.

Things started well as we began to dominate possession with a series of attacking forays, so there was more than a hint of inevitability when we took the lead on 15 minutes as Louis Brown put in Charlie Heath whose emphatic finish broke the deadlock. All was going to plan as we approached half time and then what proved to be the pivotal game changing moment. Another hopeful long ball forward for the home side looked as though it would be dealt with but a horrible miscommunication between Kallam Dunn and Dan Bank led to desperate actions and the ref blew to award the hosts a penalty. Goalkeeper Bank composed himself and guessed correctly, leaping low to his right, blocking the attempt which was scrambled away to safety by Luke Moore.

Having got to half time relatively unscathed it was to be expected that the home side would make a concerted effort to get back into the game and indeed they did, however the defence held firm and continued to feed the midfield and wings where both Akim Tiyamiyu (L) and Andrew Robson (R) continued to make threatening runs at their increasingly beleaguered back line. It was on the hour that a sustained period of pressure led to a corner which in turn led to a series of subsequent phases, eventually Luke Moore lofted a ball back into the centre of the box and a deft glancing header from Dunn had enough on it to evade the goalkeeper and stretch the lead to two. The additional cushion wasn't there for long, just five minutes to be precise as the normally resolute defence was finally breached from a corner. The remaining time was not uneventful as both sides worked hard creating chances to shift the momentum of the game but neither could cap their moves with a finish that counted.

This was an especially gritty performance from the lads who applied themselves to the task manfully and with great energy despite there being no subs to give individuals a breather. We are now also solidly fourth in the table, a solitary point away from third with 3 games in hand so the expectation levels on the home game against South Bank Cuaco in a couple of weeks have already been ramped up, in the meantime we have to deal with the challenge of a team of vampires! COYP