Reigatians III’s 2 – 3 OTFC III’s

So the 2024/25 season finally draws to a close.  It’s been a tough season, but there was a chance to finish high with back to back wins and doing the double over Reigate.  Some people see the trip to Reigate as a rite of passage for an Old Tiff, others see it as a punishment. They’re both right.

A wise man once said “I ******* hate trips to Reigate.  I hate the ******* **** car park, I hate the ******* **** changing rooms, I hate the ******* pitch, I hate the ******* slope of the pitch and I hate the ******* showers”.  With his heart full of impotent rage and misplaced hatred, he sent out the call and got a team together.

Tiffs started the day well by nobody showing up on time.  The pre-match warm up consisted of circling the car park, hoping someone would leave, before eventually giving up.  Keeping with our history of terrible parking (Old Pauline’s Away 26/04/25) someone even attempted parking in a disabled bay – before being cruelly undone by karma and having to leave again because he’d forgotten his boots.

All of the time in the car park ate into the pre match team talk and skipper Conrad Bell was just about able to name the starting 11 whilst skipping any attempts at tactics or motivational speaking.  This being the last game of the season there were one or two surprising changes to the line up, even going as far as dropping our keeper for the crime of not actually being at the ground yet.

Tiffs started the game well, keeping possession in midfield and making a few good chances.  Midway through the half skipper Conrad Bell stepped up from defence and drilled a well placed pass scuffed his shot into the path of Aaron Elwood to tap in and take a deserved lead.  Tiffs continued to play well and it was only a matter of time before their dominance told and they scored again.  Sadly, they managed to score into their own net.  Reigate broke from a Tiffs corner and quickly found themselves in the box with a chance to shoot.  A couple of blocked shots later and an unfortunate touch from an unnamed Tiffs defender pushed the ball past our stranded keeper and into the net.

Sometimes a goal against the run of play can change the momentum of a game, but this time Tiffs gathered themselves and got back to playing the better football.  Soon they restored their lead when Ash Birch-Ruffell struck from a mile out, cutting across the ball to put enough “swazz” on it to deceive the Reigate keeper into thinking it was going wide.

A clash of heads saw Tiffs skipper go off with a bloodied nose, but his team didn’t break stride and Dylan Brillante added a third before half time.

A very nasal half time team talk asked Tiffs to keep doing the same thing and put the game to bed.  Inevitably, the opposite happened.

Tiffs dropped off in the second half and struggled to keep the ball.  Luckily they mostly held it together at the back and Reigate weren’t able to create many chances of their own.  However, Tiffs remained in a generous mood and after half clearing a corner they conceded a soft penalty with a little push on a striker heading away from goal.  Reigate tucked away the penalty and spent the remaining 15-20 minutes searching for an equaliser.

For a few minutes it looked like it might be a day to forget, but Tiffs got themselves together and defended resolutely.  They barely gave Reigate a sniff at goal for the rest of the game and really should have won more comfortably than the 3-2 scoreline suggested.

And with that, the season ended.  Not the best season we’ve ever had, but certainly not the worst, with back to back wins to finish off allowing everyone to go into the summer on a high.

POTM: Dylan Brillante

Some Player Stats for the Season:

Players used – 65

Single appearances – 25

Double digit appearances – 8

Goalkeepers used – 7