Jack French continues scoring form as Tadley Calleva win twice
Tadley Calleva continued their good start in the Combined Counties Premier South at the weekend.
As they prepared to host Balham at Barlows Park on Saturday, there was a first start of the season for Aime Kamdem in defence, while Sam Bagan made his second start in a row.
The start of the game didn't go to plan however, as Balham opened the scoring within eleven minutes due to a defensive mix-up.
Kieron Farmer, a centre-back usually known for being comfortable in-possession, made a rare error and misplaced a pass across his own penalty area, which was intercepted and slotted past Craig Atkinson for 1-0.
The two sides traded blows, with Balham smashing the Calleva crossbar ten minutes later and making the most of a dominant first half hour.
On 33 minutes though, a breakthrough, as Jack French continued his outstanding goalscoring form by whipping a beautiful free-kick into the bottom-right corner to level the scores.
Despite this, the Balham dominance continued, with Tadley needing to take advantage of the multiple let-offs provided to them.
That’s exactly what they did, as Kieran Rodgers broke quickly down the right flank and broke into the box.
He looked up to find the onrushing Connor Thorne alongside him, to whom he played a simple square pass for a great counter-attacking goal.
The Calleva which entered the second-half looked an entirely different team, and this led to a third.
Sheldon Wright broke forward and found a pass to striker Rodgers, who played provider again by finding winger Alex Miller who finished well.
Alex Fragata had a chance late on, but that was that. Calleva survived a tricky first-half to take a 3-1 win, their fourth in a row.
Tuesday night saw another dramatic comeback win in the Hampshire Senior Cup, as Joe Lawler made five changes for the trip to Fleet Town.
Ash Neal made it 1-0 after just seven minutes, but Fleet fired back shortly after to level the scores.
Fleet then took the lead in the 23rd and made it 3-1 on the brink of half time, leaving Calleva with plenty to do.
Ash Neal scored his second of the night just after the restart, before Jack French pulled out another sensational free-kick to level the scores at 3-3.
Tadley thought they had it won in the 86th, as captain Jordan Goater found the net, but an equaliser in the eleventh minute of added time sent the game to penalties at 4-4.
Calleva won the shootout 3-1 to finally overcome a tough Fleet side. They’ll face National League South side Farnborough in the next round.
