Lawler reflects as Tadley Calleva end 2024 with a draw

Tadley Calleva finished off 2024 with a 1-1 draw at home to Chipstead on Saturday.

Things got off to a good start, as some excellent work by Kieran Rodgers saw him cut the ball back to Sheldon Wright in the box, who saw his shot saved well by the keeper.

A Chipstead free kick hit the side netting in the sixteenth minute, before Jack French saw a long range shot saved well by the keeper just moments later.

In the 22nd minute it was Calleva’s talisman, Rodgers, who would make the breakthrough.

Receiving the ball on the edge of the area, he cut inside from the left and unleashed a wonderful curling effort into the top-right corner for 1-0.

As Tadley approached half-time however, disaster struck, as Chipstead smashed a free kick into the area which pinged off Alex Miller for an own goal.

Calleva threatened in the second half, with defender Joe Cummuskey seeing his header smash off the bar.

It ended 1-1 however, despite a dominant Tadley performance.

“It was a game where we played well and were unlucky not to win,” reflected manager Joe Lawler.

“I was a little bit disappointed, as I thought we did enough to win the game.

“We created a lot of chances and Kieran scored a great goal.

“Unfortunately we just didn’t make it two or three.

“Although we dominated, we just couldn't find a breakthrough.

“But they came down from the league above and we’ve had four points against them, so it’s not a bad record.”

Calleva now have a break until they face Spelthorne on January 4th and Sandhurst just afterwards, two sides they’ve already beaten this season.

“We’ve had a really intense first half of the season,” he said.

“It’s important to have a bit of a break.

“We can recover a couple of injuries, go back into it and hit the ground running.

“The second half of this league is like a completely new season.

“Different managers, different players, but we’ll look forward to the challenge.

“For now, a little bit of a break.”