Gunners earned a win their first league game in 2 and a half months (and their first game in a month) against Loxwood Res.
The lack of match sharpness showed in the first ten minutes when Loxwood started the better of the sides and had some early pressure.
However, Gunners soon began to create chances with Loxwoods defence looking a little shaky and Gunners then raced into a 3-0 lead.
The first goal came from Richard Alderton after a pass from Carl Littlechild, the second came from Stuart Bye and the third was a well struck shot from Dave Owen after an assist from Paul Clark.
However, Loxwood gave themselves some hope of coming back into the game when they scored with a header about ten minutes before the end of the first half. No further goals were added and the half time score was 3 - 1 to Gunners.
In the second half, Gunners were looking a little sluggish and allowed Loxwood to add a second goal to put them right back in the game. However, Gunners gained some breathing space when Stuart Bye chased a ball and forced an own goal from Loxwood.
However, Loxwood refused to give up and got back into the game with a third, then had a shot cleared off the line by Paul Ali and also had a well struck shot disallowed for off-side.
With things seeming to go against them, some of the Loxwood players lost their heads resulting in a couple of bookings and then a red card for swearing at the Referee which reduced them to 10 men.
This gave Gunners the breathing space they needed and they made things certain with a fifth goal from Paul Clark.
Overall, it wasn’t a great display from Gunners and a lack of games and training over the past several weeks definitely showed.
With both teams allowing their opponents opportunities to score it seemed a case of which team was going to score the most goals and Gunners were more clinical in front of goal on the day. Gunners "Man of the Match" was Dave Owen.
Match Facts:
MOM : D Owen
Goals : P Clark (1), D Owen (1), R Alderton (1), S Bye (1), Own Goal (1)
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