A little like Man City, AFC Ewell's imperious home form has been somewhat undermined by their fragilities on the road, though they travelled a short distance down the road to rectify this as they faced Worcester Park 'A'. The sides shared the spoils in a dour pre-season game and so a close game was to be expected, yet Ewell went into the game with confidence on the back of consecutive home wins. However, and not for the first time this season, this feeling of assurance was soon diminished as they discovered that they would have to compete with only 11 players. This meant that Ewell were dealt a double blow, as in addition to having no subs to call upon they also lacked a linesman, something they would ultimately be punished for.
After spending the last few minutes of the warm-up ridding the pitch of canine faecial matter, Ewell made a shaky start to the game as they squandered possession of the ball and failed to apply adequate pressure on the hosts. Yet it was the visitors who nearly drew first blood, as Keogh thundered a close range effort off the cross bar. It took 15 minutes for Worcester Park to punish Ewell's lack of a linesman, as the hesitation that followed an offside attacker chasing a speculative long ball resulted in the home team opening the scoring. This blow failed to raise Ewell from their slumber, and they conceeded a second goal on the half hour mark after Worcester Park moved the ball quickly and with purpose on the edge of the box before dispatching the ball into the net. Having gone further behind, Ewell finally started to show signs of life towards the end of the half, though they went into the break trailing 2-0.
An early goal was required if they were to mount a comeback and, whilst this never materialised, they did look more threatening in the early stages of the second half. With around 20 minutes to play, Hitch had an opportunity to pull one back, but despite making good contact, his effort whistled past the near post after Chipperton swung in a cross from the right hand side. Ewell did manage to grab a goal with around 10 minutes left on the clock, after the same two players combined. Hodge came off on top following a strong 50-50 challenge and proded the ball forward for Chipperton to drive onto, the latter obliged and stood a cross up for Hitch to tuck home at the back post. This provided a glimmer of hope but Ewell were unable to test the opposition goalkeeper any further, consigning them to a disappointing yet somewhat unsurprising defeat.
With 2 home games against mid-table sides in the next fortnight, Ewell will need to continue their impressive home form and make up lost ground in the title race.