Millwey Rise went down 5-0 in their Macron League Division Four home meeting with Alphington thirds, writes Dick Sturch.

Injuries and unavailability meant Millwey were forced to change the previous weekends winning team and, against opposition such a high-flying Alphington, this proved to be a step too far.

Although battling throughout the game there was a large chasm between the two sides. The visitors, apart from dwarfing Millwey younger players, were dominant in most areas of the pitch.

They went in front after five minutes when a weak clearance was intercepted from which they scored.

Millwey did make inroads and just on 10 minutes Alphington were grateful to clear their lines after a goalmouth skirmish followed by a Ty Allen shot that flew across the visitors goal shaving the far post.

A few minutes later the visitors exposed an ongoing weakness in the ‘Rise’ defence when, from a cross, they headed home their second goal.

They scored again when a forward ran onto a defence splitting pass and placed his shot wide of keeper Tommy Donnan.

Their final goal of the half was again from the head of a forward who rose high above the home side’s defence to score.

Minutes into the second period Alphington scored their fifth, and final goal when they again scored from a header at the back post following a corner.

Mark Pike gave way to Finlay Cox in the first of Manager Simon Flints substitutions. A long range shot from young Ben Webb for ‘Rise’ clipped the visitor’s crossbar before Stuart King, leading the Millwey attack, saw a shot fly wide and another opportunity bundled away by the visitors defence. Brad Conway was then replaced by Mikey Sayers and King gave way to Darren Whitehouse.

Millwey did well to keep the visitors from adding to their score with Brett Garner and Haydn Lewis working hard in an overstretched defence.

Keith Forsey covered a lot of ground in the mid field in an attempt to link up defence with attack and as usual the young players never let the team down with their effort.

There are no games scheduled for either team this coming Saturday (April 6).