Petts Wood Seniors petts w 6 vs 3 Orpington Athletic

Orpington suffered their first loss of pre-season against a young, energetic Petts Wood Ravens team. Despite Tejiri Kode, Mike Adamou and Oral Graham all adding to their pre-season totals, Orpington conceded heavily and lost 6-3.

Off the back of 2 great pre-season results already, Orpington started confidently and Ben Blyghton was first to test the ‘keeper after only 3 minutes, with a stinging long range effort. Shortly after, Nick Adamou was too quick for the Ravens’ defence and was brought down inside the box. Mike Adamou stepped up and dispatched the penalty, with the ‘keeper diving the wrong way.

However, in a game littered with goals and opportunities, Ravens struck back almost immediately and levelled the score. Within minutes, a neat cut back to the edge of the area was looped in over the outstretched Jordan Puttock, returning in goal, giving Ravens the lead. Orpington responded with a tidy goal from Graham inside the box, but Ravens took the lead again with a long range strike which was misjudged by Puttock and just crossed the line.

In the second half, the goals continued to rattle in and Ravens struck first with a neat lob which doubled their advantage. However, the imperious Kode drove through the heart of the defence on the hour mark and responded with an equally impressive lob which went in off the underside of the bar.

With only a goal separating the teams, Orpington were awarded a second penalty, giving them a chance to once again level the scores, however Adamou’s attempt to chip the ball down the middle of the goal was read by the ‘keeper, who stood firm and comfortably caught the effort. A minute later, Ravens raced up the other end and lobbed Puttock again to restore their 2 goal cushion.

Despite a few opportunities to decrease the deficit, Orpington were finally undone with 5 minutes to go as Ravens slotted their sixth goal, a tap-in following a parry from Puttock. The game ended with the customary handshakes and Ravens coming out on top.

Orpington now have one more pre-season match, next Sunday, to nail down their shape, positions and formation before the season opened on Sunday 22nd September.