The only teams to see action this weekend were the men’s premier, men’s division two and the men’s masters.

On Sunday morning, the first placed Surrey United masters team entertained the second place Westside master team who trailed by seven points in the Master’s premier “B” division. However, by the end of the game a 2-1 victory by the visitors narrowed the gap to 4points and inflicted upon Surrey their first defeat of the season and for that matter their first ever defeat in VMSL play. Surrey opened the scoring in the twentieth minute when Dave Harkison scored following a United corner-kick. Ten minutes later Westside tied it up with a long range swerving dipping shot. The rest of the game was a fairly even affair with Westside keeper Rob Merkl, the busier of the two net-minders, making a couple of fine save s to keep the game deadlocked. With the score remaining tied at 1-1 the game seemed destined to end in a draw as it moved into injury time but then in the dying moments of the game the drama unfolded when following a Westside corner, a spectacular volley by one of Surrey United’s own players whistled past his own keeper to seal the deal for the visitors. The player who shall remain nameless went straight home and phoned Tony Romo for some mutual consolation!

In division two action Surrey United entertained the Punjab Hurricanes who despite their mid-table position had tied the high flying United team earlier in the season. The visitors played with ten men throughout and put up some valiant resistance led by some solid defence and outstanding goalkeeping. Surrey had plenty of long range shots but either missed the target or had them well saved. Like the masters team the game moved into time added on and seemed likely to end in a stalemate until right midfielder Eric Bunting pounced onto a loose ball and then fired a looping shot over the head of the keeper and into the net from some twenty five yards to clinch three valuable points which enabled United to move into second place in the division where they are now three points behind the leaders with two games in hand.
In the open age premier division Surrey United journeyed to the North Shore to play Norvan on the Confederation turf at the unusual kick-off time of 5.30pm but the journey proved to be worthwhile as they secured a 1-0 victory and returned home with three points which will come in handy in the frantic scramble for points to determine the provincial cup berths.

The game was an entertaining affair despite both sides demonstrating at times that there was still some après Christmas rust in evidence. Surrey completely dominated most of the first half and after a couple of fine saves from the Norvan keeper the visitors took the lead at the twenty minute mark on a quick counter-attack. Surrey keeper Paul Shepherd gathered the ball from a Norvan corner-kick and immediately threw the ball to the half way line where United ‘s new signing Angus Burke collected the ball, jinked past one defender and raced clear of the other defenders before a hammering a twenty yard right foot shot into the corner of the net. Surrey came close to increasing their lead on two further occasions; one when midfielder Craig Dalrymple had one shot cleared off the line by a defender and then again when he flashed a header wide of the upright after finding himself completely unmarked at a Surrey United corner.

Norvan made some adjustments during the break and came out with a more determined approach in the second half but despite some territorial advantage and some sustained periods of pressure they didn’t really create any clear cut chances. Surrey, on the other hand, was content to counter-attack and created several scoring chances. The Norvan keeper John Carlo Martino was in fantastic form as he produced three brilliant saves. First, he denied United youngster Harpreet Khakh whose vicious swerving twenty yard free-kick seemed destined for the corner of the net and then the netminder brilliantly saved a twenty five yard howlitzer form Dalrymple and another from United midfielder Joe Deacon.

Khakh headed another golden opportunity over cross-bar and Burke’s long range chip shot just missed the target. Surrey almost paid dearly for failing to add to their lone goal when in the dying moments of the game Norvan's striker burst through the Surrey defence, rounded keeper Paul Shepherd only to see a last ditch tackle by Surrey veteran Joe Deacon clear the ball for a corner and preserve all the points for Surrey. Paul Shepherd recorded the shut-out.

Craig Dalrymple of the Men’s premier team was prominent throughout the game was awarded this week’s Player of the Week Award. Each Weekly Winner will have their name entered into a random draw for the monthly prize of for Dinner for Two.