Faced with a crack of dawn meet time, and a road trip to face an experienced and useful Sutton Valence side, the Ops youngsters really showed their mettle with a fine win. Early exchanges were cagey, with the Ops just about on top, but occasionally struggling to adapt to a tricky pitch, and to contain SV breakaways. One early opportunity for SV saw skipper Steve Letley going in where it hurts and receiving an accidental blow to the face from a stick, but snuffing out the danger in the process. Will Paine in goal was called into action on a couple of occasions, but proved more than equal to the task, making one stunning triple save to repel a good SV attack. Gradually, the back 3 of Daniel Andrews, Simon Jones and Dave Whitehead imposed themselves on the SV front line, dealing well with the skilful SV attackers. Steve Letley was hoovering up everything in front of them, relishing the physical challenge. Finn Letley, Joseph Allon and Arthur Ireland began to get joy down the flanks, carrying the ball well and releasing the willing front runners Evan Carter, Oscar Daley and Josh Scooter. Paul Andrews began finding space in the SV half, and was spraying passes around, finding players in space with increasing regularity. Letley jr was the first to test the SV keeper, with a fine drag flick effort from a penalty corner, and he was soon after involved in teeing up Andrews sr at the top of the d to fire the ball into the roof of the net. Shortly after this, Andrews sr saw another effort hit the post after sterling work by Scooter. Letley jr then got on the scoresheet himself from a superbly worked passing move. The Ops were really asserting themselves now, firing the ball around the pitch and demonstrating their mazy dribbling skills and phenomenal workrate. The third goal was all about Ireland, as he carried the ball a good 30 yards past several SV defenders, before weaving his way in the d, to slot the ball into the far corner. 3-0 at half time. An easy team talk for skipper Letley - more of the same! Ops came out with intent in the second half, with SV pushing on to try to find a route back into the game, but leaving more space for the youngsters to exploit when attacking. The backline remained stalwart, and gave the opposition very little to show for their attacks. Letley sr broke up one attack, and galloped forward. He fired a raking pass to Carter in acres of space, and as the ball entered the d, with the SV keeper bearing down on him, the youngster applied the deftest of touches to divert the ball around the keeper and into the goal - a stunning finish! To SV's great credit, they kept pushing hard for something from the game, but time and again the Ops were able to win the ball, and then send runners galloping into the available space, with several 3v1 and 4v1 attacks unfortunately breaking down at just the wrong moment, or finding the SV keeper making some top quality saves. With 4 minutes to go, SV were rewarded for their efforts with a fine first time finish from their forward, but the Ops closed out the game to notch another excellent win on the road.