News

Godalming Town 3 - 0 Alton

16 Sep 2026

Match report by Ian Hall

A first win of the season for newly promoted Godalming was enough to see them move out of the relegation spots whilst a second successive 3 0 reverse leaves Alton looking nervously over their shoulders. Nathan Best set the home side off to a good start on nine minutes whilst second half goals from Marcus Travers and right at the death Coby Acquaye completed the rout.

Godalming had plied their trade in the Southern Counties last season, and having swapped places with Guildford, regard Alton’s scalp as prized local rivals compared to visits to the likes of Faversham Strike Force and Chislehurst Glebe. If the travelling Alton faithful, for whom the A31 derby at Badshot Lea represents the big one, had hopes of points on the road they were in for a rude awakening.

The new ground signaled itself when a football landed smack in the middle of the road. “Would you like me to pull over Sir?” enquired my chauffeur “it’s probably one of ours”. The pitch was green but very undulating – regardless of where you stood it seemed to be uphill.

Already facing a long string of absentees, Alton were now missing Hadif Darwysh and worse was to follow with named keeper Charlie Burns unable to take part and Ben Matthews pulling on the gloves. Skipper Jamie Phillips was making his 300th appearance, in addition to a successful stint in the dugout last season and Matt Graham’s name on the bench raised hopes the magic left wand may yet make a come-back.

With an emergency keeper and having scored two goals in a run of five defeats, Alton desperately needed to keep things tight. As such, allowing Nathan Best to run on to a hopeful hoof on 9 minutes, bring the ball under on the tricky surface, take two further touches and lash the ball into the roof of the net, all completely unchallenged, was not the start they needed. Godalming a big side, played direct football, Alton in contrast tried to play in Acheampong and Sav Shah down the flanks but, missing Matt Benham in particular, are struggling to create and were restricted to long range pokes. The game see-sawed between periods of pressure at either end, without actually testing the keepers after the early goal.

Half time, in which we were enthusiastically told that Guildford is one of four towns in the UK with a Cathedral (first to name the other three gets free entry to Alton, runner up free entry for two etc) was over all too swiftly and the second half resumed. The lead was doubled shortly after the break when a Hail Mary dropped vertically towards a throng of players on the near post and somehow ended up bobbling into the net. Alton’s claims for a foul were ignored.

Godalming had another chalked off - their center forward displaying exemplary control and a finish their league position would suggest doesn’t happen often, particularly not when the flag hasn’t already gone up. They did get a very late third with a long-range poke found the bottom corner.

“Big match at the weekend” observed my man at the wheel in reference to bottom placed Eversley’s trip to the Exclusive Networks (Sat 19th). “Good luck writing this one up”.

Matthews, Phillips (C), McLean, Lever, Dryden, Garlinge, Goulter, Ledbury, Shah, Kenny, Acheampong. Subs Hill, Mather, Johnson. Pound, Graham.