Chipstead’s young hopes undeservedly found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-0 scoreline in their penultimate match of their Isthmian Youth League Central Division against Walton & Hersham on Monday night

Indeed, for 85 minutes, they were well in the game, & might even have secured a point on a different day, but they did concede early on, as the W&H left-winger was unmarked at the far post

Chips’ keeper Lewis Markley made a fine double save to prevent a second, but W&H did score from close range on the stroke of halftime to make it 2-0

Yet Chipstead came out after the break on the front foot - Naquarm Clarke-Douglas tricked his way into the visitors’ box from a short throw, the ball dropped to Eralb Hyselli, whose shot hit the post, with Oscar Pegler denied from the rebound

Clarke-Douglas curled another shot just beyond the far post, but Chips just couldn’t find a way back into the game - they introduced their subs, & saw skipper Karim Tidjani head Hyselli’s free-kick straight at the keeper

However it took a couple more fine saves from Markley to keep W&H at bay, before Hyselli’s long cross field ball just eluded Pegler

With five minutes to go, the visitors scored their 3rd, & there was still time for a 4th, & a free-kick gave them a 5th to earn them a flattering win

Chipstead remain 7th in the league table, with just a home game v. Kingstonian on Monday to complete their league programme