New signing, the
hugely experienced John Mackie, replaced Matt York,
who was not available, as the only change to the side
that started at Carshalton.
Wealdstone, however, were to prove a
far tougher proposition than last weeks tuneless
Robins and attacked from the start, forcing Dave King
into a sharp save at the foot of his right post in the
first minute. It was only after ten minutes on
the defensive that Terrors started to get into the
game, prompted by a Michail Antonio raid down the
right wing.
Just after the quarter hour
Wealdstone failed to properly clear a Paul Vines
cross, directed to Antonio at the back post. Getting
the ball back just outside the area Vines decided to
go for goal and directed a wickedly swerving and
dipping shot over the diminutive Thomas for the
opener. Paul is currently being sponsored by the
goal for the "Beards for Boobs" breast
cancer charity (check it out on facebook), so this was
the ideal time to advertise the fact via today's tee
shirt.
The defence was carrying on where it
left off last week with McLeod and the quite
outstanding Pinnock collecting and building. On
twenty five minutes Jason intercepted an attack and
passed to Antonio on half way, from there
Michail made his way through the defence and into the
six yard box, where Thomas did well to beat his shot
away for a corner. Shortly after Paul Vines hit
the bar after taking the ball with his back to goal,
turning and shooting.
The visitors were not out of things
and kept the Terrors on their toes throughout.
Three minutes before the break Forbes wrong footed the
home defence, after the referee had failed to punish a
push on Antonio, and slipped the ball under King for
the equaliser. The celebrations were short-lived
though as, just before half time, Antonio powered
through to meet a perfect corner with the perfect
header.
Half Time: 2-1
Colin Hartburn was replaced by
Callum Crawley, presumably because he had picked up a
booking and what was certainly on a final warning. But
shortly after the balance of the midfield was
completely destroyed when McLeod was incapacitated by
a hefty challenge. From that point on timely
tackles and controlled clearances were replaced by
desperate lunges and long hoofs. A series of free
kicks was conceded and in the sixty fifth minute Ryan
Ashe calmly stroked one into the bottom corner of the
net without another player (from either side) moving -
perhaps they had all frozen solid! McLeod
made way for another debutant in Kirk Watts but, like
his fellow forwards, he saw little of the ball as
'Stones continued to press. The inability to break the
stranglehold got too much for Joe Vines, whose efforts
to be everywhere and win every ball ended in
frustration and a yellow card. Deep
into injury time we saw the familiar sight of an
opponent strolling through the middle and scoring
unhindered. |
