Match Report by: Bondy  

Tuesday 22nd September 2009

Ashford Town (Middx)

2 - 1

The Terrors

Fowler (42), Johnson (57) GOALS York (45 pen)
1 Ross  
2 O'Sullivan  
3 Fowler  
4 Canderton  
5 Jeffreys
6 Ginnev  
7 Johnson  
8 Haule  
9 ?  
10 Harrison  
11 Harris  
12 Weight  
14 Logie  
15 Harris  
16 Hollis  
17 Burgess  

 Despite the return to the lineup of Colin Hartburn (injured) and Aaron Goode (suspended) the Terrors lost a second successive game, and to a team with only 10 players for half the match.

 Sadly your correspondent arrived a little late and therefore missed a 1st minute deep lob from Simon Parker that apparently had the keeper beaten but came down off the cross bar where Paul Vines just failed to head home.  

 What was very obvious was just how Amazonian a side Ashford had assembled. Playing with 3 at the back, 2 in midfield and both strikers 6 foot plus, Ashford,  not surprisingly, constantly played to this strength by concentrating their efforts on towering balls forward and into the box that Tooting struggled to cope with at times.  

Another chance came in the first quarter when the home keeper was dazzled by the floodlights and completely missed track of the ball as it flashed right across goal from a corner.  We then nearly conceded after half an hour when only a last ditch Bizz clearance in the box prevented a goal on a chance created from a loose pass on our own break forward.

 The ball was spending most time floating high in the air with successive corners for both sides. The exception was a 39th minute dribble and shot by Joe Vines that started on the halfway line.  Simon Parker then had a shot from just outside the box after turning with the ball.   

  King 1
 Hamlin 2
  Byatt 3
  Nelson 4
  Vines J 5
  York 6
  Goode 7
s12 McLeod 8
Vines P 9
  Parker 10
s16 Hartburn 11
s69 Heverin 12
  Clayton 14
  Fletcher 15
s79 Pitterson 16
  Henry 17

 Then, on 42 minutes, came the first goal following a corner that neither our defenders or keeper seemed to deal with decisively and the ball was bundled home by Fowler.  

But before the half finished we had drawn level.  A corner from the right in stoppage time was headed on to the bar by Paul Vines and then, according to most at that end, over the line by Allan McLeod despite the attempt by Jeffreys to keep the ball out with his hand.  Before awarding the goal the referee consulted his assistant who had his flag raised for the very obvious handball.  The result was a penalty and a red card for Jeffreys who was trying to make himself as small as possible as far away from the incident as possible. It did not work. Ace penalty taker Matt York dispatched the penalty with his usually aplomb.

Half Time:    Ashford  1 - 1  Terrors

The 2nd half started with a corner and then cross that came out to Bizz who fizzed a shot from outside the box that keeper Ross saved.  Alas just 12 minutes into the half we went behind again.  A long ball high into the box was only partially cleared and then played across from right to left of centre where Johnson ran on to it and struck a fierce shot into the top corner.

Ashford appealed for another goal just 2 minutes later when multiple bodies went up for a ball in the box but the referee waved their claims away.  The clear aim was to make the most of our extra man by stretching play. Although multiple attacks were launched, especially down the right hand side through Dean Hamlin and Mitchell Nelson, much of it lacked composure when loads of time remained to bring the scores level.  Bizz had another shot parried by Ross after a run from Parker. And Hamlin had the ball in the net on 81 minutes but was judged to be offside.

In the last 15 minutes the Terrors applied constant pressure with wave after wave of attacks and brought on Mike Heverin to add height up front and Craig Pitterson.  In truth Ashford held out fairly comfortably and 4 minutes of stoppage time were played out with the ball spending much time in the corner resulting in yet another dissent booking for Hamlin (to add to an earlier one for Paul Vines).

Now down to 8th but in truth not too much damage done and a return to league form will hopefully come after our start on the road to Wembley glory on Saturday.

Attendance:    Referee:  

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