Division One (East)
Chalfont Wasps 0 Finchampstead 2
Saturday, 07 December 2002
Neither the sub-zero wind chill factor nor the poor officialdom could stem the fire and passion of the Finchampstead players as they battled hard for a well deserved 2-0 victory in their Hellenic League Division One (East) visit to Chalfont Wasps on Saturday, with Darren Kettle celebrating his return to the club with a debut first half goal.
It took both sides time to master the uneven and clinging clay of the Bowstridge Lane playing surface, although an early half-chance from each side went begging, the first from a Darren Kettle header that flew high and wide of the target in the third minute and an equally off-target hurried shot from Martin Stowe seven minutes later, when the Chalfont forward had time to carry the ball closer. The first real flowing action of the game came in the fifteenth minute, with Alex Jefferies proving that his elevation from the reserve team for the day was justified when he made a blistering seventy yard run down the left wing before delivering a perfect cross from the bye-line that just eluded Darren Kettle and Bruce Rolls in the six yard box before being swept away for a corner by the thankful Sam Woodward. Six minutes later a similar Finch move down the other flank by Danny McCarthy saw the ball swept in towards Darren Kettle, who shook off the close attention of a defender before planting the ball into the path of Bruce Rolls on the front edge of the penalty area, who fired inches over the top with Chalfont keeper Simon Middleton seemingly stuck in the mud on the edge of his six yard box.
Then came a flare up just inside the Finch half of the field that ended with a player from each side being sent for an early bath. With Chalfont?s Raich Spencer attacking down the left, Finch defender Marcus Pearce stopped him in his tracks with a strong, but nevertheless fair tackle. As arms and legs became entangled, the Finch player was stamped on, resulting in several players from both sides getting involved before calm was again restored. Play was then held up for several minutes whilst the referee gathered accounts from both his assistants, one of whom was, like the referee, at least seventy yards from the incident that sparked the flare-up eventually Marcus Pearce and Raich Spencer were both being shown red cards. After that, the game became more subdued for a while with play something of a midfield stalemate, before Darren Kettle put Finch in front in the fortieth minute. With Danny McCarthy again proving a handful down the right, he sent in a low cross that flew off the keeper towards goal, only to be cleared off the line by Sam Woodward. The resulting corner from Danny McCarthy proved to be equally troublesome for the keeper, who failed to grasp it as it sailed across the face of the goal, allowing several players to pounce on the loose ball that was eventually stabbed home by Darren Kettle in a scramble of legs at the far post. Finch doubled their lead from another corner on the stroke of half-time, this time the set-piece resulting from a terrific Andy Knapp twenty yard strike that flew skywards off the legs of Simon Middleton before dropping agonisingly just over the crossbar. The corner was once again perfectly delivered by Danny McCarthy to the towering Bruce Rolls, whose firm header sailed past the Chalfont keeper into the back of the net to put Finch 2-0 up.
Half Time: 0-2
By comparison, the second half was a somewhat dull affair and although play moved regularly from end to end with few goal scoring chances were created by either side. The best came from Chalfont?s speed merchant Marcus Fearon in the sixty-first minute when he neatly collected the usual high, long ball clearance from his defence on the halfway line before racing in towards goal and forcing Stuart Harris to make a good save at the foot of his left post. The Finch keeper did equally well to deny Martin Stone in the sixty-fifth minute, finger-tipping a blistering shot over his crossbar that looked a goal all the way. Then, to add to the crowd?s excitement, Finch?s Danny McCarthy was shown a red card when an assistant referee interpreted his verbal match winning passion as dissent, although strangely five minutes later, the referee demonstrated total inconsistency by choosing to ignore a foul mouthed outburst directed straight at him from five yards away by a Chalfont player who clearly disagreed with one of his decisions. The nine Finch men played out the final twenty minutes of the game in a manner that their namesakes ?the magnificent seven? would have been proud of, denying Chalfont any real chances in front of goal and looking more as if they had the player advantage. With Darren Kettle moving back into midfield, they still carried the game to the home side, going close to making it 3-0 on the day with a delightful chip from Bruce Rolls that the keeper somehow grasped in midair in the eighty-third minute.
On Saturday Hounslow Borough are the visitors to Finchampstead Park in a Hellenic Football League Division One fixture (2.00pm) whilst Finchampstead Reserves entertain Eton Wick in the fourth round of the Berks & Bucks FA Junior Cup on the Finchampstead Leas ground (1.30pm).
|
|