Matches

LATE SUMMER 'BLUES' by Carol Smith-Allen

On a glorious late summer’s day, the Urchins took all three points, not because they were outstanding, but more due to the fact that Blue’s gave their poorest and most uninspiring performance of the season so far.

The first half of this match, saw Hornchurch definitely having the edge over Blue’s, who created only a couple of real scoring opportunities, the first of which was an excellent run by Freddy Eastwood, who then crossed for Tony Lock. However, Lock unfortunately fell over in the box. The second was a shot from Martin Carthy from 25 yards out, which went over the bar.

The Urchins on the other hand created many more chances, with a header from Steve West going wide on 13 minutes; a John Keeling 25 yard strike was saved by Mel Capleton, and then on 29 minutes a shot ended up over the bar. However, Hornchurch did open the scoring 3 minutes later when John Martin’s free-kick was headed in by Andrew Martin. As one Blue’s fan said in the interval ‘we are just not able to penetrate their defence.’

Four minutes into the second half the Urchins increased their lead, when Vinny John smashed the ball into the top corner of the net, and then they could have made it three on 55 minutes but shot just wide. The few scoring opportunities that Blue’s did have during this half were wasted due to poor finishing; some of their passing was also very inaccurate.

In the 95th a cheeky back-heel by Vinny John had to be cleared off the line by Mel Capleton, to prevent the deficit being more. Then 3 minutes later, Blue’s appealed for a penalty after Ade Olayinka was brought down, but instead were given a free-kick on the edge of the area.

This match seemed a very long 90 minutes, and I personally could not wait for the referee to blow the final whistle and put us Blue’s fans out of our misery. Let’s hope on Tuesday night against Bishop’s Stortford at the Rec, Blue’s produce a much better performance, and with it obtain at the very least a share of the spoils! COME ON YOU BLUES!!!

Teams
Hornchurch:- Gay, Gooding, J. Martin, Adedeji, West, Southon, Keeling, Sterling, John, A. Martin, McGowan Subs:- Bradley, Findley, Marsden, Cowley, Collier
Grays Athletic:- Capleton, Bradshaw, Kerrigan, Olayinka, Youds, Thurgood, Carthy, Marwa, Eastwood, Lock, Stimson Subs:- Hayzelden, Barrett, Oshitola, Williams, Bruce

Referee:- S. Fay

Attendance:- 626

Your comments

Fair comment, but I thought it was men against boys. We will struggle agianst sides with physical strength and experience, neither of which we have in abundance. Our fitness looks good as we tend to come on well in the later stages, so we must put this to good effect if we are to achieve the magical "13th or above". Also, just seen we've sold Kerrigan. I thought he was doing well and I assumed he was one of the fulltimers. Hope we have a ready made replacement.

Having seen the game at hornchurch i think we are back to the same old problem we had last year good players but no team, there can only be one reason for this and that is the manager we have changed so many players surely a good manager could put together a good team if we can afford all these good players why can't we get a manager who can do the job

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