Barking & East Ham Utd 2 – 1 Wealdstone

Barking up the wrong tree

Barking is rarely a pitch where silky skills come to the fore, so in the conditions today it was as well that neither side showed any.

On a bone hard and dusty pitch, with a glaring sun and a strong blustery wind, no-one expected much from the game and that was what it produced. With the wind (for what assistance it actually offered) in the first half, Wealdstone had the better of the play, but their best efforts were a corner and a free kick, both parried onto the crossbar and away by an unconvincing home keeper, but he did enough to keep the scores level at 0-0.

In the second half Barking made more of the wind and pressed on a little more convincingly, but they were a little fortunate to take the lead when Walker misjudged a long ball. Instead of clearing his lines he attempted to play the ball out but it only fell to the Barking forward to shoot home on 50 minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, Wealdstone were level when good work from Martin Carter brought him to the edge of the box and he slid the ball into the path of Hammatt to equalise. It was a short lived though, as a minute or so later Carter failed to hold a free kick and Thomas reacted quickest to restore the home side’s lead.

As both sides struggled to cope with the conditions, Stones made a triple substitution but to no effect, the home side holding on to the points.

Wealdstone: Andy Carter, Jason Shaw (s68 Tom Bryson), Bryan Hammatt (65, b76), Lee Walker (s68 Matt Perry), Justin Bowen, Kevin Ramsay, Joel Marie-Sainte (s68 Carl Hunt), Martin Carter, Mick Swaysland (b70), Marvin Morgan, Danny Tilbury.