Enfield Town 3 – 1 Wealdstone
Enfield Town3R
3 - 1
WealdstoneCup of Woe
A familiar story from the Middlesex Cup Tie at Enfield Town, where errors cost Wealdstone the chance to progress further in the competition.
A bright start saw the home defence chasing shadows as Wealdstone broke forward in waves for the first twenty minutes, but to no avail as goalkeeper, defenders and poor finishing meant that the score remained 0 – 0, the closest to a goal was a Terry Chamberlain shot from fully thirty yards tipped over the bar by the home keeper.
On twenty minutes though, a seemingly harmless clearance from midfield found Clarke in the Stones half and his pace took him past three challenges, his low shot beating Andy Carter to give the home side a somewhat fortunate lead. Stones though continued to play some excellent football and were rewarded on 29 minutes when a corner was flicked on by Horner and Hammatt equalised with a close range header. At that point, the match changed.
Enfield Town seemed to realise that they didn’t need to chase the Stones around the field and they allowed Wealdstone more of the ball, as the attacks pressed on Stones became more and more capable of letting them break down, and the speed of the break and some direct football from the home side caused numerous problems as Stones were forced to defend.
The score remained 1 – 1 at half time, but the second half saw Enfield become more dominant as Stones seemed to lose shape and confidence against a quick attack, a square defence caught ball watching on a number of occasions and it was no surprise when on 61 minutes the ball broke behind stagnant Wealdstone defenders, Clarke reacted first chasing down the ball as Andy Carter came out of his box, and for the second game running his clearance was blocked, the ball running favorably for the home striker, who had the simplest job to tap in a second goal.
Stones did press on and were a little unlucky when Hammatt had a goal disallowed for offside – probably the right decision but a very late ‘flag’ angered players and fans alike, but on 85 minutes the self destruction was finally completed, when an immobile defence again failed to react to a break, Jason Shaw the only Stone’s player tracking back, and a s a low cross came in slid in to prevent the ball reaching Clarke again, but this was enough to divert the ball into the net to give the home side a 3 – 1 win.
Wealdstone: Andy Carter, Matt Perry ( s68 Ricky Pither), Nigel Reed, Danny Reeve, Richard Horner (s68 Lee Walker b 85), Carl Hunt, Terry Chamberlain, Jason Shaw (og85), Marvin Morgan (s68 Olatunji Bamgbola), Bryan Hammatt (29), Danny Tilbury, Subs not used: Kevin Ramsay, Vinny Somers