Gloucester City 0 – 2 Wealdstone
Gloucester City0 - 2
WealdstoneAn away win – two on the spin etc etc!!
Enough of that. ..
This was about bo**ocks. The want to win, and simply Wealdstone wanted it.
From the start Stones took the game to their opponents and though under pressure themselves in the early stages, Stones kept at their task and could have taken the lead twice early on, Robinson and Montgomery both creating but missing chances, while at the other end, the defence handled everything that Gloucester could throw at them, leaving Mitch Swain in goal little to do but pick up scraps.
As the half wore on though Gloucester became dominant and forced Stones back for long periods, though again, the defence held firm and on the two occasions when he was called on to clean up, Swain was more than capable in goal.
Half time came and went with the score 0-0, but the break seemed to re-energise Wealdstone as they pushed forward with a couple of probing attacks in the early stages, before on 49 minutes they took the lead. Graeme Montgomery collected the ball out wide and took on and beat his man – something he hasn’t done enough recently – and he whipped in a low cross to the near post which Theo Robinson stretched towards beating his man and guiding the ball into the far corner of the net.
The next twenty minutes or so saw Stones pushing forward and Gloucester too breaking forward as they looked to equalise, but Swain and the defence as a man blocked and saved their efforts, while at the other end, Papali, Clark, Montgomery and Robinson all saw efforts saved,
As Gloucester again looked to get on top, Gordon Bartlett replaced Dellissier with Chappell and he immediately began to play a part in Stones attacking moves given the home defence another problem, but Stones second goal on 84 minutes was to come from a different source.
This time a long forward pass from Montgomery was excellently controlled by Dean Papali running through the home defence and his second touch was enough to knock the ball past the onrushing Johnston and into the net to give Stones a 2-0 win and three valuable points in the fight to beat the drop.
Wealdstone: Mitch Swain, Andre Dellisier s58 Lee Chappell, Fergus Moore, Carl Martin, Graham Hall, Dean Clark s84 Josias Carbon, John-Joe O’Toole, Chris O’Leary89, Theo Robinson 4966, Dean Papali84, s85 Simon Martin, Graeme Montgomery Subs not used: Lee Chappell, Josias Carbon
Harrow Times
Gloucester City 0 – 2 Wealdstone
By Steve Paull
Stones scrambling to safety….
ANOTHER win and one that claws Wealdstone another rung up the ladder towards league safety.
Only one of the fourth-from-bottom sides in the three feeder leagues is scheduled to be relegated and, as things stand at the moment, Wealdstone are safe by one point, but with still two weeks of the season and three games to go for most sides.
On the whole it was a deserved win too. Gloucester played with an “end of season” air, but showed the same lack of intensity when winning at Wealdstone in March.
The first half was ordinary with a distinct lack of goalscoring opportunities at either end – a typical end of season game in fact, as if nothing had been riding on it. Theo Robinson blazed a chance over following good interplay between him and Dean Papali, and Wealdstone were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box that was definitely two yards inside. Nothing came from it.
Apart from these incidents the was nothing to seriously test either goalkeeper or get the crowd roused, but this was fine from the point of view of Wealdstone earning league points.
The second half began with home centre-back Hamblin heading a corner over, but Graeme Montgomery fired in a low cross from the left moments later and the merest touch from Theo Robinson was enough to give Stones the lead.
This stirred the home side into action and within minutes Cox had fired across goal and sub Wilkinson sliced wide a glorious chance, close in, at the far post.
Stones responded positively and Montgomery’s effort from way out was fumbled over the bar by Johnston.
It was nail-biting time for Stones’ travelling supporters as the prospect of a precious away victory grew more possible as the minutes ticked away. With six of those minutes remaining Montgomery, having earlier fired over, then put in a defence-splitting cross that Papali did brilliantly to control and then coolly slide past the advancing keeper Johnston.
The celebrations began, but all is not safe for Wealdstone yet. Three games to go….