Heybridge Swifts 1 – 3 Wealdstone
Heybridge Swifts
1 - 3
WealdstoneA bit of a makeshift Stones line-up tonight did enough to secure a 3-1 win away to Heybridge Swifts. A number of Stones players were delayed by traffic problems and the match kick off was also delayed by 15 minutes as late arrivals finally made their way to the ground.
The first half was goalless, then Heybridge took the lead early in the second half after a mistake by Lee Holland, but Rob Ursell fired up the Stones from midfield, setting up goals for both Beckford and Burrell and then Beckford was brought down late on, Richard Jolly completing the scoring from the penalty spot.
Traffic problems meant that the kick off was delayed 15 minutes and Gordon Bartlett had to make the decision to move Dave Ryan onto the bench.
Pete Worby said: A quick look at the team sheet suggested we might be in for a torrid night defensively as keeper Aaron Benstead was lined up behind a young and inexperienced back four of Burrell, Holland, Lancaster and Chappell.
The rest of the team looked fairly attack orientated with Beckford and Jolly up front and debutants Kenny Beaney and Rob Ursell joining Ross White and Graham Montgomery in midfield.
The first half was fairly even. Stones looked good going forward and Jermaine came closest to scoring when a curving right foot shot from 20 yards went narrowly wide of the right hand post. At the other end, Stones were fortunate to escape unscathed from a number of desperate scrambles in their own penalty area. Half time 0-0.
Just minutes into the second half and Heybridge took the lead when Chappell completely missed his kick leaving a forward an easy goal belting the ball past the exposed Benstead. Stones bounced back though and equalised within minutes after great play from Ursell saw him beat a number of players before crossing the ball for Jermaine to slot home. Things got better in the 70th minute when Ursell again did well on the ball and slipped it to Burrell who shot home powerfully from about 20 yards. On the 78th minute Jermaine was fouled in the box whilst dribbling past a defender and Jolly slammed the penalty home.
With most Wealdstone supporters thinking pessimistically we’d probably got a point in the bag we actually finished really strongly and the last 10 minutes plus injury time saw us threatening to score a 4th rather than Heybridge getting back into the game. Final score 3-1.
Wealdstone: Aaron Benstead, Lee Holland, Lee Chappell, Ross White, Louis Lancaster, Kenny Beaney (s88 Josh Cooper), Rob Ursell (s80 Phil Turner), Graeme Montgomery (s68 Dave Ryan), Jermaine Beckford, Richard Jolly, Gary Burrell, Subs not used: Carl Ashton, Luke Woods