Staines Town 1 – 1 Wealdstone
Staines Town1 - 1
WealdstoneMatching Staines
The score line shows honours even with a 1-1 draw, but Wealdstone can consider themselves unlucky after this match, played at Staines temporary home at Walton on Thames.
Again with the younger players to the fore, and bolstered by new signing Richard Horner at the back, Stones played the game at their pace, dominating the early exchanges, their best chance coming on 11 minutes, when Robin Tucker rose to head a corner, his header just touched over the bar by the home keeper. Unfortunately for Tucks, it was his last involvement – as he landed, he fell into the Staines defender and twisted his knee damaging medial ligaments which may see him sidelined for a couple of weeks.
With two defenders on the bench, Gordon Bartlett chose to reshuffle the pack and brought on Bryan Hammatt, also returning from injury, to lead the front line. Stones had a number of chances, Bamgbola and Pither early on and Hammatt, rounded the keeper but his shot was saved at the second attempt, while the home side were limited to long range efforts, mainly well off target.
It wasn’t until the 42nd minute that Stones took the lead when Vinny Somers collected the ball and attacked the box, beating three defenders before creating a space and scoring with a low shot.
The second half saw Staines apply a little more pressure early on and this brought their equaliser when on 52 minutes, Stones half cleared a cross, only for Butler to try his luck first time from 25 yards, a sweet connection saw the ball rifle into the corner of the net with none of the Stones defence even moving. It proved to be the only shot on target with any venom from the home side for the remainder of the half!
Stopnes again had the better opportunities and Hammatt saw a header beat the goalkeeper, hit the inside of the post and run along the line before being cleared, John Deadman too forced a good save from the home keeper and Bamgbola and Fergus Moore also saw their efforts saved.
A good performance from a developing Stones side that did look more solid with Richard Horner making an excellent debut, and instrumental in limiting Staines’ opportunities.
Wealdstone: Andy Carter, Matt Perry, Fergus Moore, Robin Tucker (s15 Bryan Hammatt b88), Richard Horner, John Deadman, Martin Carter, Jason Shaw, Ricky Pither (s67 Paul Lamb), Vinny Somers (42), Sub not used: Billy Amarteifio