Wealdstone 0 – 1 Tooting & Mitcham Utd
Wealdstone4R
0 - 1
Tooting & Mitcham UnitedToot ? – peep.
The best suggestion for this match report is to cut and paste from a number of previous ones this season, as Stones yet again followed a set pattern to defeat.
It was a good start that settled into an even if poor match in the middle, broken only by a moments lapse of concentration before a battling bright finish that failed to produce an equaliser when really it should.
If we look at what Tooting did well, it only emphasizes what Wealdstone did poorly. Tooting were a strong, physical side. They held the ball up well both in attack and midfield and they shielded the ball well when under pressure. They moved forward and backwards as a unit 0 rarely was there more than ten to fifteen yards between the forwards and the supporting midfield players in attack or the defence and the covering midfield when they were on the back foot.
Their passing was sharp, only on occasions requiring two or three touches, although it was sometimes erratic. They also anticipated the ‘second ball’ often picking up the pieces. There main weakness? their shooting was abysmal. They created a number of opportunities – probably eight or nine – yet I can only remember Andy Carter forced into two saves, the remaining shots well off target.
From Stones perspective, our touch was poor at times, we rarely had less than twenty yards between the different divisions on the field and we failed miserably to anticipate the knock-on’s and flick, and even return passes, yet in the first twenty minutes Stones could have scored three goals, Hammatt, Bamgbola and Tilbury all having opportunities to open the scoring. Indeed Hammatt had a further chance when he collected a through ball, cut inside the defender and then wrong footed himself in shooting only to toe poke the ball well wide.
Tooting scored in the 44th minute from a free kick, conceded on their right. All bar 11 people in the ground saw their forward pull away behind the wall awaiting the free kick. Duly delivered he placed a soft header into the corner of the net as Andy Carter tried to make ground across the goal line. The eleven people that hadn’t seen the move develop were wearing Blue & White.
The second half was even until about fifteen minutes from the end when Stones started to attack with a vengeance, forcing Tooting, like Uxbridge the previous Saturday well back into their own box. A string of corners were cleared for more corners as shots and headers were pushed and deflected wide and even twice in the last two minutes Stones failed to make the best of their opportunity, Tilbury and Carter both putting the ball over the bar – and off target! – when the very least they should have bought saves.
It wasn’t to be Wealdstone’s night, but then perhaps it didn’t deserve to be. More worrying is ‘when it will be…..’
Wealdstone: Andy Carter, Robin Tucker (s80 Matt Perry), Keith Moore (s70 Joel Marie-Saint), Fergus Moore, Richard Horner, Andre Scarlett (b6), Carl Hunt, Martin Carter, Olatunji Bamgbola (s80 Dennis Fennimore), Bryan Hammatt, Danny Tilbury.