Wealdstone 1 – 1 Billericay Town

Wealdstone

1 - 1

Billericay Town

KO: 0:00 | Tue 4th Apr ’06

The home fixture with Billericay finally got underway at the third time of asking, this evening the recently rolled pitch neither frozen or waterlogged, and after fully dominating the 85th and 86th minutes of this encounter, a tired Stones side were denied victory when Billericay scored with the last kick of the game, leaving Wealdstone with a single point to show for their efforts.

Billericay started the stronger, and so it remained with no more than 80% of the play in the Stones half – Wealdstone had set out their stall to defend against their visitors, but as the match progressed past the warm up it seemed they would have little choice in the matter anyway.

Wave after wave of Billericay attacks were defended well, defended with bodies or with saves from Lee Carroll, while in equal number, the visitors peppered the Car Park (first half) and Graveyard (second half), with fans wondering at one point if the match would be abandoned through a lack of footballs.

Stones did make occasional foray’s forward, but none sufficient to really test the visiting defence, the best bringing only corners which were well cleared by a well marshalled back line, though the score remained 0-0 at half time.

The second half saw Stones push on a little further but again the home fans behind the visiting goal were straining their eyes to see much of the game, and their vocal chords in offering support to their distant team, until the game changed with just five minutes of normal time remaining.

Matt Miller chased down a long ball forward forcing the visiting keeper to rush a clearance which saw Stones win a throw in the last third. From the throw the ball found Hickie on the line and he jinked his way through three challenges into the box before slipping a pass to Miller. In turn his shot was blocked and the ball fell to Josh Cooper fully 25 yards from goal, and he coolly took two touches, cut inside one step and unleashed a curling shot into the corner of the visitors net to give Wealdstone a 1-0 lead.

Now on top of their game, Stones regained possession from the kick off and a ball into the box was met by Miller whose looping header almost extended Stones lead as it was cleared from under the crossbar.

From this escape, Billericay pushed forward and returned to dominate the remaining minutes of normal time, though without threatening the Stones goal. As the Referee continued to play time added on – no doubt to cover the injuries and cramp suffered by home players – it wasn’t until the 6th minute of added time that Billericay equalised.

A break forward saw the first shot saved by Carroll, who also saved the rebound. Ryan and Chappell also seemed to block efforts in the melee before a visiting forward stabbed the ball home at the far post to equalise, the final score 1-1 as there was only time remaining for Stones to kick off, yet they at least ended the match in the Billericay half…

Wealdstone: Lee Carroll, Marvin Homand; Leigh Harrington (s30 Josh Cooper), Lee Chappell, Dave Ryan, Graham Hall, Jamie Palmer, Luke Hickie (s89 John Christian), Francino Francis, Matt Miller, Gary Burrell (s70 Graeme Montgomery) Subs not used: Phil Turner, Danny Gibbs.