Wealdstone 1 – 1 Mangotsfield United
Wealdstone1 - 1
Mangotsfield UnitedA difficult day all round with a blustery wind stifling most attempts from both sides to play what little football was on offer, but one on which after the early exchanges, Stones looked the more likely to come away with a result.
Mangotsfield played with the wind at their backs in the first half and for the opening 20 minutes kept Stone penned fairly well into their own half, though it wasn’t only Stones defence that kept the visitors at bay as a number of 30 yard efforts from the visitors sailed into the Cemetery behind the goal. their best effort was in fact in the first ten or so minutes when a strike from French cannoned back off of the post for Stones to clear.
At the other end, Martin and Robinson found their chances limited as Stones struggled to get the ball forward, though Robinson did connect with an excellent through ball from Donnelly forcing a good save from Book, moments after a good shout for a penalty was turned down as Robinson appeared to be pulled down on the edge of the six yard box.
As the half wore on, Stones pushed further on forcing the visitors to defend in numbers and the score remained 0-0 at half time. The second half saw the wind in Stones favour and they made the most of it as the penned the visitors in, regaining the upper-hand in almost every department, though only forcing a couple of clear cut chances, Book brought into the action once again and coping well with efforts from Robinson, Martin and Fernandes, while Smith in the Stones goal had to react sharply to turn away one long range effort midway through the half.
On 64 minutes Stones took the lead when Simon Martin headed home from a Scott Donnelly corner and this seemed to give Stones a little more confidence as they pushed forward. this though proved to be their undoing when a quick break and a ball switched to the right hand side found Hawkins in space, his shot drilled into the near post where smith could only block, and Claridge reacted first to squeeze in the equaliser on 75 minutes.
Stones then brought Papali into the fray for the laboring Montgomery, but despite a couple of chances at both ends there were no more goals and the honours shared.
Probably two points dropped by the Stones, their position made more difficult as others at the foot of the table won on the day, and with 8 games remaining the odds of remaining a Premier League side next year are lengthening.
Wealdstone: Paul Smith, Marcello Fernandes61, Fergus Moore, Graham Hall, Ben Martin35, John-Joe O’Toole, Chris O’Leary, Scott Donnelly, Graeme Montgomery s76 Dean Papali, Theo Robinson, Simon Martin64, Subs not used: Dean Clark, Andre Dellisier, Josias Carbon, Lee Chappell
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