Wealdstone 1 – 2 Hampton & Richmond Borough
Wealdstone
1 - 2
Hampton & Richmond BoroughYoung Stones battle but are beaten by table toppers Hampton & Richmond Boro.
A young Stones line up, forced by injury and unavailability battled well against Hampton but lost by 2-1ttonight. The side was shorn of experience losing Ling. Harding, and Tucker to injury after Saturdays game, and Ross White to work commitments. With Ryan Spencer and Darryl Cox having left in the last week or so, the squad was thin on the ground and Stones included a number of teenagers in the line-up against the table toppers.
Stones though were not overawed, and played their part in a game that started brightly causing the Hampton defence one or two worries as the game progressed. Hampton though exemplified their spirit with an excellent work rate across the park – their marking becoming an exercise in ‘hunting in packs’ as there was rarely any room for Stones to play – every time they got the ball it seemed Hampton had not one but three players to close down the danger, and the young Stones found it difficult to break through.
The game was won with goals in each half, both from former Stone Yaku, his pace getting him to the ball in front of the defence on both occasions, and his finishes accurate, though after the second goal on 53 minutes, Hampton seemed to ease back and Stones came more into the game going forward.
Battling for the whole of the 90 minutes, Beckford and jolly both saw efforts flash wide or high, then on 85 minutes, Beckford was brought down and Stones were awarded a penalty, unfortunately Beckford’s shot was weaker than usual and it was well saved by Lovett, but still Stones battled and were at least given some reward when on 90 minutes, substitute ‘Junior’ Thompson beat his man out wide and flashed in a low cross met by Jolly with his back to goal. His sharp turn and shot was enough to beat his marker and the visiting keeper to leave the final score 2-1 to Hampton.
It wasn’t the final incident of the night though, as returning to the dressing room Andy Leese, part of the Wealdstone Management Team found that his bag had been stolen – along with personal possessions, it contained his car keys and his car too had been stolen from the car park.
Wealdstone: Luke Woods, Lee Holland (s78 Phil Turner), Carl Ashton, Lee Chappell, Dave Ryan, Andy Keepence, Josh Cooper (s85 Junior Thompson), Ryan Harris (s89 Neil McDonald), Jermaine Beckford, Richard Jolly, Gary Burrell. Subs not used: Louis Lancaster, Dave Norman.