Windsor & Eton 3 – 3 Wealdstone
Windsor & Eton3 - 3
WealdstoneWinds of change?
A three all draw, but not a match of end to end excitement, certainly not one for the purists on a hard and in places uneven pitch. More again where both managers must contemplate changes to their defences, as weakness in this key area resulted in all six goals.
Stones failed to come out of the blocks and were caught by a goal from Cooke on four minutes despite opportunities to clear the ball. Fifteen minutes later and the ball lost in midfield again saw the defence fail to clear as Palmer extended the home side’s lead from their second chance of the match, Wealdstone’s only effort at this time was a long range effort from Tilbury that Bunting tipped around the post at full stretch, but the resulting corner came to nothing.
On 40 minutes Windsor again made the best of the slope and the wind and broke quickly, this time a shot from Brady that was well covered took a wicked deflection and nestled into the opposite corner of the goal, giving Charlie Leary no chance, but at least this did spur Wealdstone into action.
Right on half time, Stones won a free kick wide on the right and Scarlet’s delivery was well met by the tireless Swaysland who headed home to give Stones some hope, and then within 30 seconds, a battling run from Wright put him in a good position and a sweet ball into Hercules saw him slip the ball past the keeper only for a despairing clearance on the line to deny him, but he collected the loose ball and drove home to make the half time score 3 – 2 to Windsor.
Changes as half time made the Stones back line more solid and they equalised on 51 minutes when a poor clearance found Swaysland. He passed to Hammatt and the ball bobbled back off his leg to Swaysland who shot first time past the rooted Bunting from 25 yards to equalise.
Stones had the better of the next thirty minutes but were unable to extend their lead despite chances for Tilbury, Hammatt, Hunt and Swaysland, but in the last ten minutes it was Windsor who seemed destined to win as they too created chances, the best a shot from Wordsworth which came back off the bar, but to no avail as the score remained 3 – 3.
Wealdstone: Charlie Leary, John Deadman, Fergus Moore, Robin Tucker, Matt Perry, Andre Scarlet, Tyronne Hercules (45, s45 Carl Hunt), Danny Wright (s45 Martin Carter), Mick Swaysland (44, 51) , Bryan Hammatt, Danny Tilbury, Sub not used: Olatunji Bamgbola.