My first visit to the Oakside Stadium, home of Barkingside Utd and Ford United. It's a better ground than Croydon Arena is all I can say. They are really nice people, however. It's just that there are not very many of them. Ford were promoted at the end of last season and have stuggled this term, never out of the relegation zone with 16 points from 18 games. Saints opened this season's campaign with a 4-2 victory at Clarence Park against Ford on the first day of the season. Ford appointed Craig Edwards, formerly of Grays,as Manager a month ago and among their ranks are former Saint, Paul Tubbsy Newell.
The Dynamic Duo selected Wilmot in goal, 4 at the back: Gledhill, Brown, Campbell and naylor; 4 in the middle: Oakes, Challinor, Castle and Kean; and up front: Crawshaw and Martin. On the bench: Moran, Mackail-Smith, Hollenbach, De Souza and Evans. On crutches: Smith. On loan at Stortford: Gould. Gone to Bedford: Roberts (D).
It's a strange game, football.
City murdered a very poor Ford side for the first half without scoring a goal. Newell made two good saves, the first from an Oakes free-kick and the second from a Campbell volley, but otherwise, there wasn't a shot on target despite a number of good chances. Kean and particularly Oakes showed their quality. The City defence had very little to do for the first 45 minutes except maintain pressure on the home side's half. H.T. 0-0.
Surely a hatful of goals would come in the second half. Within a few minutes, Oakes scored from a 30 yard free-kick, very well struck indeed. 0-1. Kean was injured and replaced by Evans. Ford began to play and City seemed to withdraw into defence. What was worse was that they seemed to panic with wild clearances back to the home side who, of course, maintained pressure on the visitors. It was quite quite remarkable. City seemed to stop playing. Either that or a training ground exercise, Defence vs. The Rest. The Duo brought on Mackail-Smith for Crawshaw and, shortly after, De Souza for Martin. With 15 minutes left, Ford scored the inevitable equaliser from an Abrahams header. 1-1.
Either side could have snatched a winner in the last few minutes but the draw was probably the right result. City will rue the missed opportunities from the first half in particular. Ford will be surprised and delighted with the point. The Travelling City Faithful, some 100 of the official attendance of 155, were very disappointed.
Entertainment 5/10. Atmosphere 3/10. Technical Merit 4/10 . Referee 6/10.
Report by Awayday |