Yet another fine Spring day at Clarence Park for the visit of Grays Athletic. My pre-season tip for promotion, Grays are 17th in the League today with 46 points from 41 games, a disappointing year. City are 3rd and must put last week's mauling at Canvey behind them if they are to finish in the top 3 ahead of Hendon and Sutton. Stirring programme notes from Cookie should do the trick.
For today, Cookie selected Wilmot in goal; 4 at the back: Evans, Brown (C), Campbell and Lodge; 4 in the middle: Young, Challinor, Hyatt and Kean; and up front : Martin and De Souza. On the bench: Moran, Mackail-Smith, Deacon, Gledhill and White.
This was a strange one. A dull first half devoid of cohesive football from either side remarkably produced 2 goals and half-a dozen goalmouth incidents. For once the recorded highlights would have been much better than the real thing. The visitors keeper, Mel Capleton, made severall fine saves during the period and at the other end, Wilmot was required to show his class more than once. Challinor missed with a sharp volley and a De Souza header was cleared off the line at one end. At the other, Kerrigan and Jarvis both missed opportunities before Saints opened the scoring on the half hour.
An overhead kick from Brown was acrobatically tipped over the bar by Capleton and the skipper stayed up for the resulting corner to powerfully head home unchallenged. 1-0. Moments later Carthy tried a 30 yard lob over Wilmot which was just too high. He adjusted his range and a minute later tried the same tactic to better effect. 1-1. The injured Campbell was replaced by Moran. Wilmot had fallen badly a few minutes earlier and limped off at half-time clearly in difficulty. H.T. 1-1.
White replaced Wilmot during the break and the second half differed from the first as, now, there were few goalmouth incidents to liven the gloom. It was remarkable football as neither side appeared 'up' for the match and neither seemed to have any game plan worthy of the name. The points were there for the taking and it was Grays who scored on the hour when former 'Shot, Miller shot firmly past the static White from 20 yards. Mackail-Smith replaced Young, disappointing after his switch to the left side of midfield. Capleton was hardly troubled for the rest of the game. F.T. 1-2.
This was disappointing football. Grays are a talented team who play tight on the opposition. City left their passing game on the training field. The cynics who refer to meaningless end of season games called this one right but for me and Cookie, this isn't good enough. MotM? If I must, Brown. A disappointing and disappointed crowd of 350 or so with perhaps 50 or so up from Essex.
Entertainment 3/10. Atmosphere 3/10. Technical Merit 2/10. Referee 5/10.
Report by Homer |
