27/01/2024 – REPORT – Assington Stanley FC versus Great Bentley FC “A”
CHELMSFORD CITY RACECOURSE
ESSEX & SUFFOLK BORDER FOOTBALL LEAGUE
DIVISION FIVE
ASSINGTON STANLEY. 1. GREAT BENTLEY FC “A”. 1.
Date: Saturday 27th January 2024. Venue: Great Cornard Leisure Centre.
On a perfect February afternoon with good playing conditions, a small bumpy pitch perhaps, but the Cornard Leisure Centre was my venue for this third versus first match in Division Five, Assington Stanley FC versus Great Bentley FC “A”, honours even at the start and, at the end, the league positions remains unchanged, although the hosts have two games in hand.
Assington Stanley FC joined the ESBFL last season finishing tenth, in Division Five, this was my first chance to watch them, likewise, Great Bentley FC “A” for whom this is their first season, both teams sported a mixture of youth with the odd experienced player, even father and son for the visitors!
The referee for this match was Graham Pavitt, he had cause to show a number of cards of each colour, in what was, as expected, a very competitive match.
Great Bentley kicked off and were quickly into any tackle, but the first shot came from Whitbread, for Assington Stanley, who had made ground down the left side, the visitors struck back and opened the scoring after a few minutes. Smith (A) sent the ball wide to the right-side finding Hutchings and from his low cross LUCIAN HALL swept the ball home, stunning the home team. A free kick taken by Whitbread, for Assington Stanley flashed across the goalmouth for a goal kick, then Chatters handled the ball near the centre-circle and the visitors, a goal up, were definitely up for this battle. Clewlow and Joe-Walker worked the ball forward with Joe-Walker shooting straight at keeper, Canty, a corner taken by Drysdale, to the near post was cleared by Smith (A) for another corner, again taken by Drysdale, with Whitbread heading over at the far post. Munford was fouled by Cade, but Great Bentley cleared their lines from Drysdale’s free-kick, and the decibel level from the touchline had risen. Munford harried Smith (A) to produce a snatched shot which went out for throw-in, Oyenuga drove forward strongly, out of defence, but Smith (J), never one to shirk a challenge, made a good challenge to dispose his fellow defender and set Hall away down the left with Herbert alongside but Oyenuga got back to shield the ball back to his own keeper, Martin.
On fifteen minutes, Whitbread struck a long ball forward finding Clewlow, then at the other end Durrell tried his luck with a spectacular volley that troubled nobody, but Assington Stanley had settled after going behind and were beginning to threaten the visitor’s goal. Cross covered his defence when Joe-Walker and Munford pushed forward and from the move gained a throw-in off Chatters. Kill smashed a fine volley goalwards, from twenty-five yards, unfortunately the referee had little chance to get out of the way and play restarted with the home team given possession, as is the law of the game. Clewlow pushed forward into the penalty area, and despite being seemingly fouled by Cross, the referee was not interested, Smith (J) was spoken too for his protestations then Chatters kicked the ball away after a foul had rightly been given, this earnt him the first caution of the match. Joe-Walker soon followed into the referee’s notebook, this for a soft foul, Maunton followed for a heavy challenge in front of the home Management, for whom Wheelans was shown a yellow card, this match is warning up nicely, maybe, in the wrong way.
We are now thirty minutes in, only the one goal, plenty of effort and four cautions, bound to be more I suspect, the way this game is going, Munford ran through three challenges before being fouled by Durrell. Drysdale took the free kick floating the ball in to Clewlow who has free header but missed the target, then Kill ran onto a pass from Clewlow and having been thwarted by the referee earlier, fired a fine dipping shot that grazed the top of the crossbar and safety, keeper, Canty was well beaten though. Drysdale fouled Cade, from which Great Bentley gained a corner, taken by Chatters, again cleared by Oyenuga, but the visitors were still not allowing the home team any time on the ball, especially when playing the ball out of defence. Rolfe passed wide to Whitbread who got past Cade but shot wide, then the same player had a shot which was deflected by Smith (J) to Clewlow who failed to control the ball. Another Drysdale free kick saw keeper, Canty punch clear for a corner, taken by Drysdale, but cleared at the near post by Chatters, when words were exchanged between Munford and Lawrence, the visitors coach, he too was cautioned and asked to go away from pitch-side, which he did. Having also called Herbert, the visitors Manager over, the referee resumed play, and from the restart, Joe-Walker failed to control a pass, and in his haste to regain possession he was guilty of catching Hall, and having already seen yellow, he did so again, plus the red card for an early dismissal, shame really as neither fouls had been reckless, just ill-timed.
HALF-TIME: 0 – 1.
Assington Stanley were to restart the match, down by one player and down by one goal, but they had shown enough effort to get back into this match, straight away, Kill found Clewlow who stepped past Chatters who promptly fouled him, a penalty kick was awarded, keeper Canty was cautioned for knocking the ball out of the hands of the penalty taker, and despite bit of gamesmanship from his goal-line, he was well beaten by the spot kick driven down the middle by DAVID OYENUGA, game on! When Clewlow and Smith (J) were called together by the referee, they were spoken too, with Smith (J) seeing yellow for his act of petulance. A long clearance by keeper, Canty, fell to Chatters whose deep cross was headed out by Rolfe for a corner, safety first there, a long ball forward by Cross was met by the head of Smith (J) who headed over in a crowd of players. Cross covered well when Clewlow charged forward and from a corner, conceded by Maunton, taken by Drysdale, keeper Caty, for a small custodian, did well to punch clear under pressure from Oyenuga. On fifty-seven minutes, Assington Stanley replaced Kill with O’Loughlin and Great Bentley replaced Cade with Woods, the first real action for O’Loughlin was to concede a foul and get the last caution of the match!
A long throw-in from Clewlow was headed wide by O’Loughlin at the near post, decent chance there though, mainly through poor marking by the Great Bentley defence. Substitute Woods sent Chatters away, finding Hall but Rolfe was there to defend, conceding a throw-in, with Assington Stanley replacing Drysdale with Banahene on sixty-seven minutes. A free kick taken by Smith, for great Bentley, was headed on by Clewlow but Smith (J) was unable to capitalise and headed straight to keeper, Martin. Another Assington Stanley corner, taken by Clewlow found Munford whose header hit the side-netting although it did have the home management team celebrating, before realising the ball had gone wide. On seventy-two minutes Great Bentely replaced Hutchings with Attrill, their final change today, Fisher fouled Smith (A), Attrill took the free-kick, and Clewlow conceded a corner, taken by Chatters but headed clear by Oyenuga.
This match, with fifteen minutes remaining remained very competitive, keeper, Canty made a fine catch from a throw-in by Whitbread and from his throw out, the ball crossed the half-way line, Rolfe picked up the ball and played a deep forward pass, Clewlow gave chase, Maunton dived into a challenge, the ball went out of play but, the referee considered the challenge then deem ed it was a foul and it was inside the penalty area. Oyenuga, placed the ball on the spot, took a few steps back, ran up and passed the ball wide of the right-hand post, any goal here would have won this match but it remains all square, a big miss in more ways than one! There were seven minutes to play, when Assington Stanley made their two final changes, Simpson and Clewlow being replaced by Torpey and Horn, Rolfe and O’Loughlin tried to string some passes together, Banahene was prepared to chase down the visitors defenders, before Rolfe hit a fine shot that keeper, Canty saved with his feet and followed that stop up by denying Whitbread and keep the game poised right to the end at one goal apiece.
FULL TIME: 1 – 1.
A frenetic match, one goal apiece which I considered to be the right result, eight yellow cards and one red from two of them, was it a dirty game, no, competitive, yes, could there have been more cautions, probably. Both teams seemed happy with the outcome, it keeps them both at the top end with West Bergholt, whom they both have to play before the season end and Kelvedon Social have moved up to fourth after their eighth game, without defeat.
Now, let’s turn to my “Star Player”, a number of players took the eye, Oyenuga, Rolfe, Munford, Kill, Drysdale, Clewlow and Whitbread were prominent for Assington Stanley FC, for Great Bentley FC “A”, keeper Canty, in fact I’ve now seen all three keepers from the Club and they all look confident, the other players brought through the youth system look promising and with experienced players, Maunton, Chatters and especially Smith (J), the oldest player on the pitch, they have a strong team ethic which bodes well for the future.
Teams:
ASSINGTON STANLEY FC:
Colours: Green Shirts, Green Shorts and Black Socks.
Team:
Josh Martin., Alfie Fisher., Ashton Simpson., David Oyenuga., Steven Rolfe., Euan Munford (C)., Mitchell Kill., Stephen Clewlow., Frankie Joe-Walker., Brandon Drysdale.
Manager: Jordan Wheelans.
Used Substitutes: Chase Torpey., Akwasi Banahene., Aidan O’Loughlin., Adam Horn.
Unused Substitutes: Gary Green.
GREAT BENTLEY FC “A”:
Colours: Navy Shirts, Navy Shorts and Navy Socks.
Team:
Jay Canty., Alfie Cade., Matthew Maunton (C)., James Smith., Ryan Durrell., Henry Cross., Archie Smith., Anthony Chatters., Flynn Hutchings., Oscar Herbert., Lucien Hall.
Manager/s: Richard Herbert & Gordon Lawrence.
Used Substitutes: Jakob Attrill., Isaac Woods.
Unused Substitutes: Caiden Jameson., James Knapp., Charlie Dobson
Referee: Graham Pavitt.
Star Player: James SMITH (GREAT BENTLEY FC “A”)
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