HT 1-1

FT 3-1

Att - 67

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Combined Counties League - Premier Division Match

MATCH REPORT

Chertsey Town are still teetering on the edge of their 'nearly' season but in collecting only one point from their last two games, it will only be by default now that they can shuffle back to the top of the table. Other prime contenders, principally Epsom & Ewell. Molesey and Camberley Town, all lost as well but distance was lost to Bedfont Green who regained the top the table at the weekend.

Saturday's Combined Counties League defeat at Banstead Athletic, rarely a happy hunting ground for the Curfews, was another of those games that almost garnered a promising win, especially when Aaron McLeish, who looked sharp all afternoon, struck the post with a venomous 25 yard strike only seconds into the game. What quite this would have done to the resolve of a side that had just suffered from three successive defeats if it had swerved just two inches to the right, can only now be the target of conjecture, but it could well have further set up Chertsey's fight back for the championship.

The rebound was cruel and the ball flew away to Banstead's safety zone, but not Chertsey's, as it soon found itself at the opposite end of the park where a desperate goal line clearance by Marcus Moody saw the ball skid off his boot onto an upright before being cleared. This created two encounters with the woodwork in less than two minutes and suggested that the sodden, barely playable surface, would play a major role in events from the first to last.

Thoughts of another goal fest, emulkating that seen against Bookham in the week, were soon dispelled though for although Chertsey attacked with cohesion and purpose in the early stages, a lack of decisiveness in the A' s box failed to make that edge count. However, better chances were created at the edge of the penalty area. McLeish delivered another powerful shot which brought out an 18th minute agile save from Steve Windegaard between the Banstead sticks.

The wheels started to fall off on the half hour when loose play 30 yards out from the Chertsey goal allowed Simon Mitchell a near free run at goal, ending with a simple tap in with only Michael Lidbury left in the way. Chertsey fought back with McLeish again coming close with a strike that Windegaard just managed to tip over for a corner. But Town's persistence eventually paid off when a Banstead defender almost cuddling the ball when fired at his stomach set up a penalty kick that John Pomroy just squeezed home with only a couple of minutes left on the clock.

Chertsey then began the second half all square with a second opportunity to make an impression, but it was the host side that made a dent in Chertsey defence first with a cross on 51 minutes that gave Mitchell no problems in slotting his side ahead again at close range. An equaliser 11 minutes later looked a good bet when Paul Brooker clipped the ball back to Pomroy after a persistent right flank run but, off balance, the ball was hoisted too high from six yards and the ball clipped the top of the bar as the opportunity went a begging.

McLeish set up one more promising situation with a run through the middle but in trying to place the ball, allowed Windegaard to get down and divert it away for yet another Chertsey corner kick. The miss proved even more costly than at first thought for within a minute, the 69th, the ball was back in the Chertsey net when a foray on the right was not stopped and Anthony Morrison on the far post was able to slam home a two goal cushion that knocked the stuffing out of the Chertsey players.

The next quarter of an hour saw very little in the way of any concerted effort in trying to pull back from a near impossible situation. Momentum was not helped, especially at that stage, by some strange refereeing that resulted in a number of prolonged and seemingly unnecessary hold ups that eventually resulted in nine minutes being added at the end.

It was during that extra time that Town rekindled a slightly brighter flicker to their ever guttering candle of hope when Brooker scored a sublime second goal for Chertsey with a deft chip over the Banstead keeper at an angle. This prompted a vibrant Chertsey chase for an equaliser and although, once again, sharp technical football brought the ball to the Banstead penalty area with efficiency, there was no more success at breeching the home defence again and take at least one desperately needed point from a game that had looked to gone completely away from them only ten minutes previously.