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Combined Counties League - Premier Division Match

MATCH REPORT

John Pomroy may have been seen to be less effectual in games prior to this midweek league exchange with Bedfont, but he certainly made an impact after joining the game off the bench with a little over 15 minutes to go by clipping home what seemed likely to be the winning goal, ten minutes from time in virtually his first touch of the ball.

The goal was reward for the momentum that Chertsey had built up after meekly falling behind in the very fist few minutes. All three points looked assured minutes after the Pomroy strike when Godard’s fierce shot was beaten down by the shoulder height outstretched arm of an intervening Bedfont defender. The referee was in good position to see the action but somehow contrived to adjudge the offence as being accidental.

From that incident, the ball was cleared down field by a relieved Bedfont defence and in doing so won a corner kick from which was bundled in an untidy, but just as effective, equalising goal three minutes from time by Liam Hind. There was next to no time to redress the injustice and so Chertsey fell away to their third consecutive league draw, doing their championship claim no good at all.

Chertsey believed they had dug their way out from a disastrous start to the game. The whole team looked like they were on the park but still tying their boot laces whereas visiting Bedfont had already lit the rocket boosters in theirs as they tore into a disjoined and apparently motiveless host side. Bedfont’s positive start was rewarded on six minutes.

They say you make your own luck and who can deny an element of good fortune when the ball spat out of a ruck of players in front of the Chertsey goalmouth to Gary Meakin some 20 yards out. He pumped the ball high over everyone and dropped it on Liam Stone’s right hand upright, to deflect into the net. Take nothing away from the scorer. He intended the opportunist option to find the net, but perhaps with a bit more margin to spare.

Chertsey then woke up. The playing surface was sticky from a day of drizzle on an already soaked pitch but still played competent football. Twice they found the net before the half time break and twice their efforts were disallowed. A push on a defender as the ball was crossed was the first to generate the referee’s whistle and a hand ball the second, but only after the ball hit the underside of the Bedfont cross bar and down into the path of newcomer Dean Papali who hoped to have put his name on the list of scorers straightaway. There was no complaint against either decision but, as in the Whitley Bay game, millimetres of the cross bar separated success from Town.

Chertsey best legitimate effort of the half before the equalizing goal arrived from the head of Steve Gibson, whose effort went wide. The Chertsey goal came in the 42nd minute with Gibson involved again. His free kick was knocked across the Bedfont goalmouth where Steve Goddard ran in and rammed the ball home from close in.

Chertsey pressed for a second half winner but almost went behind again when Awoala Kpunpamo forced Stone to tip the ball over his bar. Despite holding the midfield, Chertsey still seemed to be mentally warming down from the their three previous key games and were unable to get a really firm grip on the match.

Andy Crossley came on for Kwabena Agyei then soon after, Pomroy for Steve Tyson to put more emphasis on attack. The plan looked be working with Pomroy winning the chase to a low Goddard cross for the 80th minute and diverting the ball home from five yards to put his side ahead, but then fortunes went into reverse when the penalty kick appeal was turned down, swiftly followed by a goal being conceded at the last knockings.

Defenders Jack Francis and Dominic Worthington were both absent serving suspensions which cramped defending options but in conceding two home goals and not displaying sufficient focus against middle of the table opposition, the Chertsey players have increased pressure on themselves despite being slightly comforted with the news on the night that Camberley Town had lost at home to modestly placed Wembley.