HT 3-0

FT 6-0

Att 312

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The FA Vase 4th round proper.

MATCH REPORT

Chertsey Town enjoyed their delayed Fourth Round FA Vase tie at Alwyns Lane against a less than sound Plymouth Parkway side that facilitated an emphatic home victory and passage through to the last sixteen of this season’s competition. The one week delay in starting the match due to the snow heightened expectations but in truth, the tie failed to produce anything like the tension of the previous round and a home win looked odds on at a very early stage.

Marksman John Pomroy is last person to be given space in which to conjure his magic, but that is what he was afforded and the Devonians paid the price by allowing him a self helping of four untroubled goals. His quadruple was sandwiched between a goal a piece from Steve Goddard and Kwabana Agyei to set up another home tie to a side that will undoubtedly prove to be infinitely tougher.

With a feature that was to be repeated throughout the afternoon with poor exieution, the Plymouth backline instantly began relying on setting the offside trap but became almost as quickly caught themselves for the snare was sprung after only seven minutes of play. Sure Steve McNamara might have been too advanced when the ball was played through but it was not him that was involved, as acknowledged by the referee when he waived down a waving flag from his assistant.

Goddard was the one that counted and he ran through to fire at the target. Goalkeeper Ben Elphick parried the shot but only as far as Pomroy who took his turn at a shot. This one hit the post and ran across the goalmouth where Goddard followed up to put his side into the lead. It looked all too easy from the start but the Plymouth side fought back and pressed Town well into their own territory.

An ascendancy of something over a quarter of an hour looked menacing but little in the way of a direct attack on the Chertsey goal materialised. The home defence was resolute through the tie. Liam Stone in goal had a couple of efforts to save but he would have been disappointed had he been beaten with these regulation shots.

Meanwhile, Chertsey began to build again but it was the long range clearances from defence that Parkway was unable to counter. A ball cleared to the halfway line by Elphick was intercepted by Steve Goddard who then returned it with a curling pass to Pomroy. The striker moved in but his shot arced inches wide.

Soon after, a raking ball wide on the left delivered by Ollie Treacher from just inside the Chertsey half, found Pomroy. Again in space, he tried to lob the keeper but the ball drifted wide. Not to be denied, Pomroy at last etched his name onto the list of scorers. In similar circumstances as seen minutes previously, Treacher lofted a 45 yard pass which Pomroy, still being afforded plenty of space, collected 25 yards out. He moved the ball onwards, to pick his spot and record goal number two on 39 minutes.

The third was not long in coming, just three minutes in fact, and again it put the spotlight on Plymouth’s frail defence. A seemingly harmless ball almost ambled through the middle of the park just outside their penalty area. With a full set of defenders in being attendance, John Pomroy was as surprised as all 312 spectators in the ground to find the ball had run to his feet. Gratefully accepting his treasure, all he had to do was turn and slot the ball round the beleaguered Elphick.

Although seemingly always on the back foot, Plymouth needed to reverse their ill fortunes but never came close to mounting any sort of counter offensive in the second half. The dilemma of having to press forward to try and snatch a goal or two back merely created more opportunities for the Chertsey forward line. Slack marking again was Parkway’s undoing and it only took six minutes of play after the interval to completely seal the result.

The ball was poked through the middle by the highly mobile Marcus Moody who must have confused his opponents as to what his prime position was on the afternoon, such was his movement. The pass inevitably found Pomroy who again eluded his markers to fire home from 15 yards for his second hat trick of the season.

Steve Goddard also looked sharp in attack but is still not 100 percent fit and was replaced by Kwabana Agyei just after the hour. He too proved to be a handful and did good work on the right wing, particularly on 72 minutes when he made ground to cross deeply for Pomroy to head home with the goal at his mercy for his fourth and Chertsey’s unsurprising fifth.

The party was not over for Chertsey as Agyei also found the net with eleven minutes still on the watch after jinking through the a crowded Plymouth penalty area and smacking the ball into the roof of the net. That became the final score line but should not have been! Plymouth’s Andy Sargent somehow contrived to hook the ball over the Chertsey crossbar from only a few feet out in the dying seconds which would at least given his long distance supporters one moment of cheer.

Although the forward play, in creating six of the best, took the limelight, nothing should be taken away from an overall team effort that saw Chertsey Town at its best in both midfield and defence. Its players will need to re-create the same desire and skill two Saturdays later when Whitley Bay, current Vase holders and firm favourites to retain the trophy, come to Alwyns Lane to try and block Town’s path to the quarter finals.