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Combined Counties League - Premier Division Match

MATCH REPORT

Hosts Hanworth Villa gave a spirited Combined Counties League showing against Chertsey Town but were ultimately out gunned by a more skilful side. However, the contest was always on a knife edge until the final minute when Town’s third netting settled the result. Key moments went against the home side who battled hard on a very slick rain lashed pitch that gave the ball a degree of unpredictability.

Chertsey Town manager Spencer Day made only three changes after his side’s midweek shocker at Dorking. Out went Jefferson Gowland and Charlie Ide who have both been sacked from the club. It was not that they were made to be scapegoats but post match reactions made their positions untenable. John Swift was dropped to the bench but came on in the second half to bolster Chertsey’s defending.

Gavin Bamford and Andy Crossley returned to the side and were joined by Hampton & Richmond loan signing Dave Tarpey in attack. Tarpey made a significant impact in the scoring stakes, but not before Chertsey had first fallen behind. The opening exchanges were very lively with both sides creating half chances but it took only four minutes for the first goal to be scored.

 A long clearance through the middle skidded of an advanced Chertsey defender and into the path of Steve Loveridge, leaving Liam Stone in goal the lone defender. He came out to force the forward wide but was unable to stop the strike at goal which ran over the line with despairing defenders rushing back to try and retrieve the impossible situation.

The goal spurred the Hanworth players on and for a while, enthusiasm and endeavour worked well for them. Liam Stone was kept busy throughout the encounter, primarily on cutting out awkward crosses into his domain. Chertsey’s crosses tended to be too high and deep to cause Terry Buss in the home goal as much trouble.

Chertsey coped well with the early set back but occasionally looked a little thin in defence when Hanworth broke out. In the other direction, movement through the middle created difficulty for the home side and free kicks were conceded in the approaches to penalty area, clearly in John Pomroy territory. He saw one attempt tipped aside then another narrowly miss.

Town’s best chance in the first quarter of the game came on 21 minutes when a through ball from Pomroy found Dave Tarpey but his shot was weak and wide. Pomroy then fed Marcus Moody, creating another gap but his shot also failed by being deflected en-route by a defender. Hanworth then tried to reply with Mark Buss curling in a shot that drifted wide.

Chertsey’s break through arrived a minute before the interval. It was Pomroy again who was the prober in laying off the ball from the right into the path of Tarpey who made no mistake this time in blasting the ball, almost through the net, from eight yards. The goal was nothing less than Chertsey deserved, even if, in more cruel circumstance, they well have might come in two goals adrift.

The second half started with a jolt for the visitors with a Loveridge shot that hit the inside post and rebounded straight to the grateful, but well beaten Stone. Hanworth put their all into regaining the lead but left themselves too exposed at the back and, by the 55th minute, found themselves in arrears. A raking diagonal ball, deep, from Ollie Treacher was met fully on the volley by Pomroy who cannoned it into the roof of the rain drenched net.

A point blank save by Stone from the head of Buss kept Chertsey ahead as Hanworth never gave up but their cause became weaker as the clock wound down. Chertsey bean to knock the ball about with control and their opponents were pushed further back, forced any goal attempts to be made from deep positions, allowing the Chertsey defence to recover.

Although only one goal ahead, Town were content to hold what they had won by tying up the ball in the corners and flanks. New signing from Leatherhead Kwabena Agyei came on in place of Pomroy and caused problems. He worked the ball in well from the left wing on a number of occasions and from one of these situations, opened up the Villan’s defence for Tarpey to bag his brace in the final minute after missing a similar chance minutes earlier.

The Chertsey win put them back to third place in the league table and nudge back into stronger contention after both Camberley Town and North Greenford United drew their games.