Click HERE to view Molesey FC Web Site

Combined Counties League - Premier Division Match

MATCH REPORT

This game will probably go down as one of the more memorably afternoons of the season with Chertsey Town taking all the points at Molesey but with over reactive refereeing actually taking the spotlight. Constant stoppages suggested that the official might be going for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records by marking the widest spectrum of perceived misdemeanours in the book.

Three penalty kicks were awarded and both teams ended up each with just ten players on the park. It was as well this contest was comfortably in Chertsey’s bag from an early stage otherwise the referee might well have had better justification for the flurry of yellow cards and free kicks than was actually needed.

Intense action started from the very first minute when a corner won by Chertsey Town was headed goal wards by John Pomroy only for the ball to be handled on the line by Rob Lewis. An inevitable penalty kick was awarded accompanied by an even more inevitable dismissal of the errant defender despite vehement protest. More inevitability then ensued with Pomroy getting his early entry on the score sheet by firing in the spot kick.

The two minute lead was followed by some blistering football from Chertsey who increased their lead just six minutes later. Stuart Bamford’s long throw was headed inside where Matt Francis ran on to the ball and hammered it home from 15 yards. Goals were still on offer with more pressure and the third came with only 11 minutes on the clock.

This time the danger emanated from the left, a Pomroy corner was delivered into the heart of the Molesey defence where Gavin Bamford stole in to shove the ball into the net at ‘whites of their eyes’ distance. This instant three goal advantage, along with the extra man, meant that the Moles would have to not only climb a mountain, but also demolish it in the same process if they were to end up winners.

They started to burrow into the barrier by being awarded a penalty themselves on 13 minutes when Stuart Bamford’s arm, down by his thigh, was clipped by the ball on an awkward bounce. It was unsurprising that a penalty kick was awarded, and not an uncontroversial decision. Striker Matt Baxter put the ball away to throw his team mates a tenuous lifeline.

In a period of Molesey revival, two free kicks outside the Chertsey penalty area and a header from James McShane that was tipped over the bar by Liam Stone created a false dawn, for the home side failed to show enough penetration in front of goal to be a real threat as Chertsey resumed the initiative with the interval approaching.

Pomroy tried an overhead kick at goal that was comfortably collected by Stone’s opposite number, Sheik Ceesay, but the goalkeeper was left powerless to stop a further Chertsey goal, two minutes from the break. A clearance though the middle was headed on by Matt Francis. Kevin Lock dissected the back line and raced through to clip the ball into the corner of the net.

Any thoughts of a second half anti climax were quickly dispelled when, after two minutes of play, Pomroy knocked the ball inside on the approach to the Molesey penalty area. The ball took a deflection but fell conveniently for Steve Goddard who made more ground to fire the ball home from just inside the box. With now a four goal deficit to regain, the previously perceived mountain of sandstone must now have seemed to be one hewn from granite.

The apparent lost cause game was enlivened when the referee awarded another penalty kick to Molesey. The decision caught everyone unawares, even the sizable and vociferous terrace support camped out behind Stone’s goal were stunned into silence. No appeals from any quarter, on or off the park, were made when, what looked to everyone in the ground as a legal shoulder charge, was deemed a foul. Baxter was again successful from the spot to advance the score at 52 minutes to 5-2 to the Curfews.

It still looked plain sailing for Chertsey. The physical element of the game was cramped by constant whistling and the contest was beginning to take on the air of a game of touch football. However, there was nothing lightweight about Molesey’s third goal, their first in open play. Owen Bent was given too much room on the right when the ball was fed out to him.

A power drive strike from him beat Stone for speed and although the Chertsey goalkeeper got flesh onto the ball, he was unable to stop it entering the net. The game still had 25 minutes remaining but despite the goal rate of one arriving every eight minutes up to that point, no more goals were secured. Town’s defence remained secure despite the side being reduced to ten men when Goddard received a second yellow card for a clumsy challenge.

So the skyline remained just as formidable to scale, or mine out on 90 minutes as it did after only eleven minutes of play although plenty of scars illustrated that a spirited attempt at an unlikely target was tried. The game was eventful, especially for the neutral spectator, but Molesey was never going to fully recover from their early disasters, even if the unpredictable whistle blowing threatened to make anything seem possible.