STAINES 3 HORNCHURCH 1

[Dagger03]

Saturday 13-October-2012

STAINES 3 HORNCHURCH 1

 

ST – Jack Turner – Lewis Ferrell – Jordaan Brown – Will Bor – Patrick Kanyuka – Matt Drage – David Wheeler – Scott Godfrey © - Tony Garrod (Cyril Ocansey 75) – Louie Theothanous (Louis-Rae Beadle 62) – Max Worsfold (Reece Hall 67)

Subs – Kyle Merson – Troy Ferguson

 

HFC – Joe Woolley – Alex Bentley – Elliot Styles © (James Love at half time) - Simon Glover (Wayne Gray 57) – Paul Goodacre – Reiss Noel – Tambeson Eyong – Frankie Curley – Martin Tuohy (Leon McKenzie 67) – Lewis Smith – Ben Bowditch

Subs – Joey May – Sam Cutler

 

Scorers – Theothanous 8 (ST) – Theothanous 27 (ST) – Theothanous 49 (ST) – Wayne Gray 79 (H)

Bookings – Smith 38 (H) – Curley 53 (H) – Tuohy 55(H)

Attendance 347

Officials – M Pottage with R Dabbs and M Lawrence

Duration 47.04 + 49.00

Weather – 12 degrees, sunny, wind speed 5 mph

 

STAINES 3 HORNCHURCH 1

 

The pitch was immaculate, but heavy rain had cascaded down a few minutes before the start, ensuring that the ball ran quickly on the extremely slippery surface.

 

Hornchurch were hit by an outbreak of flu in the squad, which affected six of the team, and this was very noticeable as the home side took full advantage and dominated the first half, to the extent that Jack Turner in goal did not have a direct shot to save.

 

Alex Bentley headed a Max Horsfield corner to safety in the first minute, and it was then Paul Goodacre who headed a further corner away just two minutes later, with Hornchurch rarely managing to stem the flow.

 

Staines took the lead on 8 minutes after Jordaan Brown had made ground and then slid the ball through to LOUIS THEOPHANOUS, whose shot was easily blocked, only for the ball to rebound and this time his speculative first time volley went in via the far post.

 

Hornchurch had few opportunities, though Elliot Styles headed wide from a Lewis Smith free kick which eluded the home defence.

 

Ben Bowditch had the only other shooting chance in a poor first half performance when he hit a shot from thirty yards which drifted wide of the post.

 

LOUIS THEOPHANOUS was being given the freedom of the park, and when an error on the left allowed a harmless looking cross into his path, he made no mistake with an excellent first time volley.

 

Two up, and Staines continued to press forward, and the next two attempts, one a shot and one a header, both rebounded off the post and were scrambled to safety.

 

Hornchurch, on the few occasions they did manage to get up field, were frequently pulled back for offside, with monotonous regularity, although Lewis Smith was very harshly booked when he took a quick free kick to Martin Tuohy, the referee deciding that Lewis had not waited for the signal to take the kick.

As half time approached, Joe Woolley saved well from Elliott Godfrey.

 

James Love replaced Styles at half time, and Bentley switched to left back.

Staines forced two corners in quick succession, and then Hornchurch went further behind when a speculative high cross to the far post from the right was not cleared, and in the confusion LOUIS THEOPHANOUS poked the ball into the net.

 

Hornchurch came back immediately when Bentley combined with Bowditch to earn a corner, but Smith played the resulting corner too low into the goalmouth where it was easily cleared.

 

Frankie Curley, one of the few Hornchurch players to look on top form, was then harshly penalized and booked for what appeared a perfectly legitimate tackle on the edge of the area, and to make things worst, the free kick was hammered against the wall to safety, only for the referee to award a penalty. In the ensuing mass protests, Martin Tuohy became the third Hornchurch player to go into the book.

 

Tony Garrod stepped up to take the penalty and Woolley dived to his left to save in fine style.

 

Wayne Gray came on for Simon glover and his running immediately found gaps opening up in the home defence.

 

Woolley had again to field another corner, whilst at the other end Smith fired high and wide after some good work by Tambeson Eyong.

 

Leon McKenzie came on for Tuohy, and immediately went close when his goal bound shot rebounded off a defender.

 

With WAYNE GRAY making his presence felt up front, it was fitting that he finished off the best Hornchurch move of the match, which began with Frankie Curley who switched play to the right side of the field, and the ball was then worked to Lewis Smith, who in turn slid it invitingly in front of Wayne Gray who drew Turner off his line and then calmly placed it into the far side of the net.

 

Too little, too late, and although Hornchurch had a lot more of the territorial play from then on, they did not threaten, and did not create another scoring chance.

 

A convincing win for the home side, against an admittedly below par, flu hit Hornchurch.

[Rich.m]

Bosh

[aka PeteBeatz]

What a bad day at the office. Best forgotten and move on to our next game.

[cup of tea]

From what I understand, half the team was struck down with a virus. It doesn't bode well for Tuesday.

League is more important than the ESC anyway.

[Wivenhoe Urchin]

Credit has to go to Staines who looked a very good side yesterday. I didn't think we played too badly at times but there was a bit more of the poor balls going out of play and wayward shots from us. I think we will be more in the games at home this coming week.

[Hornchurch "O"]

Flu or not it was poor.

Perhaps we should change our away colours to Yellow as where we seem to be passing the ball to on Saturday.

As poor as we were, we never gave up and kept going to the end, hence our goal.