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Horsham 2-1 Chelmsford City, Saturday 9th September 2006, The Atspeed Stadium, Kick-Off 3:00pm, Ryman League Premier Division.
Further dropped points, this time at Sussex side Horsham, saw City drop further down the table as their indifferent form continued. Chelmsford made it four games without a win as they disappointingly lost against one of the Ryman Premier's newest sides, who now go level on points at the top of the table alongside Bromley. A slight shuffle of the pack was made before the game, with Steve Ward coming into a re-structured defence in place of Liam Hopkins while former Canvey Island winger Spencer Knight, whose signing was confirmed on the morning of the match, took his place on the bench. Three minutes into the match, Jason Hallett fed Stuart Ainsley who side-footed over but Horsham caused a nuisance in defence around fifteen minutes later, with Jamie Taylor in particular looking dangerous. Having recently bagged his 100th goal for the club, he firstly got free of the defence to attempt a first-time lob that cleared the crossbar then sprinted through only to waste good possession by blasting over. Having again failed to make the most of a decent opportunity on 22 minutes, the Hornets almost regretted not being ruthless enough as Kezie Ibe took a shot from the edge of the opposite penalty area with few other options available to him. The home side continued to apply pressure, Carl Rook guiding a corner kick low into the side-netting in the 36th minute shortly before Gary Charman, a late replacement for Matt Geard who injured himself in the warm-up, attempted a half volley from long range that landed a yard wide. It became clear the system in operation for the visitors wasn't working, so Hopkins came off the bench in place of David McGhee and the Clarets looked to re-build. However, Horsham were to take a deserved lead two minutes into first half injury time. The Clarets' defence failed to pick-up captain Lee Carney on the edge of the box and he received a free-kick, turned and struck the ball into the bottom corner with the outside of his boot. Chelmsford's deflation needed to be addressed though it took another blow just three minutes after the interval. Taylor ran towards goal with the ball and curled wide of 'keeper Richard McKinney and low into the corner of the net. It didn't look, in the current climate, as if City would get anything from the game at that point although they did muster a couple of opportunities in widely-spaced intervals. Hallett provided Ainsley with a free-header at goal following his 58th-minute cross though the latter could only nod into the side netting. Then Jeff Minton's corner was helped-on by Ben Chenery and Hallett himself was guilty of putting the ball over from one yard in the 67th minute. These opportunities coincided with the arrival of Ricky Holmes from the bench and he livened-up proceedings but lacked support from other sources and was sometimes fighting a lonely battle. At the other end the hosts were still able to threaten, no more so than when they were awarded a penalty in the 75th minute thanks to a push from Mario Noto on Lewis Taylor just inside the box. Thankfully for the Clarets, McKinney was in fine form and he pushed away Carney's penalty to keep his side in the game. With seven minutes left, Kezie Ibe sprinted through and shot into the outside stanchion for City who had Holmes to thank for getting them within touching distance of a point. Chelmsford's tricky youngster ran along the line of the penalty box before unleashing a strike into the bottom corner across the despairing dive of 'keeper Gareth Williams. Tony Battersby and Holmes again went close before the final whistle, but City were eventually left to count the cost of several defensive slip-ups and wave goodbye to three more points. City: 1 Richard McKinney 12 Tony Battersby (On for Hallett, 74) Horsham: Gareth Williams, Tom Graves, Gary Charman, Eddie French, Andy Howard, Lewis Taylor, Lee Carney, John Westcott, Jamie Taylor, Carl Rook, Nigel Brake. Subs: Andy Walker, Kieron Johnson, James Cant, Alan Mansfield. Bookings: City: Noto (84, foul), Chenery (91, foul). Referee: Mr Lee Vennamore. Assistant Referees: Mr Dean Martin and Mr Tim Robinson. Attendance: 496. City Man of the Match: Ricky Holmes. |
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By Chris
Evans (Picture by Matt Bradshaw)
