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Walton & Hersham 2-0 Chelmsford City, Saturday 2nd December 2006, Stompond Lane, Kick-Off 3:00pm, Ryman League Premier Division.
Chelmsford fell to only their third Ryman Premier defeat of the season as their 84-day unbeaten League run came to an end at Walton & Hersham. Walton overcame Jeff King's men to register a surprise victory at Stompond Lane, just their second of the season, to take advantage of the under-strength side available to the Clarets courtesy of Mario Noto and Fiston Manuella's suspensions. Spencer Knight was also still out through injury so Gavin Heeroo and Stuart Ainsley kept their places while Bryan Glover took to the field in the centre of the park. The hosts selected four debutants and hadn't had the best of luck with the weather of late that had taken it's toll on their playing surface. Jeff Minton was the first to go close to scoring 11 minutes in as his free-kick from the edge of the penalty area crept wide. However, bottom-club Walton moved into a surprise lead seven minutes later as Dan Summers was put clean through on goal and he made no mistake in converting into the bottom corner past the exposed Richard McKinney. Aduwasi Edusei could have quickly doubled the deficit when he brought down a long ball but he struck tamely at the City 'keeper. Walton still managed to breach the Clarets' rearguard once more. Gavin Cartwright managed to get a glancing header to the dead ball from former City forward Bobby Traynor and this took the ball over McKinney and into the top corner, stunning the visitors on 27 minutes. Chelmsford managed to finish the half in the ascendancy and as the half-hour mark approached Minton felt unlucky not to receive a penalty as he was bundled down in the area. Glover also saw his bobbling long-range shot deflected wide of the far post while goal-scorer Cartwright had to intervene in his defensive quarter to cut-out a cross and send the ball narrowly over his own crossbar. Despite their best efforts City entered the interval two-goals down and soon after the resumption Minton set about getting City back in the game as he charged through with the ball to no avail. Kezie Ibe then had the home supporters worried as his right-wing cross took a deflection and smashed into the outside of the stanchion. Jason Hallett was introduced at half time in place of Ainsley to add some bite to the attack and on 68 minutes he was unlucky not to be put in the clear with Cartwright again intercepting, but when he was given the perfect opportunity to score eight minutes from the end he struck weakly at Nick Gindre in the home goal as the last line of defence. That was City's first real shot on target of the game which was quickly followed by a 25-yard effort from lively Ricky Holmes which Gindre had to push round the post. A brief flirtation with goal occurred two minutes from time as the ball ricocheted around the goalmouth but the home side were deserved victors to confirm one of the shocks of the day in the Premier Division. City: 1 Richard McKinney Walton & Hersham: Nick Gindre, Ryan Andrews, Ashley Dumas, Michael Murphy, Will Jenkins, Gavin Cartwright, Bobby Traynor, Ohran Stewart, Aduwasi Edusei, Dan Summers, Byron Brown. Subs: Anthony Elibi, Martin Dunne, Dan Sacha, Louis Clark. Bookings: City: Heeroo (49, foul), Duffy (85, foul). Walton: Murphy (24, foul), Andrews (87, foul). Referee: Mr A. Davies. Assistant Referees: Mr V.D. Penfold and Mr M.P. Webb. Attendance: 215. City Man of the Match: Ricky Holmes. |
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By Chris Evans
(Picture by Matt Bradshaw)
