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Chelmsford City 7-0 Walton & Hersham, Saturday 17th February 2007, Chelmsford Sport & Athletics Centre, Kick-Off 3:00pm, Ryman League Premier Division.
City recorded their second highest league victory in eighteen years at Melbourne on Saturday, thumping seven goals past Walton & Hersham without reply. Prior to the 10-1 victory at home to Bashley in the late nineties, the previous win of such magnitude was over Erith & Belvedere in February 1989 and this romp was welcomed with open arms as the Clarets moved to within just two points of the leaders A.F.C. Wimbledon into fifth place. Three of the goals during the afternoon were recorded by Jason Hallett, who enjoyed his role in a newly-formed front two with Kezie Ibe, the latter returning to the side in place of Dwain Clarke. Richard McKinney was still injured so Ashley Harrison kept his place in goal and Fiston Manuella remained in the centre of midfield after joining team-mate Bryan Glover in a midweek friendly for Canvey Island to maintain match sharpness. Walton were languishing in the bottom two of the Premier Division and their hopes of escape were almost zero upon the trip to Mid Essex, although a goalless draw with Leyton the previous Tuesday had added a useful point to their meagre total. Chelmsford went into the match as hot favourites, but the huge margin of victory couldn't have been predicted. Defender Ben Chenery ventured forward to get involved in City's first attack after 2 minutes, knocking the ball down to Mario Noto whose half-volley careered over the bar. The urgency shown by Jeff King's side was plain to see and six minutes later a ball across goal was collected by Holmes on the right wing and he put it low back into the danger zone for Ibe to blast a simple chance too high. In the 11th minute Noto released Chris Duffy who dragged an effort wide of the far post while at the other end the Swans' Freedom Pigott registered a rare threat to Harrison's goal by working himself the space for a shot in the area which the Clarets' custodian beat away with his fists. The deadlock was broken, however, in the 17th minute as Hallett was set free down the left and he squared into the middle for Ibe to finish the job with a simple tap-in. Five minutes later the goal-scoring hero beat his markers for pace and raced through towards 'keeper James Russell and an easy chance to add to his tally was wasted as he could only poke weakly at him. On 28 minutes Hallett grabbed his first as Jeff Minton slipped the ball through to him so he could net via a side-footed, low strike. Such a deficit will have been a mountain to climb for the shot-shy visitors - but Chelmsford had more offensive activity in store. Two minutes before the break Holmes played a 1-2 and provided a shot-cum-cross which ended-up off-target but, in first half injury time, the hosts broke quickly and outnumbered their opponents four-on-three and the nippy winger sent Hallett through on goal again to slide home his team's third. After the interval Walton's brief show of defiance arrived in the form of a Gibrilla Kargbo shot which arrowed narrowly the wrong side of the goal frame with power as the visitors opened the second period with a goalless spell of fifteen minutes. Then began the relentless attack of their goal, with Hallett jumping to meet Minton's corner on the hour mark and seeing his goal-bound header nodded off the line, onto the crossbar and over with ambitions of a hat-trick on his mind. Chelmsford's fourth did arrive in the 64th minute when Jeff Minton deceived everyone gathered in the box by swerving his 25-yard free kick superbly into the top corner past the helpless Russell. This signalled the arrival of Glover and Callum Kearns from the bench as King shuffled his squad around. Duffy's brilliant 74th-minute first-time cross created the home side's fifth, initially being half-cleared via the head of a defender but the ball dropped handily to Hallett who gratefully half-volleyed in to cap his hat-trick in exquisite style. He then knocked-in a Minton free-kick for what he thought was his fourth on 80 minutes though Referee Mr Bushell had other ideas and ruled-the goal out for an earlier infringement. With six minutes remaining Ricky Holmes added a sixth to ensure this would be City's biggest win of the season. A deep pass from Glover searched-out the youngster and he sprinted forward before dispatching past Russell into the bottom corner. Holmes' glancing header could have further added to the scoreline moments later but a sensational strike was to be squeezed-in before full-time. Kezie Ibe attempted to play Holmes in for another strike on goal but when the ball bounced back to him off the shins of a defender he retained it, stepped to one side and executed a fantastic drive high into the net to seal a morale-boosting victory. City: 1 Ashley Harrison Walton & Hersham: James Russell, Musa Jalloh, Ashley Dumas, Gibrilla Kargbo, Will Jenkins, Gavin Cartwright, Freedom Pigott, Lamin Ojo, Warren Waugh, Daniel Lawson, Daniel Lodge. Subs: Tamba Ngongou, Daniel Damoah, Lawrence Yiga, Rob George, Chris Kiganda. Bookings: None. Referee: D.D. Bushell (Tottenham). Assistant Referees: M.A. Tweed (London) and G. Evetts (Hoddesdon). Attendance: 818. City Man of the Match: Jason Hallett. |
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By
Chris Evans
(Picture by Matt Bradshaw)
