Ash United 3 vs 2 Chessington & Hook United

With the staff believing that certainly possession wise and going forward we were as good as we have been all season, accepting that defensive errors cost us, and by contrast some regular watchers, official and otherwise seeing us as off the pace.

If nothing else it shows it’s a game of opinions.

From my view we started well, and our opening ten minutes was complete, with resoluteness in defence and a swagger in our step when in possession.

As early as the fifth minute we should have taken the lead, when a fine move down our right saw Steve Lang pull the ball back for Malik Buari who shot over from eight yards out when he should have hit the target.

We continued to enjoy good possession but as so often happens in football we were punished with the hosts first attack of the game. To be fai,r it was a fine cross from our left back area, but we failed to set up properly to deal with it and was caught at the back post when the Ash forward headed home under little or no pressure.

We had no reason to panic as this was certainly against the run of play, but just eight minutes later and with twenty seven on the clock, a wayward attempt at our goal saw Lang caught ball watching, and the un marked and un tracked wide man side footed home to double the hosts lead.

We nearly got back into the game almost immediately, when a Cole-Bolt free kick found the un marked Buari, but he failed to get decent contact on the cross when well placed. It was certainly another great chance missed.

Ten minutes before the break and we were back in it. Buari battled away gamefully, and Zak Graham latching on to the loose ball calmly side footed home to give us a deserved goal in the half.

Just moments later the comeback should have been complete, when a straight forward hand ball offence was somehow seen differently by the men that matter, and play was waved on when we should have had a chance for parity.

Decisions like this always seem so much worse when the opponents bench celebrate their escape, and laugh away the moment with comments such as, “ how did we get away with that “ and that’s the most obvious hand ball you will see, a definite penalty “. But that’s the game and we had to accept being behind at the interval.

At the restart there was an understandable optimism that we could go on and take something from the match, and this feeling appeared justified, as within seconds of the restart Heaths drive from twenty yards flew just by the far post. However this let off seemed to raise the spirits of the home side, and ten minutes in, our hopes of a win had all but been extinguished.

Another mistake allowed a free route to goal for the Ash forward who unselfishly played in his strike partner as we desperately tried to re adjust, and despite Sharpe’s best efforts in goal he was just unable to keep the powerful strike out.

With the two-goal advantage restored and our own belief shot to pieces, the game evened out, and for long periods its fair to say that we didn’t really cause our opponents any real problems.

A double change saw us throw caution to the wind with twenty minutes to go when we introduced Shane Sinclair and Tyrone Roberts to the fray in place of Barry Gooden and Steve Lang, changing to a 3 – 5 – 2 formation in the process.

In part the move worked, as the game became stretched and the pace of our two wingers had Ash on the back foot once again.

Although we were enjoying possession in our attacking third we rarely troubled the home keeper, that was until a run by Tyrone Roberts was illegally halted and from the resulting free kick, Luke Fontana who had been excellent at the back all day, headed home Cole Bolt’s free kick.

With a sniff of a draw we pushed forward at every opportunity, but again a decision went against us, when having won the ball back in a good area Cole Bolt was penalised, extremely harshly it has to be said, and to compound matters the referee saw fit to send him off for his outburst following the decision.

This was the final straw and we came away with nothing at al, and on the balance of the game that was hard to take.