Kent Premier League
26th August 2006
Lordswood 0 Croydon FC 0
With Paul Piggott’s honest but far from complimentary pre-match programme comments hitting home Lordswood came out looking to beat a
Croydon team whose season has not started too strongly. But Croydon had other ideas forcing 3 corners in the first 10 minutes. Lordswood stemmed the early
pressure and pushed forward themselves with Ashley Russell starting and almost finishing a move only to see the ball deflect for a corner. The
resultant corner kick caused momentary panic in the Croydon area but ended as keeper Robins managed to smoother the ball.
A period followed in which both sides shared equal amounts of the possession, the best chance for Lordswood falling to Gary East flashing
a shot over the bar on 32 mins following good exchange of passes with Adam Ling. On 35 mins Croydon had their first real shot on target but it was easily
gathered by Gavin Hopper. This encouraged Croydon and they clearly had the majority of the play until half-time with 6 corners. The best efforts during this
time coming from Croydon’s Timmy Murdoch on 40 mins and again on 45 mins. Croydon were now on top and Lordswood were wilting and relieved to hear the
half-time whistle.
The 2nd half saw Croydon pick up from where they left off by attacking straight away, the best effort on 48 mins came again from Timmy
Murdoch calling on Gavin to stretch high to his left to finger tip away a powerful drive. The resulting corner was narrowly headed over the Lordswood bar
by Croydon’s Lee Kirby who was fast becoming a handful for the home defence. Then on 53 mins a drive from Croydon’s man of the match Timmy Murdoch was
deflected by Aaron Burrett and bounced wickedly up at Gavin who tipped it on to the post, fortunately to gather it on the rebound.
Despite the pressure, tireless work by Steve Sharp and Alan Backshall in the midfield meant Lordswood kept taking the fight to Croydon. On
60 mins Lordswood almost scored when Lyndon Guscott from 6 yards out just failed to get his head to a cross from the left. Croydon’s response was to push
deeper into Lordswood territory for the next 10 mins but thankfully despite the pressure they were unable to create any clear cut chances. On 85 mins a
poor clearance by the Croydon keeper was charged down by Nick Smith but the ball fell kindly for Croydon and they cleared their lines.
With the final minutes ticking down both teams sensed that a late goal was not beyond reach. However, this task proved to be too much and
the referee brought the match to an end. Overall the score was a fair result but it was probably Croydon that went home thinking it was 2 points dropped.
Attendance 46
MAN OF THE MATCH - ASHLEY RUSSELL
1. G.HOPPER
2. A.MILLS
3. A.BURRETT
4. A.RUSSELL
5. N.CRUST (30)
6. S.SHARP
7. A.BACKSHALL
8. A.LING
9. G.EAST
10. L.GUSCOTT (62)
11. S.HETTERLEY
12. N.SMITH (62)
14. L.DENGATE (30)
15. S.CORMACK
16. D.HOPKINS
17. P.PIGGOTT
Honours even but for Lordswood this was a much improved
performance with the return of passion to a side who had surrendered tamely during the mid week FA Cup qualifying round replay against Hythe Town.
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