Chesham United 2 Tiverton Town 0
Pitching In Southern League Premier Division South
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
THE Yellows’ arrived in Buckinghamshire minus midfielders River Allen (illness) and Matt Britton (injured). Attacker Jack Rice was also unavailable on the evening.
In a first half where both defences held the upper hand, the two teams struggled to create anything meaningful.
Chesham's admirable home record of only being on the wrong end of a result once this term indicated a testing evening, although, much like Saturday, the Yellows rose to the occasion and can count themselves unlucky to return to Devon, with nothing to show for another promising performance.
The best chance of the half was guided over by a Chesham forward with his head following a good cross into the Tiverton area. Javan Wright was booked for simulation after he went over in the box as our players appealed for a penalty.
There was little to separate the two teams in the first half, both looking good in possession; however, they had been met with the barriers of a well organised backline.
The home side had most of the play at the beginning of the second half but were thwarted by a well drilled Yellows. Niall Thompson then accelerated after being found on a fast Tivvy break and, despite him getting himself into a good shooting position, he could only find the side netting of Zaki Qualah’s goal.
Encouraged by this, Tivvy exerted furher pressure on the Generals. However, two good blocks from the hosts’ backline protected Qualah from having to make a save.
Then Yellows were dealt a sucker punch as Ryan Upward’s probing ball was met by Generals’ captain Steve Brown’s emphatic header on 56 minutes and Tivvy trailed 1-0. A second nearly happened when a Chesham forward’s shot was wayward.
Leigh Robinson’s men were not to be deterred by this and, firstly, Javan Wright was denied by Qualah’s outstretched leg when in on goal and then Mitch Beardmore saw his attempt go over the crossbar.
Thompson’s shot was then deflected behind as the Yellows built more pressure that resulted in a corner. Although the Chesham rearguard dealt with it comfortably. With time running out, a second Upward assist in the 84th minute provided striker Ricardo German with his 20th goal of the season.
We rang the changes in the second half: Garside replaced Lawrence with just over an hour played; Joe O’Connor made way for Ben Gerring, whose first minutes were as an emergency centre-forward; and Dylan Jones came off for Drew Sloan. However, it was not enough on the night as a depleted Yellows were beaten 2-0.
On we move to Saturday’s home match with Bracknell. The two teams have both endured setbacks recently. Bracknell were soundly defeated by Winchester on Tuesday night, 5-0.
The two teams will be licking some wounds on Saturday and let us hope we can find a positive result at The Ian Moorcroft Stadium.
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