Chesham United Football Club

 

Chesham:

 

1.    Richard Hayward

 

2.    Mark Lambert

      (goal 31 mins)

3.    Sam Ledger

 

4.    Jordan Bostock

 

5.    Andy Keepence

 

6.    Danny Talbot

 

7.    Kevin Cotton

 

8.    Adam Parker

 

9.    Danny Burnell

 

10.    Sammy Winston

 

11.    Steve Cawley

 

Subs:

 

12.    Dave Fotheringham

        (for Cawley 65 mins)

14.    Michael Sharman

 

15.    John Lawford

        (for Winston 62 mins)

16.    Matt Skinner

 

17.    Simon Ellis

 

 

With a hard fixture schedule ahead this was an important game for Chesham to win against one of the division's struggling sides.  However the game followed a similar course to the previous game against Bishops Cleeve, with Chesham seemingly in control before conceding a goal on the stroke of half-time and failing to recover.

 

There were two changes to the starting line-up, with Dom Marsala injured and Dave Fotheringham only fit enough for a place on the bench, so in came Danny Talbot and Steve Cawley.  The game got off to a bad start with a serious injury to home defender Steven Frost in the tenth minute.  It was one of those potentially dangerous situations when two players go for a loose ball from opposite directions, Frost and Sam Ledger both went in hard and there was a nasty crack as they collided.  Frost was doubled up in agony and went off on a stretcher and away in an ambulance, and it was later confirmed that he had suffered a broken leg.  There were a few comments from the crowd about the challenge but the home players seemed to realise it was just an accident and the referee did not even give a free kick.

 

After that Chesham began to take control of the game, although their efforts were not helped by Sammy Winston being continually flagged offside by a linesman who did not seem to look when the ball was played.  On the quarter-hour Adam Parker set up Winston for a shot from the edge of the area that was tipped over by home keeper Chris Jay, then Danny Burnell got in the way of a hurried clearance by Jay, but had to dig the ball out from under him and poke it towards an empty net and ended up watching as it rolled just wide of the post.  However on the half-hour Chesham took the lead when an attack forced a hurried clearance as far as Adam Parker, who chipped the ball over the defence for Mark Lambert to fire into the corner of the net from the edge of the area.

 

Shortly afterwards Parker headed down Danny Talbot's corner and Winston stuck out a leg but could only divert the ball over the bar.  Stourport had hardly threatened but equalised out of the blue in the last minute of normal time.  Sub Richard Burgess, who had replaced the unfortunate Frost, ran onto a through ball on the left edge of the area, cut back onto his right foot and shot across Hayward and into the far corner.  It was a well-taken goal but a disappointing one to concede as Burgess was on his own against five Chesham defenders.

 

In the early stages of the second half Parker chipped the ball forward for Sammy Winston whose shot beat Jay but came back off the far post and just away from Danny Burnell.  However the home team were revitalised by the goal and forced Chesham onto the defensive for a while.  Shortly before the hour mark Burnell seized on a mistake by Richard Tomkins but two home defenders got back to cover, but Stourport then had their best spell when a looping header from Craig Webb was tipped over by Richard Hayward, then from the resulting corner Webb's header was cleared off the line by Mark Lambert.  However Chesham weathered the storm and took control of the game in the last quarter.  Twenty minutes from time a cross from sub John Lawford was spilled by Jay but the keeper managed to recover to deny Burnell, then Jay made a fine save to keep out Burnell's close-range header from another Lawford cross.  As Chesham camped themselves in the home half Ledger and Parker both headed over from corners by Talbot, and Lawford crossed from the left to Mark Lambert whose angled shot was tipped away by Jay.  Stourport were content to hang on for a point and Chesham were disappointed to hear the final whistle but had not done enough on the day to deserve to win.