Chasetown 0-0 Chesham United

Infront of Chasetown's largest home gate of the season to date Chesham battled to a draw in this fixture which they deserved, and had chances to win. They did the double over Chasetown last year and with better luck Chesham could have won this game as well.

 

Chesham made two changes to the starting eleven that beat North Leigh the previous week, with Sammy Winston and Dave Fotheringham replacing the suspended Darrell Cox and the unavailable Danny Talbot. Chesham ended up only having four available substitutes after Callum Mansell didn't travel to the match, but was named as a substitute anyway. Steve Cawley returned to the substitutes bench after being out of contention for the previous three weeks with illness. On a beautiful playing surface that was brilliant to pass the ball on, Chesham took command in the opening exchanges and hit the crossbar after two minutes. Dave Fotheringham won the ball on the right-hand touchline, and crossed to Sammy Winston who got his head to the ball, and with the goalkeeper Ryan Price beaten, the it thudded against the bar. Ten minutes later, Dom Marsala's free-kick was saved by Price after good play from Steve Obeng drew the foul. After this Chesham went off the boil, and Adam Parker and Chasetown's Gary Birch were involved in a flare-up, but both received yellow cards. Chesham, however, still created the odd opportunity, with Danny Burnell finding space on the edge of the box but his shot was well wide, and Max Howell and Dave Fotheringham both had shots blocked. Chasetown created some good opportunities, with Wayne Dyer shooting across the face of goal, and when a free-kick was floated in, the ball eventually fell to Harry Harris who couldn't get a decent connection on the ball.

 

Chasetown had a decent penalty shout turned down, when Dean Perrow, who scored four goals last week for Chasetown in their FA Cup victory, went down in the area but nothing was given. Chesham were getting their act together and created a couple of good opportunities to take the lead, when Ledger received the ball and spread it to Marsala on the left who came inside and shot low. The ball appeared to be heading for the bottom corner, but Ryan Price turned it around the post for a corner. Three minutes later, Sammy Winston got his head to a Marsala right-wing free-kick, but Price blocked again. Chesham sat back and appeared to be content with a draw, and Chasetown failed to really take advantage, and the Chesham defence was equal to everything that was thrown at them. The only chance Chasetown created was a cross-shot from Wayne Dyer, which Bobby Smith saved comfortably. The referee played seven minutes of stoppage time at the end, which were very eventful as both teams had chances to bag all three points. Danny Smith, who has cult hero status in Chasetown after his winner against Port Vale last December, won the ball on the left hand side and having run half the length of the pitch hit a left footed effort which was saved by his namesake, Bobby. However, a minute later Chesham had the ball in the net and Chesham fans thought the game was won, but the linesman had his flag up for offside. John Kyriacou won the ball on the right touchline before crossing to Danny Burnell who finished from six yards out. From my position behind the goal, it seemed as though nothing was wrong, but I was informed afterwards that Josh Cooper,who was in an offside position, got the tiniest of flick-ons, and that was why the goal was disallowed.