Recap
Chesham made it through to the third qualifying round with a hard-fought victory in a scrappy game. Chesham were well below their best in the first half, but eventually came through thanks partly to a triple substitution at half-time and partly to a red card early in the second half. There were six changes to the starting eleven after last week’s win over Aveley – Jack Cawley, Steve Brown, T’Sharne Gallimore, Samson Esan, Nathan Minhas and Devonte Aransibia came in and Eoin Casey, Connor Stevens, Callum Adebiyi, Jack Connors, Mitchell Weiss and Joe Grant dropped to the bench.
The home side sat fourth in the Isthmian League Premier Division, and matched Chesham in the first half although there was hardly any goalmouth action at either end. Early on Omar Rowe found Devonte Aransibia on the left who shot across the face of the home goal. Just after the half-hour mark the home side had their best moment of the game, when Michael Ademiluyi broke down the left and shot but Ben Goode produced a fine low save to turn the ball round the post. The game became niggly and T’Sharne Gallimore and Hassan Ibrahiym were booked following an off-the-ball incident. The game restarted with a drop ball which was played through to Freddie Parker who shot over the bar.
Chesham made a triple substitution at half-time, bringing on Joe Grant and Mitchell Weiss to support Nathan Minhas up front. Two minutes after the restart Ibrahiym, thinking he had been fouled, grabbed the ball as he fell but the referee had given nothing so Ibrahiym was shown a second yellow card. Four minutes later Chesham took the lead when Nathan Minhas set up Joe Grant to run clear and lift the ball past the advancing keeper into the net. Cray’s Adam Coombes hit a free kick over the bar, but otherwise Chesham’s defence was rarely troubled. On 71 minutes Andre Coker cut in from the right and shot but the ball was kept out by a combination of Ben Goode and Jack Cawley. Four minutes later Chesham wrapped up the win with a second goal, Joe Grant firing a shot from fully 30 yards that found the bottom corner of the net past keeper Oliver Pain’s right hand. Deep into stoppage time Nathan Minhas had a shot on the turn in the home area which was blocked, but Chesham had already done enough.
Match Report
