Chesham United FC

Chesham United Man of the Match: Matt Bevans

Chesham’s new season got off to a bad start as they were comfortably beaten by Merthyr Town.  Chesham faded after a bright start and rarely looked like getting back into the game after the visitors took the lead midway through the first half. Chesham’s starting line-up included four players making their competitive debuts for the club plus one (Ryan Blake) returning after a season away.

Chesham made the brighter start and came close to taking the lead in the fourteenth minute, when Matt Bevans’ 30-yard free kick left visiting keeper Joe Perry motionless but just flew past the near post.  Merthyr started to come into the game but lost striker Ryan Prosser to injury on 20 minutes.  Nevertheless the visitors took the lead four minutes later with a soft goal.  There seemed little danger when the ball was lofted into the Chesham box, Ian Traylor turned the ball towards goal but that was enough to send the ball past the home defence and roll gently into the net.  Chesham attempted to come back and a Dave Pearce corner dropped to Ben Walster in the Merthyr area but his snap shot flew well over.  Chesham looked short of confidence and Merthyr began to take control of the game.  Traylor found Corey Jenkins in space but Jenkins mishit his shot well wide under pressure from Benji Crilley, then Tom Meechan turned a Traylor corner just wide of the near post.  On 41 minutes Kieran Lewis’ through pass found Traylor who slotted the ball past the advancing Alex Tokarczyk to make it 2-0.

Chesham looked a little livelier after the break, but a third goal on 55 minutes killed the game.  A Traylor corner eluded everyone at the near post and dropped to the feet of Darren Locke, who instinctively stuck out a foot but could only knock the ball past his own goalkeeper.  There were a couple of near things at either end in the later stages, firstly when Ian Traylor found space on the visitors’ right and lobbed past the advancing Tokarczyk but also past the far post.  Shortly afterwards a Dave Pearce corner went beyond the far post to Jon-Jo Bates, who shot powerfully but high and wide.  Fifteen minutes from time Jarrad Wright hit the bar with a header from a corner, then at the other end Ryan Blake’s 30-yard drive beat Perry but came back off the post.  However the last few minutes saw both sides content to play out time.