Chesham United FC

Chesham United Man of the Match: Karl Oliyide

After looking a beaten side for most of the afternoon, Chesham staged a late fightback to end Truro’s 100% record.  Chesham turned the game on its head with three second-half substitutions and clinched the points with a dramatic late winner. Chesham were without Jeanmal Prosper and Billy Adcock who were injured in last week’s defeat at Taunton, so Sam Jenkins made his debut and Mark Kirby switched to midfield with Steve Brown recalled in defence.  Jefferson Louis replaced Eoin Casey who was on the bench along with Sandro Costa, who came on for his debut in the second half.

On a sweltering afternoon both sides made a tentative start until Truro opened the scoring in the twelfth minute.  Niall Thompson dispossessed Kieran Murphy inside the Chesham half and set off towards goal, Murphy blocked Thompson’s first attempt but his second found the roof of the net.  Chesham struggled to make any impression on a Truro defence that had yet to concede a goal this season, but with Chesham’s own defence looking solid there were few chances at either end.  Truro’s Ryan Law stole in behind Sam Jenkins only to shoot over the bar as Ben Goode came out, then Goode parried an angled drive from Noah Keats.  Shortly before half-time Chesham had their first shot when Jefferson Louis won the ball from Harlain Mbayo but his speculative effort was easily saved by visiting keeper James Hamon.

Early in the second half the game became scrappy as the referee attempted to keep control by dishing out a few yellow cards.  Shortly before the hour mark Luke Jephcott set up Noah Keats who took too long before shooting and Kyle Watson got in a saving tackle.  Chesham made a double substitution on the hour and a third shortly afterwards as the visitors seemed content to sit on their lead.  However midway through the half a long throw from Adam Martin glanced off the head of Mark Kirby into the net for Chesham’s equaliser.  Chesham were looking the more likely to score at this stage, and Steve Brown’s header from a Dave Pearce corner bounced away off the head of a defender.  Good work from Sandro Costa down the left set up Adam Martin whose shot from just outside the area flew just wide.  Truro briefly came back to life and Ben Goode dived to claw away a header from Stewart Yetton, then in another attack a shot was blocked into the path of Yetton whose tame shot was easily saved by Goode.  However in stoppage time Chesham launched one more attack, and another Adam Martin long throw saw Steve Brown challenge at the far post and Karl Oliyide tucked the loose ball into the net from a narrow angle to give Chesham the points.