Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 0 Brightlingsea Regent
Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 27th November 2021
Report and Pics: Stuart Tree (set of photos here)
Additional photos: Andy Nunn (set of photos here)

Two hundred and two hardy souls braved Storm Arwen at the United Business Group Stadium who sadly, were not rewarded with a classic as Corinthian-Casuals and Brightlingsea Regent played out a stalemate.

Wintry conditions pounding in from the North led to any semblance of football being nullified as a scrappy bout quickly replaced what was a wonderful game at Lewes on Tuesday night.

Casuals remained unchanged from the win at the Dripping Pan and came into this game on a high, having not been defeated in four whilst Regent were looking for their first point since the 25th September, albeit with a new, determined Manager now at the helm.

Any ideas that this would be a straight-forward three points for the home side were quickly dismissed as Regent threatened twice in the opening minutes. First with a counter-attack resulting in only the woodwork keeping them out followed up by Danny Bracken saving with Jack Strange mopping up the leftovers.

But it was Casuals who were the dominant side, playing with the wind at their backs. Elliott Bolton’s fierce 20 yard drive smashed the bottom of the post before Ola Williams tucked away the follow-up… only for the Assistant Referee to brandish it offside.

It became 2-1 to Casuals in the struck upright stakes when Warren Mfula was played into a dangerous position via a one-two but again thwarted by the post.

The second half saw Corinth continue to search for a winner but Regent’s defence held firm – Captain Chris Ribchester lapping up everything thrown his way. Two more chances fell to Mfula who was unable to convert, both going agonizingly wide.

And so that’s how it ended. Despite their best efforts, the windy conditions coupled with the slippery surface condemned this match to the archives without troubling the scorers. Despite Regent’s lowly league position, it never felt like two points dropped and the visitors look like they’ll pick up a fair few points on this showing.

"The conditions were a leveller and made the game difficult for both teams,” said James Bracken after the match. “They came here to get a point and with the conditions as they are, it’s always going to benefit that team. I don’t think it was in our favour at all.

"When the weather is bad, it can be horrible here. I’d love to have an enclosed stadium where we can keep the elements out, but we have a wind tunnel and a pitch that you can hardly stand up on so it didn’t bode well for a good game of football, and it wasn’t. But what you ask for in these games is not to make mistakes that cost us goals. We made sure we didn’t do that. We kept a clean sheet and created enough chances to win. We hit the post twice and had the ball in the net once. Second half, three one-on-ones – we did enough to get three points. The chances weren’t easy – But we didn’t score and if you don’t do that, you don’t get those points. We just need to be a little more clinical.

"It's a point on another day, it could swing on a poor decision or a slip-up or bad pass because it’s boggy and you end up losing. It’s not what a purist would want to see. It’s not why we give up our time – I wouldn’t want to watch that every week. If it was, I wouldn’t touch football. I’d put my time into something else. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

"We carved out four or five good chances but we’ve not taken them and that’s what it boils down to. There’s no deep thoughts needed about why we haven’t won. Take the positives… kept a clean sheet. Didn’t cost ourselves the match with any errors, defended relatively well and played a better second half.

"I wouldn’t say we were good but conditions made it hard. Especially in the way we want to play. If we had a big, horrible ugly geezer up front who we sent balls up to, he’d be causing havoc on days like these. But we don’t play that way.

We’ll have had two training sessions this week but I’d much rather have two games a week and one session. But for the boys, it is hard to keep turning in ninety minutes, especially as the pitches are getting heavy now. Two days recovery coupled with going to work on Monday and Tuesday before getting out there on the pitch and being at 100% physically is unrealistic. So the training sessions will allow us to come into the next game nice and fresh, playing some decent attacking football looking for those three points."

Lewes 1 - 2 Corinthian-Casuals
Isthmian League Premier Division
Tuesday 23rd November 2021
Report: Stuart Tree. Image: Andy Nunn.

Casuals midfielder Ricardo Thompson summed up the game in one tweet following the match. He simply wrote “Big win last night, football really is a game of 2 halves.”
 
And that really was the case. Manager James Bracken was full of praise for the way Lewes started, describing them as the best side he’d seen all season, amongst other plaudits for Tony Russell’s Rooks.
 
Lewes were everything you’d want your side to be, or everything you’d fear to play against on a Tuesday night in their own den in front of over 500 fans. Organised, decisive, quick… pick as many superlatives as you want.
 
It only took eight minutes for Casuals fans alike to feel that they could be in for a long and fruitless night. Top scorer Joe Taylor added a fourteenth goal to his season tally, turning one in from close range to leave Danny Bracken no chance.
 
If Lewes had added a second, the result could’ve looked very different. But Lewes failed to capitalise on a first half dominance with Taylor fluffing his lines front and centre which, with any serious contact with the ball would’ve likely doubled the lead.
 
James Bracken was quick to address the imbalance and switched a couple of players to stem the tide. It worked. Casuals grew into the half and could’ve equalised when Ben Cheklit’s volley was expertly kept out by Lewis Carey. Kieron Cadogan also had a decent chance to reduce the arrears but blazed over. Casuals were fortunate to be going in at half-time just one goal down when Taylor’s effort was somehow dragged wide when once again, looked like he should score.
 
Bracken’s half time team talk certainly changed Casuals approach. The Manager admitted afterwards that he told his players to ‘play without fear’. It worked. Their game management improved immensely and now it was the visitors in the ascendency. It took just three minutes to watch Cadogan use those magical feet of his to shift the ball and shoot, leaving Carey no chance.
 
The equaliser spurred Casuals on and with Lewes’ Taylor being substituted, their threat diminished even more. Corinth took the lead with a wonderful free flowing move from one end to the other being completed via the left foot of Warren Mfula.
 
Casuals had to resolutely hold on for the last twenty minutes with a real flurry of action in their own box coming into stoppage time. Bracken had to be on his best guard, making a couple of vital saves as well as an excellent performance from the back four.
 
It's a win that propels Casuals into the top ten for the first time this season and had you left at half time, you’d never understand how Lewes conspired to lose this match, or how Casuals showed such determination to win.
 
“We were fearless in the second half,” said Manager James Bracken following the win. “We didn’t go out there with fear but Lewes were fantastic in that first fifteen minutes. The best team we’ve played by a mile. They were the first side that we’ve played where we had to change our shape, just because I felt it was only going one way. We were one-nil down and it wasn’t looking good for us.
 
“But we made the change, moving one player into a different position and it stemmed the flow. It levelled off a bit and we had a couple of chances ourselves. It gave us enough at half time to get our tails up and remind ourselves that we’re a good team and that we have good players who can go and play without fear.
 
“I said it’s not life or death. It’s a game of football and we’ve got nothing to lose from here. If we lost, I’ll take it on the chin – I pick the team and I set the tactics. So I told them to get on the front foot and go and be aggressive. Try and win a game of football. If we don’t, we’ll bounce back Saturday. We just tried to take all the pressure off and reminding them that we are a good side.
 
“I’ve set from the get-go that we can make the playoffs. You don’t play without ambition. You don’t come and give all of this time, effort and commitment to finish 10th or 15th or second from bottom. We do this because we want to achieve something. If you’re playing without ambition, then what are you playing for? Playoffs will always be our aim and until it becomes mathematically impossible to do that, then that’ll be our target.
 
“Brighlingsea Regent on Saturday and I’m targeting three points. We’ll give them respect – in fact we’ll make sure we give them more than enough respect because we don’t want to fall short on games where you feel like you are the favourites. We try to win every game of course. We came here tonight with an aim to win and not a lot of people would’ve given us the chance to do so, but we have.” 

Corinthian-Casuals 3 - 1 Margate
Isthmian League Premier Division
Tuesday 2nd November 2021
Report: Stuart Tree. Pics: Andy Nunn (pics here)

Corinthian-Casuals kicked off November with a bang as they put in an impressive display to defeat Margate on Tuesday night.

A storming first half saw Casuals race into a three-nil lead before Margate pegged one back in the second period.

It was the first win over the Kent seasiders for James Bracken’s Casuals in five attempts, and arguably one of their best performances of the season to date.

There were a number of changes from the 1-0 defeat to Cheshunt at the weekend both in personnel and shape. Intensity was stepped up and a good press maintained throughout the ninety minutes.

It didn’t take long for Casuals to take the lead. Just twelve minutes were on the clock when Bobby Mills took down an exacting pass ‘Bergkamp-esque’ as one supporter described, before calmly slotting into the opposite bottom corner.

Casuals continued to apply pressure and Kieron Cadogan came closest to adding another when his shot from an acute angle was turned off the line. Margate weren’t so lucky the second time as Emmanuel Mensah did the same on the opposite side. His cross on the byline was hit hard and low and Margate’s Lewis Knight had no time to react, bouncing off the defender into the net.

Bracken’s side sniffed blood and went for the kill; Warren Mfula looked to add his name to the scoresheet with a stinger of a shot that was well saved by Pat Ohman. He was also close to scoring from an outrageous scissor kick effort before eventually getting in on the act by rounding an oncoming Ohman and running the ball into an empty net.

If the game hadn’t already been put to bed, perhaps it should’ve been in the second half. Casuals looked for a fourth and the closest chance fell to Mfula who struck the base of the post with one effort.

The game wasn’t quite done when Ben Greenhalgh put in a cross-come-shot that looped over Danny Bracken into the far corner to give the visitors hope. But they had been second best to a lively Casuals all night and rarely threatened for the rest of the match. It was down to Casuals to see out a fine performance and a victory well worthy of the three points.

“It was a good performance,” said James Bracken after the match. “We got out of the blocks quicker than we had in the las couple of games. We all expected a little hangover from the Cup run and finally bowing out of that on penalties. However, we got a good result against Hornchurch immediately after which was great. But realistically, in the games before Margate, we got a few things wrong and it told.

“But we showed a new impetus against Margate. We changed things around. I’d actually had a couple of days off work and allowed me time to really look at the stats – the combinations that work between the boys and when we’ve done things right. I’d also watched the last three games back in their entirety, so we were able to better prepare us.

“For me, it was one of the better performances of the season. We were three-nil up at half time and created more chances in the second half than we had in the first. We didn’t panic even when they’ve scored nor have we had to soak up any sustained periods of pressure.  

"Tuesday was back to a good atmosphere. How it should be. It helps when the team are playing as well as they are. The boys on the pitch have to take credit for that. But there’ll be games where we need those in the stands to lift the boys. It works both ways. We done our bit on Tuesday but I’m sure there’ll be instances over the coming weeks where we’re going to need them to be at their very best vocal support. Because that might just be enough for us to drag out a result on the pitch."

Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 1 Cheshunt
FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round
Saturday 30th October 2021
Report and Photos: Stuart Tree (Photos here)​

Corinthian-Casuals were knocked out of the FA Trophy at the first stage in an uninspiring 1-0 loss to a gritty Cheshunt side.

The visitors progress courtesy of a 47th minute solitary strike by Zac Newton to put the Ambers in the hat for the First Round Proper.

James Bracken was forced to make a number of changes, which included the resting of Centre-Back Jack Strange and the absence of leading scorer Warren Mfula. Kieron Cadogan was also rested via the bench as Nat Pinney made his first start this season.

On a pitch that had taken a battering from the morning’s relentless rain, pure football was going to be a tough ask. Cheshunt asked questions first, forcing a fine tip over from Danny Bracken after the Ambers hit one from range.

It took until the second half for something to happen in the match; whilst many were still attending to their half-time beers, Cheshunt snuck a goal – a neat swivel and shot by Newton to beat Bracken and give the lead to a very quiet response. In fact, many hadn’t even realized that Cheshunt had scored!

Casuals bounced back and should’ve had an equaliser moments later. A neat interaction between Pinney, Bolton and finally Manni Mensah saw the latter beautifully curl his shot into the top corner. A goal worthy of taking the game to penalties – except the linesman’s flag was raised for offside. It was hard to work out when the infringement occurred but thus, the goal was struck off.

Corinth probed a resilient Cheshunt defence for much of the second period but the breakthrough never came and the visitors eeked out a tight win to progress in the Trophy.

"Our application and energy levels towards the game today wasn’t a problem", said James Bracken after the match.

"We performed better than we did on Tuesday against Stortford in terms of ensuring we were in the game.

"The second half, we got off to the worst possible start. It’s a poor goal from our point of view. We gave the ball away, no one does enough to react and thus, they score. It’s such a soft goal and I felt someone in that passage of play could’ve done more to prevent it.

"I thought we had an equaliser too. We can talk about officials all day. They’ve missed a lot in my opinion. Cheshunt had around 15-16 fouls in the first half alone but only one booking. It’s a shame because you could see it was going to be one of those afternoons which detracts from what you’re trying to achieve on the pitch.

"These games get no easier. We’ve got Margate and then Enfield Town on Saturday. All we can do is put ourselves in the game. We’ll pick what we believe is the right side with the right tactics. We’ll make ourselves be hard to break down yet still carrying our own threat.

"We need to start doing better from set-pieces. We had two or three clear headers again that went over the bar. We have to take those chances. Especially at this time of the year, because of the pitches, it’s harder to create clear-cut chances. The speed of play up to this point has to be put to one side and you have to find other ways to win games. So we need to up the percentage of goals from set-pieces. We’ll certainly be looking at that. The lads that get into the box for free-kicks and corners need to start chipping in. If they don’t, we’ll see more games go against us 1-0.

​"We were missing a few today as well. We were a little light. We had everyone here who was available to play and could only muster four subs, which is unusual for us. When you miss two or three big players, it does make a difference. Hopefully, they’ll be back in fresh and drive the intensity up from the very start."