Corinthian-Casuals 5 - 4 Hendon
FA Trophy 3rd Round Qualifying
Saturday 31st October 2020
Report and Photos: Stuart Tree (full set here)
More photos from Andy Nunn here.

It was a ‘Ghoul-fest’ at King George’s Arena on Halloween as Corinthian-Casuals and Hendon played out a nine-goal thriller in the FA Trophy.

A brace from Jerson Dos Santos was complemented with goals from Keiron Cadogan, Jack Strange and Ben Cheklit to ensure James Bracken’s Casuals progress to the next round of the competition.

It was stark contrast to the week before in which Bracken had described the dour 0-0 with Leatherhead as ‘one of the worst games he’d been involved in.’ In fact, the match drew praise from all of the 407 in attendance with comments left on social media afterwards, such as ‘genuinely one of the best games I've ever seen in 40 years as a neutral.’

The score-line bounced around like a tennis tie-break all afternoon. Even Bracken couldn’t quite recall what the final score was during the post-match interview. He was simply enjoying the occasion, with King George’s rocking.

The scoring started early with ex-Casual Shaun Lucien sending Danny Bracken the wrong way from a penalty, awarded when Warren Morgan fouled his attacker. Casuals were level seven minutes later when Dos Santos bopped in a header after Jonathan North couldn’t parry the first effort to safety. Dos Santos made it two when he let fly a rasping shot from 20 yards to give Casuals the lead.

Hendon Captain Tommy Brewer scored an equally-impressive goal to ensure the sides went in at half-time level.

The attacking intent from both sides intensified in the second half and Casuals once again took the lead, also from the penalty spot. Cadogan placing the ball in the left corner out of reach of North.

There was some controversy to Hendon’s next equaliser; Danny Bracken was felled in a melee from a corner which allowed Toby Byron to freely head home.

However, Casuals weren’t done. Jack Strange found space in the box to poke in from ten yards before Ben Cheklit had looked to have sealed the tie with a beautiful curler, leaving North clutching thin air. 5-3 for those keeping count.

Hendon made Casuals sweat for a nervy few minutes when Cheyce Grant pulled one back in the 89th minute and they could’ve taken the tie to penalty kicks deep into stoppage time had they converted a header which was frighteningly close.

This report doesn’t detail the number of other efforts from both sides, as we’d end up with ‘War and Peace’. A shout out to Bracken in goal who made a number of vital saves as well as the attacking intent of both sides who looked to score every time they surged forward. As James Bracken said last week, ‘We’re in the entertainment business’ and this was something straight out of the Palladium.

“Last year, we didn’t score enough goals,” said Manager James Bracken after the match. “We had one of the best defences in the league and the second lowest goal tally. In the summer, I was single minded that I wanted us to score more. But we were prepared that we might win some games 4-3 or 5-4 because when you do score more, you leave yourself open. That’s a trade off.

“Anytime you see teams win by big scores, there’s often a 3-2 or a 4-3 in there. It’s about finding a balance.

“We should remember that we went behind in this match. It was important that we went in at half-time in touch. We not only responded to going behind early, we took the lead. We kept going and we got ourselves into a winning position.

“Of course, I’d rather win 2-0 or 3-0 than 5-4 but that’s the trick in finding the right balance. I can deal with that. We’ll look at the goals that we’ve conceded and see where we can improve. We can also rest easy knowing we’ve got five goals in the team. If we’re able to do that again on Tuesday, then whoever we play will have a lot to do to beat us.

“My feelings are out there on the performance we put in against Leatherhead. People have said to me that I was right in what I said and that my criticism was justified. These are from people I trust who’ve watched us consistently over the years – not those who’ve turned up to see one or two games.

“You can skin a cat a thousand different ways in football. The most important thing is when you set the team up in the 15-20 minutes before the game, they all follow the game plan. They all need to be on board with the instructions and give it 100% maximum effort. We didn’t do that last week. We did this week. And we won. So there’s nothing but praise for the boys. I thought there were a lot of fantastic performances out there. They got the fans going.

“I want an atmosphere like that every week. I’m sure everyone wants that atmosphere every week. Why wouldn’t you? You can go to a lot of other non-league clubs and they’re full of old people who just want to moan. You hear the groans from the stands.

“Here, we like to be in it together. It’s not us and them. The fans are behind the goal doing there bit and the boys on the pitch are doing their bit. You keep each other going. The team needs the fans and vice versa. I’m not sure which came first today. All I know was the team played well, we scored five goals and the fans were fantastic.

“I felt very relaxed today. I found myself tapping my feet, nodding along to the songs. I thought I was going to start dancing. Maybe I need to check what people put in my tea today.
​
“I enjoyed it. After last week, that’s really what I needed. I said to the boys, enjoy it, smile, because if you’re doing that, then I’m enjoying it and that’s all I really want. They followed my instructions, they scored five goals and we won. What’s not to enjoy about that?” 
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Riverside Radio Highlights

This season for the first time at Riverside Radio, our Sports Team are recording highlights of featured matches. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as we'll continue to work to bring you better highlights. If anyone would like to help or get involved in recording highlights or anything else at the Riverside Radio Sports Team you can email the Sports Editor, Henry Thomas-Aldridge, at henry@riversideradio.com

Hendon 1 - 3 Corinthian-Casuals
Velocity Trophy Quarter Final
Tuesday 9th January 2018
​Match report and photos: Stuart Tree (full set of photos here)

Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure and happiness are the primary or most important intrinsic goods and the aim of human life.
 
For those travelling Casuals fans in attendance at Silver Jubilee Park on a cold, drizzly January evening, pleasure and happiness was most definitely provided by James Bracken and his Corinthian-Casuals side. Hedonism at Hendon? Absolutely.
 
It’d been 33 months as to when the last two sides met and the resounding 5-1 victory by the Greens over Casuals in the inaugural competitive contest at Hendon’s new ground was still fresh in the memory.
 
Much has changed in that time - for both sides. Danny Bracken, notching up his 350th competitive appearance was the sole survivor from that London Senior Cup Quarter Final in 2015, joined by Hendon’s San Murphy. Vast changes to both squads in less than three years meant this was as new an encounter as the 3G surface that lay beneath the feet.
 
Hendon’s ranks included league top scorer Niko Muir and Dagenham & Redbridge loanees Joe White and Liam Gordon. By contrast, Casuals were without regular centre-backs Jack Strange and Terry Murray as well as forwards Gabriel Odunaike and Reyon Dillon. Whilst Harry Ottaway was touted to play, an injury kept him from travelling to North London for the tie. Leading the line was Jordan Clarke – making his first start in three months following an injury layoff. Bookmakers had put Casuals as far out as 4/1 for the win and those odds looked generous with the changes enforced on Bracken.
 
Despite this, it didn’t go to plan for the home side. Within 13 minutes, Casuals were in front. Using the counter-attack to good effect, Jordan Clarke laid a perfect ball for Max Oldham who struck through the feet of keeper Dan Purdue to send the small but vocal away contingent into raptures.
 
Danny Bracken was called into action himself on a couple of occasions, including a fine tip onto the post to prevent parity in the scoreline.
 
Casuals doubled their lead in the 35th minute with Max Oldham turning provider, laying a perfect ball across the face of the goal for Josh Uzun to lash home from close range.
 
Despite what looked to be a foul on Jordan Clarke in the build-up, Hendon’s Joe White found himself with a great chance to score but was bundled over by Ben Cheklit. The resultant penalty was dispatched by Muir to bag his 30th goal of the season.
 
Controversy was averted on the stroke of half time when good pressure from Clarke forced an error from the back four and bearing down on goal, struck the side netting. However, the ball had passed through a hole to nestle in the back of the net. Some thought he’d scored but the eagle-eyed officials had spotted the ball passing the wrong side of the post. Reaction of the players also told everyone that it was a chance missed rather than converted.
 
The second half saw Hendon attempt to take a grip on the game and were afforded good spells of possession, though never really testing Bracken in goal.
 
The tie was sealed when Max Oldham ran onto a through ball, caused by pressure exerted on the Hendon midfield. Oldham beat Purdue to roll the ball into the empty net, much to the American’s delight.
 
Hendon were repelled one last time in the dying minutes with Bracken making an excellent fully-stretched dive across his goal and Casuals were able to comfortably see out the rest of the game.
 
The win sees Corinth as the first club to reach the last four with the heavyweights of the Bostik Prem yet to play their quarter finals. Based on this performance against Hendon, Casuals will have nothing to fear for the remainder of this cup competition.
 
"The performance was fantastic,” commented James Bracken after the match. “I lifted the pressure off by telling them to just go and enjoy it.”
 
“We’ve got a lot of good footballers and a 3G pitch suits how they want to play. So I gave them a little more freedom to just play the way they wanted to. They certainly didn’t let anyone down in their performance.
 
“Right from the start, we took the game to them, passed the ball well and created chances. We should be pleased with that.
 
“We were the better team for sure. I like Gary (Hendon Manager). Hendon are a nice club and they’re a good side. They’re a league above doing well on merit. But we deserved that tonight. If we perform to the levels I know that we’re capable of, we can do that to most teams in our league and the league above. Tonight, we proved that.
 
“I said we wanted a trophy and we’re in good sight of one. I go back to what I said before that this is supposed to be a local tournament in the early rounds at least. We’ve been to Margate, Hendon, Whyteleafe, Thamesmead – every round has been an away game. We’ve been on a lot of journeys, but we’ve got ourselves into a semi-final. With a bit of luck, we can do the business in that and have a cup final for everyone to look forward to. It’d be a fantastic achievement to get there and then on the day, it’s anyone’s for the taking."

Hendon 5-1 Corinthian-Casuals
London Senior Cup Quarter Final
Thursday 26th March 2015
Silver Jubilee Park
Match report and pics: Stuart Tree

Corinthian-Casuals crashed out of the London Senior Cup at the Quarter Final stage to a rampant Hendon who showed their Ryman Premier class and why they’re pushing for promotion this season.

Ironically, Hendon were the lowest ranked opposition that Casuals had played in the competition this season, but the wins over Bromley and AFC Wimbledon were against squads littered with academy players. Hendon offered no such relief and fielded a line up packed with first teamers.

The evening was also an historic one; this was Hendon’s first competitive match on what will be their own home ground in the near future… Silver Jubilee Park. The occasion was graced with a bumper crowd and Hendon’s young stars of the future acted as mascots for both teams on the night.

With one division and thirty-five places separating the teams, Boss Matt Howard would need to call on a full strength side but the recent gruelling schedule meant he was missing the defensively capable Danny Green, the midfield strength of Lee Hall and the attacking prowess of Dave Hodges. A reshuffled line up consisting of a first start of the season for ex-captain Jason Turley was the next best thing.

Honours were even for the first half hour; Hendon had half chances with Max McCann heading over from a penetrating cross and at the other end, Maz Bettache and Max Austin had chances to put Corinth infront. The artificial surface allowed both teams to get the ball down and play some attractive football.

On the half hour mark, the deceptively pacey Aaron Morgan beat Jake Gill down the left  before cutting inside and drilling low past Danny Bracken. If the dubious goals panel were in attendance (I doubt they were), the goal was given as an OG to Maz Bettache, but looked like a perfectly good strike by the Hendon forward and deserved the credit.

Reece Placid had a great chance to immediately make it level; using his pace, his drive into the box and resulting shot was well kept out by Ben McManara in goal. Maz Bettache also smashed the crossbar direct from a corner.

But soon it was two-nil; From a dangerous position, a free kick was perfectly glided to the far side and Aaron Morgan was able to tuck the ball away past Bracken. If two-nil was tough to come back from, three-nil was an almost impossibility. James Fisher linked up with Morgan and his precise pass split the Casuals’ back four and found Leon Smith who left Bracken fighting with thin air and tucking into an unguarded net.

After the break, Corinth kept their shape better and looked to cause problems on the counter-attack. They got their reward. From defending a corner, Juevan Spencer broke up the pitch and interlinked with Jamie Byatt who found the net from close range. Casuals now looked more dangerous with this change in tactics and were unfortunate not to get back to 3-2. Jake Gill’s thumping effort crashed down off the bar and somehow not over the line. It would’ve been the perfect way to open his Corinth account.

However, Hendon once again turned on the taps and made it four and five in quick succession. Kezie Ibe finishing off a wonderful move which left Bracken, who’d again been excellent all night, stranded. A penalty was converted by Aaron Morgan in the dying minutes and he duly placed it past to give Hendon the deserved win.

Thank you to our hosts who were incredibly warm and welcoming, from their officials, players and supporters. The match was played in the best spirit and we were humbled at how ‘privileged’ they felt that their opening competitive fixture was against our historic club. We wish them all the very best in the cup and league.

After the match, Matt Howard commented, “I don’t think it was a 5-1 game but fair play to them, going forward they were very good.

“We’ve had a couple of half decent half chances and on another day, we could’ve gone in at half time one-all.

“The game was over at half time really. We looked to try and get something out of the match and when we got it back to 3-1 and Jake Gill hit the bar, we could’ve been right back in it.

“But Hendon were the better side and deserved to win but 5-1 seems a little harsh.

“Quarter final of a cup, you want to do well, especially when you get to this stage. But realistically, we could’ve done without it as we’ve still got eight games left in the league. We’re five points off hitting the all time club record for the league points, which obviously we want to beat.” 

Photos from the match can be seen here.

'The Luxury Fan's' blog post about the occasion can also be read here.