Corinthian-Casuals 3 - 1 Hertford Town
Buildbase FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round
Saturday 28th October 2017
Match report: Cameron Smith. Photos: Stuart Tree (album here)
A resilient Corinthian Casuals side rebutted an early opening goal from Hertford Town to score three times and enter the FA Trophy 2nd Qualifying Round in style despite going down to ten men early on.
As Ben Cheklit took a deep breath before taking Casuals’ fifth spot-kick in the penalty shootout at Margate on Tuesday night, the Corinthian contingent behind the goal were in awe. Moments earlier, the visiting supporters were gutted as the seasiders looked to steal the victory with a late winner, but Jack Strange had other ideas. The penalty shootout that ensued saw Cheklit dispatch the vital kick from twelve yards; Casuals had done the unthinkable and beaten Margate, and were into the next round of the Velocity Trophy.
Football returned to King George’s on a Saturday afternoon, as did the FA Trophy. James Bracken fielded a strong eleven to face Hertford Town, who sit in seventh place in the Bostik North Division. Based in Hertfordshire, the Blues have only won once in their last ten meetings versus Casuals, and this trophy tie would be the first the two sides have met in 15 years. Coskun Ekim and Danny Cunningham returned to the line-up and donned the pink & brown of Casuals once more as the game kicked off.
Scrappy. That was the best word to describe the quality of the opening ten minutes. And it was also the best word to describe Hertford Town’s opener. Ricky Light tapped the ball in after a scramble in the penalty area before celebrating with the noisy travelling fans behind the goal in only the seventh minute. Then, with a little help from the Bracken Brothers and the supporters, Casuals eased into their usual style of play as a glancing header from Jack Strange nearly brought an equaliser. However, Hertford were still threatening and nearly netted a second strike via a bullet header from Michael Toner but terrific reflexes from Danny Bracken gave Casuals a lifeline.
A switch in possession in the 25th minute saw the dominating Hertford lose the ball to the alert, attacking frontline of the hosts. Galloping towards the exposed penalty area, Gabriel Odunaike and Josh Uzun interchanged the ball cleverly before pacey no.9 Odunaike reached the left flank and crossed brilliantly for Uzun to slide past the keeper and into the net. It was 1-1.
Hertford were determined to retake the lead after a Strange clearance off the line and a quick save from no.1 Bracken nearly made it 2-1. However, soon, the score would be 2-1… but not to the away side. Three minutes after Uzun’s equaliser, Jordan Clarke’s magnificent midfield play saw the no.8 slip the ball past a wall of yellow shirts towards Max Oldham. The no.11 was calm and composed when he classily side-footed the ball into the bottom left hand corner to gift Casuals with the lead.
The final moments of the first half depicted a confident and assertive Casuals side controlling the game- everything was going to plan. That was until left-back Tommy Smith was given a straight red card for allegedly lashing out on a yellow shirt, which baffled the Corinth supporters. So at half-time, Casuals did have the 2-1 lead, but would face an eager Hertford side with a one-man advantage.
Mu Maan replaced Cunningham at half-time in an interesting change of tactics from Bracken. Fresh from an impressive assist in the first goal, Odunaike’s effort early in the second half was only denied by Charlie Mann, the Hertford shot-stopper. Casuals started well, but soon deteriorated, and had to thank keeper and captain Danny Bracken for a long string of superb saves. In particular, a piledriver of a shot in the penalty area was dealt with extraordinarily by Bracken as the keeper parried it away and was lauded by the Casuals supporters for his efforts.
Two more changes for Corinthians in the last ten minutes saw Reyon Dillon and Jamie Byatt enter the fray; Bracken looked for the decisive third. In the 89th minute, a Hertford set-piece was cleared by the Casuals defence and a fast-paced counter attack ensued with Reyon Dillon powering towards a Hertford man menacingly. Stepovers left the defender for dead before Dillon was one-on-one with the green shirt of Mann, and dispatched the ball through the legs of the keeper and into the net. It was a classic counter attack, and a classic Reyon Dillon goal. It was his third of the season, and it was Casuals’ all-important third goal of the match.
The victory was almost in the bag for the hosts when Hertford left-back Jay Lovell was given a second yellow card and dismissed- the last minute was played 10 men vs 10 men.
Six yellow cards, four goals, two red cards and one dazzling goal from Reyon Dillon. An eventful 90 minutes in Tolworth saw Corinthian-Casuals advance into the next round of the FA Trophy as the 3-1 result saw Hertford drive back to Hertfordshire disappointed - we wish them good luck for the rest of the season. Next on the agenda is a double home league feature as Ramsgate travel up to King George’s and play next Saturday, before Casuals clash with Molesey on the following Tuesday.
“A good win today”, said Manager James Bracken after the match.
“When you go down to ten men, it’s important to stay organised. Winning with ten men makes the win a little sweeter, especially as we extended our lead which is pleasing. Everyone stepped up when they were needed and thoroughly deserved the victory.
Along with the visiting fans, Bracken praised his brother’s ‘Man of the Match’ efforts between the sticks. “When you play with ten, they’ll bomb a lot of balls into our box and you’ll need your goalkeeper to make saves. Danny’s done that. Today, they had some decent efforts and he had to make better saves than perhaps he normally would. Some games, he’ll have everything kicked straight at him and he’ll routinely collect them.
“To be fair to my brother, he’s pulled off a number of excellent saves. That’s what he’s there to do and he knows that.
“There’s a great buzz around at the moment but we also keep a lid on it. You won’t see us down the lap-dancing club on the Champagne tonight, thinking we’ve all arrived.
“Of course we haven’t. We accept the win, we’ll pick the bones out of elements that could be better. We praise the good things and try to replicate those in the next match and we’ll make sure we focus on the next match, because if we don’t win the next, we’ll find ourselves on a losing streak.
“We won’t get carried away with another win but we’ve only had two defeats in the last fifteen games. If we only have two defeats in the next fifteen, we’ll be very close to the top of the league and hopefully pushing on in the cups, so we’ll keep it on the level and carry on as we are.
“Let’s get this right; there’s no such thing as an easy game. I didn’t rate Hertford today. I know circumstances made it a tougher game than it should’ve been, but we still won 3-1, so it was comfortable in the end. If we play 11 v 11 and hit 80%, I think we’d have honestly scored five or six. “But as they proved today, no one is a walkover – circumstances dictated that it’s gone the distance and they’ve stuck at it.”
Buildbase FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round
Saturday 28th October 2017
Match report: Cameron Smith. Photos: Stuart Tree (album here)
A resilient Corinthian Casuals side rebutted an early opening goal from Hertford Town to score three times and enter the FA Trophy 2nd Qualifying Round in style despite going down to ten men early on.
As Ben Cheklit took a deep breath before taking Casuals’ fifth spot-kick in the penalty shootout at Margate on Tuesday night, the Corinthian contingent behind the goal were in awe. Moments earlier, the visiting supporters were gutted as the seasiders looked to steal the victory with a late winner, but Jack Strange had other ideas. The penalty shootout that ensued saw Cheklit dispatch the vital kick from twelve yards; Casuals had done the unthinkable and beaten Margate, and were into the next round of the Velocity Trophy.
Football returned to King George’s on a Saturday afternoon, as did the FA Trophy. James Bracken fielded a strong eleven to face Hertford Town, who sit in seventh place in the Bostik North Division. Based in Hertfordshire, the Blues have only won once in their last ten meetings versus Casuals, and this trophy tie would be the first the two sides have met in 15 years. Coskun Ekim and Danny Cunningham returned to the line-up and donned the pink & brown of Casuals once more as the game kicked off.
Scrappy. That was the best word to describe the quality of the opening ten minutes. And it was also the best word to describe Hertford Town’s opener. Ricky Light tapped the ball in after a scramble in the penalty area before celebrating with the noisy travelling fans behind the goal in only the seventh minute. Then, with a little help from the Bracken Brothers and the supporters, Casuals eased into their usual style of play as a glancing header from Jack Strange nearly brought an equaliser. However, Hertford were still threatening and nearly netted a second strike via a bullet header from Michael Toner but terrific reflexes from Danny Bracken gave Casuals a lifeline.
A switch in possession in the 25th minute saw the dominating Hertford lose the ball to the alert, attacking frontline of the hosts. Galloping towards the exposed penalty area, Gabriel Odunaike and Josh Uzun interchanged the ball cleverly before pacey no.9 Odunaike reached the left flank and crossed brilliantly for Uzun to slide past the keeper and into the net. It was 1-1.
Hertford were determined to retake the lead after a Strange clearance off the line and a quick save from no.1 Bracken nearly made it 2-1. However, soon, the score would be 2-1… but not to the away side. Three minutes after Uzun’s equaliser, Jordan Clarke’s magnificent midfield play saw the no.8 slip the ball past a wall of yellow shirts towards Max Oldham. The no.11 was calm and composed when he classily side-footed the ball into the bottom left hand corner to gift Casuals with the lead.
The final moments of the first half depicted a confident and assertive Casuals side controlling the game- everything was going to plan. That was until left-back Tommy Smith was given a straight red card for allegedly lashing out on a yellow shirt, which baffled the Corinth supporters. So at half-time, Casuals did have the 2-1 lead, but would face an eager Hertford side with a one-man advantage.
Mu Maan replaced Cunningham at half-time in an interesting change of tactics from Bracken. Fresh from an impressive assist in the first goal, Odunaike’s effort early in the second half was only denied by Charlie Mann, the Hertford shot-stopper. Casuals started well, but soon deteriorated, and had to thank keeper and captain Danny Bracken for a long string of superb saves. In particular, a piledriver of a shot in the penalty area was dealt with extraordinarily by Bracken as the keeper parried it away and was lauded by the Casuals supporters for his efforts.
Two more changes for Corinthians in the last ten minutes saw Reyon Dillon and Jamie Byatt enter the fray; Bracken looked for the decisive third. In the 89th minute, a Hertford set-piece was cleared by the Casuals defence and a fast-paced counter attack ensued with Reyon Dillon powering towards a Hertford man menacingly. Stepovers left the defender for dead before Dillon was one-on-one with the green shirt of Mann, and dispatched the ball through the legs of the keeper and into the net. It was a classic counter attack, and a classic Reyon Dillon goal. It was his third of the season, and it was Casuals’ all-important third goal of the match.
The victory was almost in the bag for the hosts when Hertford left-back Jay Lovell was given a second yellow card and dismissed- the last minute was played 10 men vs 10 men.
Six yellow cards, four goals, two red cards and one dazzling goal from Reyon Dillon. An eventful 90 minutes in Tolworth saw Corinthian-Casuals advance into the next round of the FA Trophy as the 3-1 result saw Hertford drive back to Hertfordshire disappointed - we wish them good luck for the rest of the season. Next on the agenda is a double home league feature as Ramsgate travel up to King George’s and play next Saturday, before Casuals clash with Molesey on the following Tuesday.
“A good win today”, said Manager James Bracken after the match.
“When you go down to ten men, it’s important to stay organised. Winning with ten men makes the win a little sweeter, especially as we extended our lead which is pleasing. Everyone stepped up when they were needed and thoroughly deserved the victory.
Along with the visiting fans, Bracken praised his brother’s ‘Man of the Match’ efforts between the sticks. “When you play with ten, they’ll bomb a lot of balls into our box and you’ll need your goalkeeper to make saves. Danny’s done that. Today, they had some decent efforts and he had to make better saves than perhaps he normally would. Some games, he’ll have everything kicked straight at him and he’ll routinely collect them.
“To be fair to my brother, he’s pulled off a number of excellent saves. That’s what he’s there to do and he knows that.
“There’s a great buzz around at the moment but we also keep a lid on it. You won’t see us down the lap-dancing club on the Champagne tonight, thinking we’ve all arrived.
“Of course we haven’t. We accept the win, we’ll pick the bones out of elements that could be better. We praise the good things and try to replicate those in the next match and we’ll make sure we focus on the next match, because if we don’t win the next, we’ll find ourselves on a losing streak.
“We won’t get carried away with another win but we’ve only had two defeats in the last fifteen games. If we only have two defeats in the next fifteen, we’ll be very close to the top of the league and hopefully pushing on in the cups, so we’ll keep it on the level and carry on as we are.
“Let’s get this right; there’s no such thing as an easy game. I didn’t rate Hertford today. I know circumstances made it a tougher game than it should’ve been, but we still won 3-1, so it was comfortable in the end. If we play 11 v 11 and hit 80%, I think we’d have honestly scored five or six. “But as they proved today, no one is a walkover – circumstances dictated that it’s gone the distance and they’ve stuck at it.”
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