Corinthian-Casuals 4 - 1 Potters Bar Town
Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 18th December 2021
Report: Stuart Tree. Photos: Andy Nunn (full set here)
Corinthian-Casuals completed a fine turnaround performance in contrast to the week before by putting four past Potters Bar Town in the Isthmian League Premier Division.
A brace from Ollie Sitch was complemented by two set-piece headers from Jack Strange and Ben Cheklit to complete a fine 4-1 victory over the Scholars.
Casuals had enforced changes following birthday boy Emmanuel Mensah testing positive for Covid and Ola Williams out with a knee injury. Also missing was top scorer Warren Mfula following his return to Sheppey United. In stepped Sitch, debutant Peter Ojemen and the returning Bobby Mills from suspension.
Despite some not even having taken their seats, Sitch had opened the scoring. And how! A fine volley from inside the box topped off the bright start as Casuals looked to dominate the early stages. Mills also went close taking a wonderful touch before just dragging his shot wide.
It was all Casuals when finally they broke their duck from corners this season. The work in training in midweek had paid off as Jack Strange powered home his header for his first of the season.
Corinth made it three just before the break when he capitalized on a Bar defender’s mistake and making no mistake with finding the target.
And just like the week before at Cheshunt, the next goal after half time would be the key to finishing the match off as a contest. This time it was in favour of the Casuals as Ben Cheklit converted his header from another Kieron Cadogan corner to put the game to bed.
The only disappointment for James Bracken’s side was to concede a late consolation, courtesy of substitute Luke Tingey who headed home. But it was a comprehensive win for the Casuals who’s constant press was too much for Lee O’Leary’s side on the day. The win puts Corinth up to tenth.
“Our focus is on the next game,” said Manager James Bracken after the match. “But we’ll set the boys a points target for the month of January. Of course, we want to win the next one so that’s where our focus remains for now.
“We’ll set a target that we feel will keep us in the top ten as a minimum and hopefully pushing towards those playoff places. We have ambition and we see performances like that, and the fact that we’ve lost just one in the last eight.
“In those last eight, we should’ve won at least three of the games that we’ve drawn, based on the chances that we created.
“Last week was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was one step too far in terms of us not taking our chances. So there was always going to be changes made. Even though we had a couple unavailable today but everyone to a man today was fantastic.
“I have a massive smile on my face. I don’t usually smile after a win. You know how I am. I can be a bit morose and especially peed off after a defeat. But I couldn’t stop smiling today. “We worked on set-pieces on Thursday. 40 minutes on just two corner routines. We haven’t had much chance to do that at all. The training sessions you get, you don’t have a lot of time and you need to tick a lot of boxes in terms of how to work the boys. Thankfully, this week, we had a longer session where we could work on set pieces. We’ve seen the payoff on that. We’ve scored two from corners where we haven’t scored one since pre-season.
“We’ve worked on a lot these last few weeks with added sessions and we saw a lot of that today. That’s exactly why training is so important. We’re not here to have a jolly. We’re here to put the hard work in and we saw the rewards this afternoon.”
Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 18th December 2021
Report: Stuart Tree. Photos: Andy Nunn (full set here)
Corinthian-Casuals completed a fine turnaround performance in contrast to the week before by putting four past Potters Bar Town in the Isthmian League Premier Division.
A brace from Ollie Sitch was complemented by two set-piece headers from Jack Strange and Ben Cheklit to complete a fine 4-1 victory over the Scholars.
Casuals had enforced changes following birthday boy Emmanuel Mensah testing positive for Covid and Ola Williams out with a knee injury. Also missing was top scorer Warren Mfula following his return to Sheppey United. In stepped Sitch, debutant Peter Ojemen and the returning Bobby Mills from suspension.
Despite some not even having taken their seats, Sitch had opened the scoring. And how! A fine volley from inside the box topped off the bright start as Casuals looked to dominate the early stages. Mills also went close taking a wonderful touch before just dragging his shot wide.
It was all Casuals when finally they broke their duck from corners this season. The work in training in midweek had paid off as Jack Strange powered home his header for his first of the season.
Corinth made it three just before the break when he capitalized on a Bar defender’s mistake and making no mistake with finding the target.
And just like the week before at Cheshunt, the next goal after half time would be the key to finishing the match off as a contest. This time it was in favour of the Casuals as Ben Cheklit converted his header from another Kieron Cadogan corner to put the game to bed.
The only disappointment for James Bracken’s side was to concede a late consolation, courtesy of substitute Luke Tingey who headed home. But it was a comprehensive win for the Casuals who’s constant press was too much for Lee O’Leary’s side on the day. The win puts Corinth up to tenth.
“Our focus is on the next game,” said Manager James Bracken after the match. “But we’ll set the boys a points target for the month of January. Of course, we want to win the next one so that’s where our focus remains for now.
“We’ll set a target that we feel will keep us in the top ten as a minimum and hopefully pushing towards those playoff places. We have ambition and we see performances like that, and the fact that we’ve lost just one in the last eight.
“In those last eight, we should’ve won at least three of the games that we’ve drawn, based on the chances that we created.
“Last week was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was one step too far in terms of us not taking our chances. So there was always going to be changes made. Even though we had a couple unavailable today but everyone to a man today was fantastic.
“I have a massive smile on my face. I don’t usually smile after a win. You know how I am. I can be a bit morose and especially peed off after a defeat. But I couldn’t stop smiling today. “We worked on set-pieces on Thursday. 40 minutes on just two corner routines. We haven’t had much chance to do that at all. The training sessions you get, you don’t have a lot of time and you need to tick a lot of boxes in terms of how to work the boys. Thankfully, this week, we had a longer session where we could work on set pieces. We’ve seen the payoff on that. We’ve scored two from corners where we haven’t scored one since pre-season.
“We’ve worked on a lot these last few weeks with added sessions and we saw a lot of that today. That’s exactly why training is so important. We’re not here to have a jolly. We’re here to put the hard work in and we saw the rewards this afternoon.”
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