Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 2 Bishop's Stortford
Isthmian League Premier Division
Tuesday 26th October 2021
Report: Stuart Tree

A poor first half performance from Corinthian-Casuals condemned them to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Bishop’s Stortford on an uninspiring evening in the Isthmian League Premier Division.

Two first half goals from Jake Cass, the first via the penalty spot was enough to dispatch James Bracken’s side in the opening forty-five minutes. Despite an improved second half, the three points remained comfortably in the hands of the visitors.

Coskun Ekim came in for an injured Elliott Bolton and Emmanuel Mensah returned to action, displacing Warren Mfula on the bench.

Perhaps exhausted from a continuous run of high-pressured games, including a 38-year best FA Cup run, Casuals never got out of first gear. A season low attendance was also telling as relentless football takes its toll on the pocket too.

Stortford had the lion’s share of possession in the first half but the first chance fell to Jack Strange, who’s half volley struck the crossbar from a fine free kick courtesy of Ben Cheklit.

But Strange was involved in the first controversial moment of the game when he was adjudged to have fouled his opponent in the box. Whilst contact was made, it came after the defender had nicked the ball away. Despite his protests, which earned him a yellow card, the penalty stood and Jake Cass dispatched with ease.

Wind in their sails, Stortford applied good amounts of pressure and carved Casuals open on a couple of occasions. They survived the first – Emmanuel Mensah clearing off the line but the second time, Cass had no problem turning in a low cross.

Bracken made two changes at half time in an attempt to liven things up and to an extent, it worked. There was more forward endeavour, putting Stortford onto the back foot. Substitute Mfula was unlucky not to get more of an inbound cross, heading just wide.

But it was only in the final minutes that Casuals should’ve scored; two chances falling in the dying minutes with Archie Edwards denying a goal-bound strike and Kieron Cadogan blazing over from 15 yards, front and centre.

In the end, it was a comfortable away win for the visitors who were never really tested throughout.

"That first half didn’t resemble anywhere near the levels of performance we’d expect both individually and as a collective," said Bracken after the match.

"Let’s be fair to Stortford, they pressed us really well. We knew they’d come with a lot of energy and we knew what we’d be up against. We prepared ourselves for that but we seemed to persist in trying to play our way out of enormous pressure. They came here fresh, motivated and put us under spells of pressure where, on a pitch that’s a bit soft, we’ve tried to be too clever at times. As a consequence, we’ve lost the ball in too many bad areas. 2-0 down at half time and we thoroughly deserved to be.

"We turned things around slightly at half time but our chances didn’t come until right at the end and we didn’t take them anyway. But it was better from us in the second half and we probably edged it without being particularly good ourselves, in what was a scrappy game.

"For some players, it looked like it was a game too many at the moment. We’ve tried to freshen things up and a couple of players have come in tonight with a view of giving us a few more fresh legs and a hunger to try and win that shirt.

"But we’re going to have off-nights. We need seven or eight players to turn up each game giving their best. The two or three that aren’t quite on it probably get subbed but you still have enough on the pitch to win. But tonight, if you’d have said to me, “who had a good game?” the God’s honest truth is ’no one’. Literally, to a man – not one of those players has played to a level that I know they can.

"We haven’t shipped six or seven goals though, which is happening to a lot of other teams in this division. We’ve let in two – second half is better and probably should’ve grabbed one back at the end to make it a little more respectable. But the bottom line is, the first half cost us. We can’t afford to start in first gear. That won’t get you any points against a decent Stortford side.
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"Cheshunt won’t be an easy game either. They’re sitting in and around the playoff places and were second when the season halted last year. They’re a decent side. They’ll come here with physicality. They’re lively around the box. We’ll try to be best prepared for them.  I expect us to be better and if we are, I expect us to win. But we just need to go and do it out there on the pitch."

Corinthian-Casuals 1 - 0 Hornchurch
Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 23rd October 2021
Report and Photos: Stuart Tree (full set here)

Corinthian-Casuals got their league campaign back on track with a solid 1-0 win over FA Trophy holders Hornchurch on Saturday.

Kieron Cadogan’s 81st minute penalty was enough to separate the two sides as Casuals returned to Isthmian action following an eight game FA Cup run.

The win means Casuals have only lost two of their last thirteen matches and have a number of games in hand over their league rivals thanks to a glut of cup replays this season.

It was Casuals who threatened first with Ricardo Thompson volleying over Hornchurch’s goal. Ben Cheklit also got in on the action before the visitors started to show their threat.

It was Liam Nash who first tested Danny Bracken who made a fine low stop to prevent the Urchins from taking the lead. The Casuals captain was called into action twice more in quick succession, smothering a Billy Bricknell chance and another Nash chance, nullifying another one-on-one.

If the first half belonged to Hornchurch on balance, then the second was Casuals’. Ben Cheklit’s run and fierce shot from the edge of the box forced an acrobatic save from Joe Wright. Corinth showed more purpose going forward with another Cheklit shot being deflected into the path of Andy Mills who was desperately unlucky not to tap in from close range with Wright once again called into action. Hornchurch also threatened with Hayles’ header cannoning off the bar and Bracken thwarting Nash once again.

But with the game looking like it was heading for a stalemate, a burst into the box from Jack Tucker saw him upended by Buyabu and a penalty was awarded. The ever-relaible Cadogan blasting into the top corner leaving Wright with no chance.

The win takes Casuals up into sixteenth with a number of games in hand.

“We didn’t play particularly well today,” said James Bracken after the match. “But after the disappointment at St Alban’s on Tuesday it was important that we bounced back with a win.

“There were good moments from us. We had a good amount of control, played the ball relatively well though we lacked a little in the final third. But there’s no problem in the shape but perhaps one or two individuals were a little tired or struggled to get themselves back up to the level required after a tough midweek. I’m not going to make excuses for them. They’ve turned up, put the shirt on and we’ve won.

“These are games that we’ve had in the past where we might have lost 1-0. We have to turn good possession into wins. When the game looks like it’s there for the taking, we must ensure we turn them into victories.

“One bit of quality from Jack Tucker today has earned us those three points. It’s a stonewall penalty and it’s been enough to win it for us.

“With big scores in and around the league, it’s testament to our keeper and defence that we seem as solid as we are. Dan made a number of key saves. A lot of Hornchuch’s attacks were on the back of us giving the ball away and they created a number of good chances against us. They’re a good side with good forwards. They’ve got Billy Bricknell, Liam Nash and Charlie Ruff, who I like… they’re good players. They’ll always create chances. But that’s a testament to our back line and Dan who’s made three or four very good stops. I’m pleased for him, especially after the past week that he’s been able to put in that level of performance. That’s what he’s there to do. You play a goalkeeper to make saves.

“We’ve kept a few clean sheets this season but even the ones where we haven’t, the goals have come from penalties or chances that no-one is saving. Look at the one in midweek at St Albans… that’s a worldy that no keeper saves.

“We’re not letting in soft goals so we’re doing a lot of things right at the moment. Long may that continue.”

Corinthian-Casuals 1 – 1 St Albans City
Emirates FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round
Saturday 16th October 2021
Report and Photos: Stuart Tree (full set of photos here)

If you would have asked any Corinthian-Casuals fan back in August, would they take being in the hat for the First Round of the FA Cup, pending a replay to make it there, they’d have bitten your hand off for the opportunity.

The bigger picture is, Casuals have indeed made it into the First Round Proper draw – though ball 66 will state Corinthian-Casuals OR St Albans City.

With seventeen seconds left on the clock, it was exclusively James Bracken’s side that were in with the chance of a dream tie against Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday or Accrington Stanley!

But football can be a cruel mistress when St Albans equalised with the last kick of the game. A scrappy one at that – though they’ll take it as evident in their celebrations.

St Albans Manager Ian Allinson admitted that ‘they got away with it’ and ‘they were better than us and Casuals deserved to win the game’. But that’s football. It lasts 90 (or in this case, 94) minutes.

It felt particularly cruel as the Saints had failed to muster a single shot on target in the game. But one-nil leads are precarious and anything can happen, as it did.

The first half was cagey. This report would just be filling up space trying to describe half chances and spells of possession. It was even-stevens. Both sides trying to find themselves and their opponents weaknesses.

But the second half saw Casuals come alive. This in turn got the crowd rocking, which in turn got the players going. Former Casuals cup heroes Alan Pardew and Andy Gray in attendance must’ve enjoyed the increased perkiness of the second period.

Warren Mfula had the pick of the chances for Casuals to take the lead. Kieron Cadogan played a wonderful ball through to the striker who had the keeper beaten but his shot rebounded off the upright.

Jack Strange powered a header destined for the top corner. Elliott Bolton blasted over. Jack Tucker was unlucky for his chance to be halted by the referee.

But finally the deadlock was broken on 72 minutes when Cadogan whipped in a perfect cross to find 16-year old Alfie Bendle who couldn’t miss with his head at the back post.

Time very slowly ticked down, deep into stoppage time with Casuals having comfortably cleaned up any St Albans threat. A harsh free kick was awarded 35 yards out and a tricky ball was floated into a dangerous area and the resulting melee saw substitute Dave Diedhiou clean up from just a yard out. Hearts sank as Saints were saved.

It felt like a loss. So close to confirming their spot in the First Round for the first time in 38 years, James Bracken and his side will need a replay for the FOURTH time this campaign if they are to progress. The Boss was decidedly upbeat about Casuals chances though, reminding us that his side had scored three goals in each of their three replays this season.

“Football gives you those massive highs but conversely, you get those massive disappointments too”, said Bracken after the match.

“You have to take a pragmatic approach with a balanced head because if you don’t. you’ll end up in a padded cell somewhere.

“The good times are great and you enjoy those, but you can let in a last minute goal like we did today and be down in the dumps. Of course we’re disappointed. The boys are too but we’re in the hat for the next round. You have to take the positives from that. We’re in the draw, we have a replay on Tuesday where we’ll know who we will play should we get through and hopefully serves as a bit of motivation.

“If we deliver the same levels of performance, then we’ll have every chance. Today, we were good, but no better than I would expect us to be. This is how I expect us to be in every game. I actually still find last week against Merstham harder to deal with. If we play like we have today, which is what we’ve done in many of our games this season, then we know we’re a good side. We’re not easy to create chances against, as our clean-sheets have shown and we’re scoring some goals.

“So we just need to dust ourselves down. Yeah – it’s cruel but we’ll be back again.

“My Brother will pick himself up, don’t worry. Every one of those boys in the changing room put their arms around him. Remember, he’s saved us in plenty of matches. He’s more than proved himself. You could see he was upset, but that shows the man cares. He’s got passion for this club.

“I thought the free kick leading to the equaliser was harsh. Their player has put it through our lad’s legs and just ran into him. When you put a ball though the legs, it’s clear you’re square on and you cannot get out of the way. So for that reason, I thought it was harsh.

“But I’m not here to criticise the officials. I thought they had a good game if I’m honest.

“It is what it is and all we can do is go again on Tuesday. The better, bigger pitch will suit us and we’ll use it to our advantage.
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“We have a 100% record on midweek evening matches and in every replay, we’ve scored three goals so there’s plenty of positives.”

Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 3 Merstham
Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 9th October 2021
Report and photos: Stuart Tree (set of pics here)

Corinthian-Casuals slumped to their worst defeat of the season so far courtesy of a low-intensity performance that saw the visitors Merstham deservedly take the three points.

Whilst the scoreline reads 3-0, with two goals deep in stoppage time, the game was closer than the record books will suggest. Merstham led for the majority of the game with a slender one goal lead courtesy of a third minute Dylan Adjei-Hersey goal which remained the case for a further 89 minutes.

Casuals, with enforced changes from the 3-0 win at Wingate and Finchley on Tuesday night never even touched those levels as Merstham caused problems in the very early stages. Frank Wilson’s side capitalised on the fact that Casuals’ heads still appeared to be in the changing rooms with a 3rd minute strike from close range.
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Merstham were easily the better side for the majority of the first half though Casuals slowly grew into the match. Though the only time they troubled the youthful 18 year-old stopper Toby Bull was a well struck shot from Warren Mfula.
Casuals were better in the second half but increasingly could tell it would be ‘one of those days’. The hoodoo that Merstham hold over Corinth appearing to continue once again. The best chance fell to Mfula who couldn’t quite convert a brilliant cross from Kieron Cadogan at the back post.

Merstham, who were pinned in their own half for large parts of the half did have a couple of moments to finish the tie off, but it would be in stoppage time before they did. Breaking from a corner up the other end, substitute Ufuah finished off to seal the deal. And to add salt to the wounds, just a minute later, ex-Casual Reyon Dillon added a third.

With eyes on the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round next, there was always the feeling that full attention may not be paid towards this important Isthmian League fixture. Merstham capitalised and deservedly came away with three points and Casuals will need to re-find those higher levels seen in recent performances if they’re to progress in the Cup next week.
 
“It was nowhere near the levels that we’ve been at recently”, said Manager James Bracken after the match. “It was frustrating. We’ve spoken about this before; we play the teams that we know will be in the top five and we more than compete with them. We very often pick up results against these teams, as we have this season. When we play the sides that are perceived to be in the bottom half, we seem to do something different.

“Unfortunately, the level of performance required across the pitch just wasn’t there today. I felt that every player could’ve carried on playing at that same level of intensity for another hour. In every other game that we’ve played, the boys have come off at full time, sat on those benches in the changing room and couldn’t have given another yard. They’d left everything on the pitch. Today, we didn’t leave it all out there. That’s so frustrating.

“It's for no other reason than the fact was they felt they didn’t have to give 100% to beat them. And unfortunately, we didn’t. I’ve said time and time again, if we don’t reach those levels, we’ll be beaten by anyone in this division and even the division below

“I’m not going to beat them up over it - the lads are human, but we made so many poor decisions in every aspect of our play. Everything just seemed to be wrong. We just have to hope that’s an anomaly, because looking back at the previous eight games, we’ve not been anything like that.

“It was a mess of a game. Fair play to Merstham – they got their noses in front early, which was poor from us. It was too easy a goal to gift. We should’ve defended better. Especially the second goal. We’ve let their guy run from the half way line and we never got a defender between the player and the goal until he was about eight yards out.

“We had a couple of good chances to equalise but that’s football for you. Another day, one of those goes for you. On a day like today, where chances seemed few and far between, that’s massive. When it’s not going for you, taking those chances is vital.

“But overall, we didn’t pressurise their keeper enough. I don’t remember him having to do too much in the game. That’s crazy considering the chances we created in the Wingate game midweek. We’ve gone from looking like we could score ten goals to a game four days later, creating just one or two chances.

And looking forward to the Emirates FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round tie against St Albans City, Bracken said “It's a big game and a fantastic opportunity to get out there and pit ourselves against a good team. Hopefully, we can put in a much better performance that warrants the occasion.

“We’ve had six games against teams in our league to get to this point and not one of them could beat us. That’s a testament to where we’ve been at, performance wise. We need to ensure we get back to those levels and beyond. But we’ve done that before. I don’t get nervous about these games – there’s no pressure on us.

“I relish these games because they’re proper games of football. We’ll be coming up against better players, who know the game. We know they’ll be organised, and it’ll be a good game of football.

“But we need to reach those levels again. We want to give St Albans a game and we’ve proved already this season that we’re more than a match for good sides.” 

Corinthian-Casuals 1 - 1 Wingate & Finchley
Emirates FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round
Saturday 2nd October 2021
Report and pics: Stuart Tree (full set here)
​Additional photos: Andy Nunn (set here)

For the third round in succession, Corinthian-Casuals will need a replay if they are to progress in the Emirates FA Cup following a 1-1 draw with Wingate & Finchley on Saturday.

The two sides will face each other again on Tuesday evening to determine who progresses to the Fourth Qualifying Round. For Casuals, it’ll be the first time reaching this stage since 1983 and for Wingate and Finchley, the first time ever since their amalgamation in 1991.

Casuals, who had played the bulk of the match with ten men, led through an audacious Beckham-esque strike from the halfway line courtesy of Kieron Cadogan. But they were pegged back with ten minutes remaining when Alphanso Kennedy cleaned up following a parried cross from the right.

In atrocious conditions, with driving rain and strong winds, good, free flowing football was always going to be hard to achieve. Casuals struggled directly into the wind for large parts of the first half. Captain Danny Bracken had to be on full alert in goal due to the tricky handling conditions, fruitlessly wiping his gloves on what was surely an already soaked towel hung in the net.

The tie became tougher for Corinth on the half hour mark when Ola Williams was shown a second yellow card to become the first Casual to be sent off this season. Protests from both players and management led to further cards being issued – this was real muck and nettles football.

There was a heart-in-mouth moment when Wingate’s Smyth tapped in from close range before the linesman had raised his flag for offside.

But with just ten men, Casuals played as eleven and were determined that the situation wasn’t going to hamper them. Whilst Wingate had been on top for large parts of the first half, it was Corinth who opened the scoring with a Puskas-award-winning effort from Kieron Cadogan. A little shimmy to take out one midfielder, he immediately spotted Ben Goode off his line, and lobbed him from the halfway line.

The key moment in the game then fell to Casuals with twenty minutes remaining. Warren Mfula found himself bearing down on goal but was upended, not once but twice by the combination of Gibbons and Goode. Take your pick as to which one was a penalty. Inexplicably, referee Aaron Farmer didn’t see either challenge as a foul and waved play on!

It would come back to haunt Casuals as Wingate equalised with ten minutes remaining when Bracken could only parry a cross into the path of Kennedy to tap in from close range.

Both sides searched for a winner with Wingate having another struck off for offside and Casuals going close twice, courtesy of substitute Hakeem Adelakun and Emmanuel Mensah. But it was not to be decided on this day and the two sides will meet again on Tuesday in North London.

“That’s a really unfair result on us today,” said Manager James Bracken after the match. “My brother’s made an error for the goal and it’s not a good one for us to concede but on a very wet day, it’s understandable and I have no problem with that.

“In my opinion, we deserved to still have eleven men on the pitch. We played an hour with ten men and should’ve had a penalty when 1-0 up. That would’ve put the game out of sight. So I don’t think it’s a good result. We worked our socks off and were better with ten men than we were with eleven. We did enough in that last hour to win the game.

“On paper, after thirty minutes when the sending off happened, I’d have reluctantly taken the replay. But with just ten men, we should’ve come away with the win.

“The first half wasn’t good enough from us. We were never at the races. Half time was a wake up call for a few of the boys – a few truths told that they weren’t good enough. We had an instant impact upon changing a few things. We looked a threat going forward and comfortable in defence. We got the goal and should’ve killed it off. Only one team was going to win and it was us.

“The fact that we had chances is a testament to the boys’ attitude. Second half, we’ve had better intensity, passed the ball much better, took care of the ball. We need to replicate that on Tuesday but with eleven players.”
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When asked who he’d like to see drawn out of the hat for the next round of the Cup on Monday, Bracken replied, “the lowest ranked team left in it. Then in the round after that, the lowest ranked team left in it, then it’ll be the Second Round proper and we’ll take the best possible tie we can get, away from home and have a great payday. That’s ideal for me.”