​“Deeply frustrating to only get a point,” said James Bracken after the 0-0 draw against Harlow Town. “We give everyone in this league respect but when you look at the league table, we had earmarked this for three points.

“They went down to ten men and you get that added pressure, where you should be taking advantage. However, there are no givens in football. We did what we could by penning them in, controlling the majority of the play, and had plenty of 2-on-1 opportunities out wide.

“We had 26 touches in their box but I can’t remember their keeper having to make any meaningful saves. Our final ball let us down too often and we made poor decisions in and around their area. We need to get that right more often. Our attacks fizzled out into nothing and we couldn’t find the quality required. We sustained pressure, kept the tempo up and didn’t let them off the hook but just couldn’t get the goal that surely would’ve won it for us.

“We didn’t give the front two enough to thrive on. When we did, we took extra touches and when we got in excellent positions, we pulled balls back which should be played for tap-ins. We gave Harlow weak passes to defend against. The attitude was fine, the work-rate was fine but the quality, when it mattered, wasn’t there.

“That’s rumbled on for a few games now, so we need to look at that and get better in the final third. The boys have got to find it within themselves to produce or else I must look elsewhere to find that quality, which isn’t easy. I’m a loyal person and have been to the players here in all my time. I don’t have a big turnover in players and always maintained that these are the best lads I can get on the limited resources we have.

“Positives are that it stops the rot. We’ve got a point which ends the losing streak. It gives us a clean sheet with which we can build upon next week.

“Having two training sessions a week will now help massively. This’ll be the first time since pre-season that I can call on having two sessions to work on things. That’ll help us build confidence, get some fitness levels up, increase competition for places and get back to winning ways.

Looking forward to next Saturday, at home to Leatherhead, Bracken was not counting on evoking the memory of the 2-1 win at Fetcham Grove in November.
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“That win at Leatherhead in November seems a long time ago now. We need to concentrate on where we’re at right at this moment in time. We’re not doing anything drastically different. Bear in mind that the draw against Harlow, we just lacked that little bit of class at the end. We’re usually better than that and I’ll expect more from the lads next time out. That’s not a dig at them but they’ll need to look at themselves and ask if they did enough. We’ll work hard at it, be positive and take that into the Leatherhead game.”

Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 0 Harlow Town
Bostik League Premier Division
Saturday 5th January 2019
Match report and photos: Stuart Tree (full set of pictures here)

Corinthian-Casuals started 2019 with a clean-sheet and a point after grinding out a 0-0 draw against ten-man Harlow Town on Saturday.

The Hawks were reduced to ten men after just seventeen minutes when Taylor Hastings denied Gabriel Odunaike with a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

However, Harlow’s defensive resilience coupled with Casuals inability to create clear-cut chances meant this match was only ever destined for a scoreless draw.

Positives will be taken from the result, with James Bracken’s side claiming their first clean sheet in nine games and a point that ends a four game losing streak.

Harlow have spent most of the season in the relegation places but with new additions into the side, they’d picked up a few valuable points in the past month. Casuals were looking to kick-start their campaign after a difficult December which saw the Tolworth-outfit pick up three points from a possible fifteen.

Hasting’s sending off set the tone for the rest of the afternoon; a lofted through ball saw Odunaike sprint through on goal and his defender inadvertently tripped the forward leaving Referee Hugh Gilroy no option but to show red.

However, the first half was an even affair. Whilst Max Oldham drove his shot into the side netting and Odunaike choosing to square the ball to Warren Mfula rather than taking the shot on, there wasn’t much action in either box. At the opposite end, Danny Bracken was forced into a sharp but comfortable save from a Harlow attack.

The second half was more one-way traffic as the extra man told. For periods, it seemed it was only a matter of time before the deadlock was broken but Casuals almost possessed a fear of shooting. Josh Bexon, the Harlow stopper had little to save throughout the match.

The introduction of Bradley Woods-Garness and Josh Uzun gave fresh impetus going into the final 20 minutes but despite creating good openings, neither could quite magic up that late winner as was so often seen last season.

And so the spoils were shared leaving Casuals fourteenth in a tight table - six points above the relegation spots but only eight points from playoffs. A run of form as seen in November would put Bracken’s side right in the promotion mix, yet December form could leave them in a relegation dogfight.
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Read Manager James Bracken’s thoughts here.