Sheerwater 1 – 2 Corinthian-Casuals
Combined Counties League Premier South
Saturday 29th November 2025
Report and Photos: Stuart Tree (full set here). Additional pics: Andy Nunn

Corinthian-Casuals notched up their third win on the bounce with victory at Sheerwater on Saturday in the Combined Counties League.

Goals from Andre Coker and Gabriel Odunaike ensured Mu Maan’s side maintained their playoff push with a convincing performance at Eastwood.

Coker returned from a one match suspension, swapping shirts with Diogo Da Silve in an enforced change, in an otherwise unchanged starting eleven from last Saturday’s win over Fleet Town.

It was Casuals who forged out the best chances of the half with Clayton Afonso’s bicycle kick forcing a fine save from Drew Churchwell and Kieran Scantlebury’s effort rebound off the inside of the post following a through ball to put the striker through.

Sheerwater may have caused Sanghyun Baek a few more headaches had they found their finishing boots but their best effort whistled wide of the Casuals’ keeper’s left post.

The deadlock was broken ten minutes into the second half when Coker’s free kick from the edge of the box bamboozled Churchwell as it bounced over the hapless keeper.

Casuals looked comfortable sitting on a lead with a defence that had not conceded from open play in four matches. But a period of pressure paid off for Sheerwater as they struck home from a cross at the near post on 87 minutes.

But their joy turned to despair barely a minute later; Shea-Cascoe Rogers forced a corner from which Hakeem Adelakun picked up the pieces, drove a low ball across the six yard box to see substitute Gabriel Odunaike turn it in from close range.

It was a deserved win for the travelling Casuals who, earlier in the season, had struggled to pick up points on the road, yet are now unbeaten in a month. Key partnerships of Afonso and captain Quincy Rowe and Scott Day and Arsenii Protsyshyn are bearing playoff point fruit for Maan’s Casuals.

Corinthian-Casuals 4 - 1 Sheerwater
Combined Counties Premier South
Tuesday 5th November 2024
Report: Josh Lamey. Photo: Andy Nunn.

Fireworks continued both on and off the pitch on Tuesday night as Sheerwater failed to extinguish a blistering Corinthian-Casuals attacking performance.
 
The assured confidence that came with back-to-back home wins disappeared on Saturday, following a forgettable game in Camberley. An afternoon which lacked action, however, midfielder Ben Cheklit finishing the game between the sticks after a Sami Nabbad red card certainly set up an intriguing finale.
 
Casuals came into this one with a mission: record the double over a side for the first time since the Step 3 days of 2021/2022, where a 2-1 win in Bromley coupled with a soaring 4-0 home victory was enough to defeat Cray Wanderers twice in one campaign. Suffice to say, since then, wins have been hard to come by and doubles over any opposition have been completely absent.
 
The dreams of a double were almost troubled after just mere seconds, as Sheerwater looked to set out their intent early. A shot hooked towards goal from Danny Webster had Nabbad rooted, but fortunately for him, the post intervened to prevent the opener.
 
From what was a lightning-quick start from the hosts, Casuals suddenly burst into life in the 10th minute. A meaningful run from Raf Barbosa through a sea of Sheerwater defence saw the Brazilian impeded in the area, and left the referee in no doubt of a penalty. Fellow countryman Diogo Da Silva calmly placed in his sixth goal of the season to send his side into the lead.
 
Denis Travin - on loan from Oxford United - got his name onto the scoresheet for the first time in the Pink and Chocolate of Corinthian-Casuals, reinstating an effervescent buzz of playing at home that the side had become accustomed to before the weekend. A corner swung in wasn’t dealt with by the Sheers, and Travin cooly slotted home to double the advantage. A well-deserved two-goal lead.
 
Although the elation of scoring was tangible, it was also wiped out instantly. Sheerwater made full use of the hosts’ celebrations to go straight down the other end, led by Captain Liam Avery, and after some missed chances to clear the Casuals lines, the centre-half pounced and smashed it past Nabbad. Game on, it seemed.
 
That was, until Matt Kellett-Smith restored order for Mu Maan’s side, who regained the upper hand just prior to the break. Perhaps history repeated itself as the Sheers found themselves defending another set-piece, and it was another wicked delivery that left the back line at sixes and sevens, and Kellett-Smith couldn’t miss as he thumped home from 6 yards.
 
Half time, and Maanball was in full force, showing that the fireworks weren’t the only spectacular on display on the 5th of November…
 
The downside of the contest was a nasty injury to Ben Cheklit who required an ambulance and hospital visit following a rib injury that left him with breathing difficulties. Thankfully, Ben is recovering and hopes to be back in action within a few weeks. It’s a blow to Maan losing his current Captain, but with a number of players due back and a strong squad now formed, Casuals will look to continue this upward rise.
 
And so they did. It was game set and match as the clocks struck for the 75th minute, and Kiyo Brown struck for the fourth. It was his cross-come-shot which Fabio Suarez could only palm into the back of his own net, meanwhile Brown celebrated in humble fashion. It may have taken a slice of luck, but it had restored that winning feeling back to the stands of the Armada Group Stadium.
 
Corinthian-Casuals: Nabbad, Gjoshe, Adelakun, M Dos Santos, Kellett-Smith, Protsyshyn, Brown (Blackwell 90+7), Cheklit (Ewerthon 58), Barbosa (Pilonetto 90+4), Da Silva (J Dos Santos 83), Travin

Sheerwater 3 - 4 Corinthian-Casuals
Combined Counties Premier Division South
Tuesday 13th August 2024
Report: Dominic Bliss
Photo: Andy Nunn

Mu Maan registered his first win as Corinthian-Casuals manager as we picked up three points on the road at Sheerwater in our second league fixture of the season last night.

This result has been coming after a series of promising attacking displays in recent weeks, but it didn’t come easily against a dangerous opponent in a harum-scarum match. In the end, Casuals edged a seven-goal thriller, and there could have been even more goals on a night when attack came out on top.

It was clear from kick-off that both teams would look to get the ball forward quickly and play on the front foot, but there was a distinct difference in the way they tried to do that. Casuals had the superior technical quality, putting together some intricate passing moves, while the widemen, Kiyo Brown and Shea Cascoe-Rogers, unsettled their respective markers with quick feet and darting runs. Meanwhile, Sheerwater looked to hit us on the break with balls down the inside-channels and whipped crosses into the penalty area, while their sharp midfielders followed up whenever we failed to clear our lines.

That was precisely how they took the lead before 10 minutes were up, and Casuals had every reason to feel hard done by, given our lively start to proceedings.

However, just as the Casuals fans – who made up the bulk of the attendance – were beginning to search their ranks for the person who must have smashed a mirror two years ago, we found ourselves level. Brown and skipper Reyon Dillon combined smoothly on the edge of the area before the centre-forward laid it off to Diogo da Silva, who was following up in the No10 position. The Brazilian then stroked home a beautiful low left-footed finish from the edge of the area and it felt like the goal we had needed to settle our nerves.

However, this game refused to settle all night. It was end-to-end stuff from start to finish and, midway through the first half, Sheerwater striker George Sellick capitalised on some indecisive defending to fire home his second goal of the game and give Casuals fans that sinking feeling again.

That sinking feeling lasted less than two minutes, though, on an evening when no one in attendance was allowed to relax for a moment. Dillon has come close to scoring his first goal since returning to the club on several occasions already this season, and he broke his duck here with a precise low finish into the bottom corner after a marauding run by right-back Jonathan Gjoshe.

Dillon had another effort ruled out by the assistant referee’s flag moments later, following some fine play by Ryan Murad and Da Silva that picked apart the Sheerwater defence. He then hit the woodwork with a back-post header from a delightful cross by Brown on the right wing.

The half-time whistle brought the opportunity to decompress and catch our breath, but there was a sense that this game was there for the taking if we could only make our chances count.

Casuals seemed to step up a level in the second half, growing in confidence as the game unfolded, while the travelling supporters raised the decibel levels behind the goal.

Around the hour mark, the faithful erupted when Ben Cheklit ran onto a loose ball 25 yards out and thumped a right-footed piledriver straight into the top corner, before nonchalantly raising his arms into the air in that inimitable style we became used to during those heady post-pandemic days when he hit his stride in his previous spell here.
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Finally, we were ahead, and it felt as though this could be the moment for us to kick-start the Mu era… for about 30 seconds.

That was all it took for our new-found confidence to be punctured by a Sheerwater goal, as we failed to regroup following the restart. It was a blow that could have produced two outcomes: either we fought, or we folded.

We fought. The Casuals players, stung by the equaliser, sprung back to life immediately and began to pour forward in search of a winner. They clearly weren’t willing to accept a point on a night when it felt like a goal could arrive at any moment.

Dillon was withdrawn after 65 minutes, having connected things brilliantly from his centre-forward’s role, and was replaced by the Brazilian livewire, Raf Barbosa – a defender’s nightmare, constantly breathing down his marker’s neck and sniffing out any loose pass. He picked up a booking for one slightly over-zealous attempt to block the Sheerwater left-back’s clearance, but he had no intention of cooling off.

On 82 minutes, he got the chance to satisfy his thirst for goals when his indefatigable compatriot Emerson Pilonetto burst forward from left-back, made it to the byline and sent a low cross towards the edge of the six-yard box – the corridor of uncertainty. Da Silva seemed to be the target but, seeing his route to goal blocked by a defender, he deftly stepped over the ball, leaving it for the unmarked Barbosa to finish firmly into the back of the net. A goal made in Brazil, from a move fashioned on the training ground in Tolworth.

Casuals rode their luck in the dying minutes, escaping a spot of pinball that broke out in our penalty area during stoppage time, when the Sheerwater keeper, Chris Adams, saw his desperate goalbound effort blocked.

The final whistle brought raised arms and guttural cheers from the pitch and the terrace behind the goal. We did it the hard way – of course we did – but we’ve deserved this. Now it’s time to build on it.

Corinthian-Casuals: Greenaway; Gjoshe, Morgan, Adelakun, Pilonetto; Brown, Cheklit, Murad (Allchurch 80), Cascoe-Rogers (Hudson 55); Da Silva (Castelo 90); Dillon (Barbosa 65)