Kingstonian 1 - 1 Corinthian-Casuals
Isthmian League Premier Division
Wednesday 9th February 2022
Report: Stuart Tree. Photo: Andy Nunn
Corinthian-Casuals and Kingstonian played out a scrappy 1-1 draw on Wednesday night in a result that ultimately benefitted neither club.
An opening first half goal from Daniel Ajakayie was cancelled out nine minutes later by a Peter Ojemen header – his first goal for the Casuals.
Casuals came into the match with squad selection issues having Elliott Bolton missing through Covid and the loss of Ola Williams in defence and Mo Diallo, through a strain, up top. Most notably was Captain Danny Bracken who’s injury continues to keep him out with the returning Manny Agboola back between the sticks.
As typical in so many derby encounters, the exchanges between the sides was nervy and players on both sides took time to settle into the game. It was on 21 minutes before anything of real note happened when Ajakayie pounced on a defensive mistake and slotted home from a neat angle leaving Agboola stranded after he’d attempted to come claim the ball.
But Casuals were level on the half hour mark when Peter Ojemen rose highest of the players to nod home Kieron Cadogan’s cross, with Sanneh unable to keep the ball out of the net.
The second half saw Casuals come out the blocks the better side with the best chance falling to Ricardo Thompson, who looked as though he was caught in two minds when the ball came to him 15 yards out without pressure – the midfielder shanking wide. Ojemen also had another good chance to add to his first half header, this time nodding the ball over.
Though on the front foot, Casuals had lost a key component in their engine with Mani Mensah being replaced at half time with a dead leg and Corinth tired as the half progressed. K’s grew in ascendancy and forced Agboola into action on several occasions. Not least with a fine near-post stop following a Kingston breakaway.
But the match played out without hitting any major high points and both sides will undoubtedly feel that a point is a justified result.
“We’re relatively happy with the point at the end of the game,” said Manager James Bracken after the match. We had boys across our back line who until Saturday, hadn’t played football for three or four weeks. So we knew we might get tired and we lacked a few options, what with injuries and Covid cases.
“However, I thought we played well. I thought we were the better side for the first half. We were on the front foot and had a real idea on how to go about winning the game. But we didn’t find that final ball anywhere near enough, especially from wide areas. I thought that our crossing tonight was poor. Too many were scuffed in across the floor or headed away by the first man. We didn’t have the quality on those like I’d expect us to have. The lads know that though. I don’t need to tell them. I did say to them afterwards that you don’t always get the quality you want to achieve but you then need to show a higher level of work-rate in order not to be beaten. Had we found a bit more quality in those areas, we’d be coming away with a win.
“But it’s another game unbeaten. You look at our results in the match programme and there’s not many ‘red’ losses in there. We’re a match for anyone in this league. Tonight, we we’re perhaps one or two players light from winning that game.
“Bowers and Pitsea on Saturday will be an incredibly difficult game. They were pegged back very late on at Folkestone this week. If a team are capable of being 2-1 up away at Folkestone up until the last kick of the game, then what do we expect other than a hard game?
“I’m sure it’ll be a different style of football from tonight. We expect them to be direct. We’ll expect long throws to come in on us. But we’ll make sure we prepare.”
“We achieved a draw here against Worthing, we lost at Bognor with a disallowed goal that would’ve put us 3-1 up after half time and score three away on Saturday at Stortford to get a positive result. We’ve got another positive result tonight against a side that’s vying for the playoffs. So what we don’t want to do now is have a dip in levels. And to be fair to the boys, they’ve kept the levels up. But I maintain, Saturday will be an incredibly difficult game.”
Isthmian League Premier Division
Wednesday 9th February 2022
Report: Stuart Tree. Photo: Andy Nunn
Corinthian-Casuals and Kingstonian played out a scrappy 1-1 draw on Wednesday night in a result that ultimately benefitted neither club.
An opening first half goal from Daniel Ajakayie was cancelled out nine minutes later by a Peter Ojemen header – his first goal for the Casuals.
Casuals came into the match with squad selection issues having Elliott Bolton missing through Covid and the loss of Ola Williams in defence and Mo Diallo, through a strain, up top. Most notably was Captain Danny Bracken who’s injury continues to keep him out with the returning Manny Agboola back between the sticks.
As typical in so many derby encounters, the exchanges between the sides was nervy and players on both sides took time to settle into the game. It was on 21 minutes before anything of real note happened when Ajakayie pounced on a defensive mistake and slotted home from a neat angle leaving Agboola stranded after he’d attempted to come claim the ball.
But Casuals were level on the half hour mark when Peter Ojemen rose highest of the players to nod home Kieron Cadogan’s cross, with Sanneh unable to keep the ball out of the net.
The second half saw Casuals come out the blocks the better side with the best chance falling to Ricardo Thompson, who looked as though he was caught in two minds when the ball came to him 15 yards out without pressure – the midfielder shanking wide. Ojemen also had another good chance to add to his first half header, this time nodding the ball over.
Though on the front foot, Casuals had lost a key component in their engine with Mani Mensah being replaced at half time with a dead leg and Corinth tired as the half progressed. K’s grew in ascendancy and forced Agboola into action on several occasions. Not least with a fine near-post stop following a Kingston breakaway.
But the match played out without hitting any major high points and both sides will undoubtedly feel that a point is a justified result.
“We’re relatively happy with the point at the end of the game,” said Manager James Bracken after the match. We had boys across our back line who until Saturday, hadn’t played football for three or four weeks. So we knew we might get tired and we lacked a few options, what with injuries and Covid cases.
“However, I thought we played well. I thought we were the better side for the first half. We were on the front foot and had a real idea on how to go about winning the game. But we didn’t find that final ball anywhere near enough, especially from wide areas. I thought that our crossing tonight was poor. Too many were scuffed in across the floor or headed away by the first man. We didn’t have the quality on those like I’d expect us to have. The lads know that though. I don’t need to tell them. I did say to them afterwards that you don’t always get the quality you want to achieve but you then need to show a higher level of work-rate in order not to be beaten. Had we found a bit more quality in those areas, we’d be coming away with a win.
“But it’s another game unbeaten. You look at our results in the match programme and there’s not many ‘red’ losses in there. We’re a match for anyone in this league. Tonight, we we’re perhaps one or two players light from winning that game.
“Bowers and Pitsea on Saturday will be an incredibly difficult game. They were pegged back very late on at Folkestone this week. If a team are capable of being 2-1 up away at Folkestone up until the last kick of the game, then what do we expect other than a hard game?
“I’m sure it’ll be a different style of football from tonight. We expect them to be direct. We’ll expect long throws to come in on us. But we’ll make sure we prepare.”
“We achieved a draw here against Worthing, we lost at Bognor with a disallowed goal that would’ve put us 3-1 up after half time and score three away on Saturday at Stortford to get a positive result. We’ve got another positive result tonight against a side that’s vying for the playoffs. So what we don’t want to do now is have a dip in levels. And to be fair to the boys, they’ve kept the levels up. But I maintain, Saturday will be an incredibly difficult game.”
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