Corinthian-Casuals 2 - 0 Whitehawk
Bostik League Premier Division
Tuesday 9th October 2018
Match report and pics: Stuart Tree (full set here)
Corinthian-Casuals earned their first league home win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Whitehawk.
Second half goals from Warren Mfula and Gabriel Odunaike were enough to seal the three points on a welcome return to King George’s Arena following the FA Cup debacle which saw Casuals forced to play their ‘home’ replay against St Albans City at Met Police’s Imber Court.
On paper, this was always going to be tough; The Hawks had come off a 9-1 thrashing at the hands of Billericay in the Cup and as often with drubbings, it was expected that they would dig in to grind out a positive result.
James Bracken made a couple of changes to his side that lost 3-0 to the Saints on Saturday. Jack Tucker came in along with Coskum Ekim.
Under the new lights, both sides failed to shine in the first half. Plenty of huff and puff was on display yet neither side could break the deadlock. Hawks came close when Sisimayi Williams unleashed a powerful effort from 25 yards that came off the side of the post. Brad Comins had to be sharp to prevent Brannon O’Neill from scoring.
At the other end, Casuals used their pace to frighten the Hawk’s back line. Warren Mfula had the best chance of the half when he broke the ranks, forcing a fine stop from Melvin Minter.
Corinth looked an altogether different side in the second period. Despite Whitehawk clipping the top of the crossbar at one stage, they rarely threatened Comin’s goal. The breakthrough came of 55 minutes. Mfula was played through and with one touch, stabbed home from ten yards – the striker injuring himself in the process.
Casuals had the wind in their sails and looked to put the game to bed. Though they needed an assist from Hawk’s Matt Drage to do so. The Centre back played a lazy pass back straight to Gabriel Odunaike who had all the time in the world to slot into an empty net to double the lead.
Defensively, Casuals remained strong and the introduction of Gil Carvalho continued to cause Whitehawk problems. However, the score remained the same and the Amateurs had their first clean sheet of the season.
"It feels good to get a first home win in the league," said James Bracken after the match. "We should be higher in the table for sure. We’re on eight points, along with a lot of other sides and with games in hand. Obviously, these games are hard to win but it shows we’re in and around that level along with the sides around 11-12 points on the board.
"Don’t get me wrong. We should’ve done better, especially in the first half. We had plenty of opportunities with good runs but poor execution of the pass. When there was a good pass, it was followed with a poor first touch. There was something missing in every one of our moves which meant we didn’t score. But, the components were all there in patches. The boys just needed to put it all together from the back, to the front, to the net.
"We’re improving all the time and that’s the main thing to take from this. We’re continually working to improve and we’re able to get the right results. Sometimes you can lose a few games as you try to implement something new but we’re able to win games whilst doing that, which is fantastic from my point of view.
"It’s a case of what are we learning from these wins. We’ve learned so much in defeat and so much from all the goals that we’ve conceded. But getting a clean sheet was massively pleasing and we were solid away at St Albans last week. So the defensive side is improving all the time.
"We learned tonight that we shouldn’t give teams in and around us as much respect as we have. We gave them too much respect in the first half and we addressed that at the interval. I asked them to apply themselves better and force errors in their game. That ethos led directly to the second goal.
"That’s what we learned in victory. Just to remember not to give too much respect. Force errors and get amongst them. Cause mistakes. That way, we can capitalise without having to build our own attack on the edge of our own box."
Bostik League Premier Division
Tuesday 9th October 2018
Match report and pics: Stuart Tree (full set here)
Corinthian-Casuals earned their first league home win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Whitehawk.
Second half goals from Warren Mfula and Gabriel Odunaike were enough to seal the three points on a welcome return to King George’s Arena following the FA Cup debacle which saw Casuals forced to play their ‘home’ replay against St Albans City at Met Police’s Imber Court.
On paper, this was always going to be tough; The Hawks had come off a 9-1 thrashing at the hands of Billericay in the Cup and as often with drubbings, it was expected that they would dig in to grind out a positive result.
James Bracken made a couple of changes to his side that lost 3-0 to the Saints on Saturday. Jack Tucker came in along with Coskum Ekim.
Under the new lights, both sides failed to shine in the first half. Plenty of huff and puff was on display yet neither side could break the deadlock. Hawks came close when Sisimayi Williams unleashed a powerful effort from 25 yards that came off the side of the post. Brad Comins had to be sharp to prevent Brannon O’Neill from scoring.
At the other end, Casuals used their pace to frighten the Hawk’s back line. Warren Mfula had the best chance of the half when he broke the ranks, forcing a fine stop from Melvin Minter.
Corinth looked an altogether different side in the second period. Despite Whitehawk clipping the top of the crossbar at one stage, they rarely threatened Comin’s goal. The breakthrough came of 55 minutes. Mfula was played through and with one touch, stabbed home from ten yards – the striker injuring himself in the process.
Casuals had the wind in their sails and looked to put the game to bed. Though they needed an assist from Hawk’s Matt Drage to do so. The Centre back played a lazy pass back straight to Gabriel Odunaike who had all the time in the world to slot into an empty net to double the lead.
Defensively, Casuals remained strong and the introduction of Gil Carvalho continued to cause Whitehawk problems. However, the score remained the same and the Amateurs had their first clean sheet of the season.
"It feels good to get a first home win in the league," said James Bracken after the match. "We should be higher in the table for sure. We’re on eight points, along with a lot of other sides and with games in hand. Obviously, these games are hard to win but it shows we’re in and around that level along with the sides around 11-12 points on the board.
"Don’t get me wrong. We should’ve done better, especially in the first half. We had plenty of opportunities with good runs but poor execution of the pass. When there was a good pass, it was followed with a poor first touch. There was something missing in every one of our moves which meant we didn’t score. But, the components were all there in patches. The boys just needed to put it all together from the back, to the front, to the net.
"We’re improving all the time and that’s the main thing to take from this. We’re continually working to improve and we’re able to get the right results. Sometimes you can lose a few games as you try to implement something new but we’re able to win games whilst doing that, which is fantastic from my point of view.
"It’s a case of what are we learning from these wins. We’ve learned so much in defeat and so much from all the goals that we’ve conceded. But getting a clean sheet was massively pleasing and we were solid away at St Albans last week. So the defensive side is improving all the time.
"We learned tonight that we shouldn’t give teams in and around us as much respect as we have. We gave them too much respect in the first half and we addressed that at the interval. I asked them to apply themselves better and force errors in their game. That ethos led directly to the second goal.
"That’s what we learned in victory. Just to remember not to give too much respect. Force errors and get amongst them. Cause mistakes. That way, we can capitalise without having to build our own attack on the edge of our own box."
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