Chipstead 1 - 2 Corinthian-Casuals
Bostik League South
Saturday 17th February 2018
Match report: Cameron Smith. Photos: Stuart Tree (full set of pictures here)
Shaun Brown’s satisfying tap-in in the 90th minute and Max Oldham’s terrific finish in the final minute of added time secured a theatrical late comeback for Corinthian-Casuals at High Road - the home of the stodgy yet unfortunate Chipstead FC.
James Bracken’s team-sheet saw no rests and no controversial choices despite being aware of a Velocity Trophy semi-final tie versus big spenders and non-league giants Billericay Town looming before the league match in Chipstead. Andrew Herring and Coskun Ekim were selections at full-backs whilst an attacking quadruplet of Oldham, Clarke, Antonio and Odunaike set out to scare the green & white hoops of Chipstead.
It was a surprisingly warm winter’s afternoon at High Road in Surrey as the mid-table Chips entertained the Casuals on a bumpy, worn-down surface, but it was nothing to do with the weather that affected the performances in the first-half. Little to no chances, Casuals seemed to fall flat in attack as potential opportunities seemed to be easily thwarted by the confident Chipstead back four. Casuals’ opposition were not able to beat Danny Bracken either until the 20th minute when they were awarded a penalty. Nathan Daly was given a yellow card for a collision in the area and Leon Lalor-Dell was the dispatcher from 12 yards. A convincing penalty kick from the no.11 had put Chipstead 1-0 up, and Casuals 1-0 down.
The rest of the first half could be summed up in a single word. Dire. James Bracken’s side were not testing the away team’s back four enough for the chance of the equaliser and it was the same for Chipstead, who couldn’t get their second and deciding goal. The referee then signalled for half-time as encouragement from the good dose of Casuals supporters hoped to improve the dreary performance from the Tolworth side.
Injected with the energy of the half-time team talk from the Brackens, Corinth had a brilliantly frantic and passionate spell where Michael Sibley’s defence were apprehensive of the approaching waves of attack. It was brief, but showcased the fact that Casuals were able to break Chipstead. It was an agonising wait until evidence for this showed up as efforts from substitute Shaun Brown, Herring and Clarke kept the hosts busy. Moments after the fourth official signalled four minutes of injury time, Coskun Ekim ventured from his defensive position to have a shot at goal and it was powerful enough for Sibley to drop, which made the ball fall into the path of Shaun Brown perfectly. The striker tucked the chance away with ease and whilst the Chipstead players appealed for offside, the referee turned them down. 1-1 at the death!
Brilliant scenes in the previously-tense away end, Casuals supporters found themselves willing on their team to do the unthinkable and grab the winner. With the clock ticking down, the Chips decided to try and counter attack Casuals with men rushing forwards. This hampered their defence; James Bracken’s side had countered the counter! Odunaike was fed the ball and poised to shoot when he was clean in on goal, but a remarkable sliding tackle swept him off his feet at the last moment. Luckily, Oldham was there to pick up the pieces. The Eminem lookalike took a generous touch into space on the right flank before composing himself and aiming for the far left corner that Sibley thought he had covered. An equal amount of power and accuracy in a single shot had directed the ball straight into the desired corner as Oldham recognised his heroics with an epic removal of the t-shirt. Incredulous scenes ensued as the pink, brown, blue (our keeper Danny Bracken) and black (assistant coach Jon Williams) piled on top of the overwhelmed Oldham. Meanwhile behind the goal, the supporters were in hysterics over the superb last-second finish from the no.11 and had rushed across the away end in celebration.
It was a jubilant four minutes that had seen Casuals score twice in added time to win the game and beat the downtrodden Chipstead. Man of the moment Max Oldham received a second yellow card after the goal due to his insane celebrations and will miss the league fixture next Saturday.
At full-time, Corinthians had one last period of celebration as the players and staff exchanged thank-you’s behind the goal following the monumental away effort. It had been a heart-stopping climax to a disappointing game overall- Casuals were in 3rd with an extra three points in the bag. We wish Chipstead FC the best of luck for the rest of the season. After the excitement of Oldham’s last-gasp winner, Casuals would have to calm themselves for the trophy clash versus Bostik Premier Division side Billericay Town on Monday night before Sittingbourne arrived at King George’s on Saturday 24th.
"Those goals could be massive come the end of the season", said Manager James Bracken following the win. "It could be 100% the difference.
"We were poor today. There’s no dressing that up. The pitch didn’t help but that’s no real excuse. From start to finish, we couldn’t put passes together.
"Don’t get me wrong, we’re happy we’ve won – you have to be when you score two late goals like that when you’re trying to push for promotion. But I don’t think I’ve ever changed player’s positions so much in one game, because nothing that we tried was working.
"But this is football. The pitch is a bog, we’ve got people shouting at the referee from the first minute for nonsense and it descends into what it is. Non-League football. Not everything can be beautiful. Today we just got the job done.
"The individual, technical quality of our play wasn’t there so we changed it up, seeing if we can just create something. Ultimately, we’ve done something right and given Max the freedom to get into the box unmarked and got us the win.
"The key point for us was the first goal. There was no relief when we’d scored it. We didn’t think we’d dodged a bullet and gained a point. It was very clear that there was two more points to get and one more goal gets us those. As we always do, we went for it. We weren’t content with nicking the draw… we’ve nicked the win. That comes from our positive attitude.
"It’s a feeling of relief more than anything and keeps us going. It’s only one defeat in fourteen matches now so we’re doing alright.
"I’m sure there’ll be more ugly wins this season. We haven’t had many easy wins all season.
"If we win this league or get automatic promotion, I’ll think of it as a bit of a miracle. We’re still not firing at our top level. The nice thing is, you know they’ve got it in their locker. These lads can step up a gear. They’re capable of getting to a level of performance that other sides can’t match.
"We’re doing what we have to do, to get the wins. Obviously today wasn’t the plan to do it.
"It would help to have one or two back, which we’ll hopefully have very soon. We’ve not got a big injury list now but just a couple of key players returning will help the way we play. Then we can kick on."
Bostik League South
Saturday 17th February 2018
Match report: Cameron Smith. Photos: Stuart Tree (full set of pictures here)
Shaun Brown’s satisfying tap-in in the 90th minute and Max Oldham’s terrific finish in the final minute of added time secured a theatrical late comeback for Corinthian-Casuals at High Road - the home of the stodgy yet unfortunate Chipstead FC.
James Bracken’s team-sheet saw no rests and no controversial choices despite being aware of a Velocity Trophy semi-final tie versus big spenders and non-league giants Billericay Town looming before the league match in Chipstead. Andrew Herring and Coskun Ekim were selections at full-backs whilst an attacking quadruplet of Oldham, Clarke, Antonio and Odunaike set out to scare the green & white hoops of Chipstead.
It was a surprisingly warm winter’s afternoon at High Road in Surrey as the mid-table Chips entertained the Casuals on a bumpy, worn-down surface, but it was nothing to do with the weather that affected the performances in the first-half. Little to no chances, Casuals seemed to fall flat in attack as potential opportunities seemed to be easily thwarted by the confident Chipstead back four. Casuals’ opposition were not able to beat Danny Bracken either until the 20th minute when they were awarded a penalty. Nathan Daly was given a yellow card for a collision in the area and Leon Lalor-Dell was the dispatcher from 12 yards. A convincing penalty kick from the no.11 had put Chipstead 1-0 up, and Casuals 1-0 down.
The rest of the first half could be summed up in a single word. Dire. James Bracken’s side were not testing the away team’s back four enough for the chance of the equaliser and it was the same for Chipstead, who couldn’t get their second and deciding goal. The referee then signalled for half-time as encouragement from the good dose of Casuals supporters hoped to improve the dreary performance from the Tolworth side.
Injected with the energy of the half-time team talk from the Brackens, Corinth had a brilliantly frantic and passionate spell where Michael Sibley’s defence were apprehensive of the approaching waves of attack. It was brief, but showcased the fact that Casuals were able to break Chipstead. It was an agonising wait until evidence for this showed up as efforts from substitute Shaun Brown, Herring and Clarke kept the hosts busy. Moments after the fourth official signalled four minutes of injury time, Coskun Ekim ventured from his defensive position to have a shot at goal and it was powerful enough for Sibley to drop, which made the ball fall into the path of Shaun Brown perfectly. The striker tucked the chance away with ease and whilst the Chipstead players appealed for offside, the referee turned them down. 1-1 at the death!
Brilliant scenes in the previously-tense away end, Casuals supporters found themselves willing on their team to do the unthinkable and grab the winner. With the clock ticking down, the Chips decided to try and counter attack Casuals with men rushing forwards. This hampered their defence; James Bracken’s side had countered the counter! Odunaike was fed the ball and poised to shoot when he was clean in on goal, but a remarkable sliding tackle swept him off his feet at the last moment. Luckily, Oldham was there to pick up the pieces. The Eminem lookalike took a generous touch into space on the right flank before composing himself and aiming for the far left corner that Sibley thought he had covered. An equal amount of power and accuracy in a single shot had directed the ball straight into the desired corner as Oldham recognised his heroics with an epic removal of the t-shirt. Incredulous scenes ensued as the pink, brown, blue (our keeper Danny Bracken) and black (assistant coach Jon Williams) piled on top of the overwhelmed Oldham. Meanwhile behind the goal, the supporters were in hysterics over the superb last-second finish from the no.11 and had rushed across the away end in celebration.
It was a jubilant four minutes that had seen Casuals score twice in added time to win the game and beat the downtrodden Chipstead. Man of the moment Max Oldham received a second yellow card after the goal due to his insane celebrations and will miss the league fixture next Saturday.
At full-time, Corinthians had one last period of celebration as the players and staff exchanged thank-you’s behind the goal following the monumental away effort. It had been a heart-stopping climax to a disappointing game overall- Casuals were in 3rd with an extra three points in the bag. We wish Chipstead FC the best of luck for the rest of the season. After the excitement of Oldham’s last-gasp winner, Casuals would have to calm themselves for the trophy clash versus Bostik Premier Division side Billericay Town on Monday night before Sittingbourne arrived at King George’s on Saturday 24th.
"Those goals could be massive come the end of the season", said Manager James Bracken following the win. "It could be 100% the difference.
"We were poor today. There’s no dressing that up. The pitch didn’t help but that’s no real excuse. From start to finish, we couldn’t put passes together.
"Don’t get me wrong, we’re happy we’ve won – you have to be when you score two late goals like that when you’re trying to push for promotion. But I don’t think I’ve ever changed player’s positions so much in one game, because nothing that we tried was working.
"But this is football. The pitch is a bog, we’ve got people shouting at the referee from the first minute for nonsense and it descends into what it is. Non-League football. Not everything can be beautiful. Today we just got the job done.
"The individual, technical quality of our play wasn’t there so we changed it up, seeing if we can just create something. Ultimately, we’ve done something right and given Max the freedom to get into the box unmarked and got us the win.
"The key point for us was the first goal. There was no relief when we’d scored it. We didn’t think we’d dodged a bullet and gained a point. It was very clear that there was two more points to get and one more goal gets us those. As we always do, we went for it. We weren’t content with nicking the draw… we’ve nicked the win. That comes from our positive attitude.
"It’s a feeling of relief more than anything and keeps us going. It’s only one defeat in fourteen matches now so we’re doing alright.
"I’m sure there’ll be more ugly wins this season. We haven’t had many easy wins all season.
"If we win this league or get automatic promotion, I’ll think of it as a bit of a miracle. We’re still not firing at our top level. The nice thing is, you know they’ve got it in their locker. These lads can step up a gear. They’re capable of getting to a level of performance that other sides can’t match.
"We’re doing what we have to do, to get the wins. Obviously today wasn’t the plan to do it.
"It would help to have one or two back, which we’ll hopefully have very soon. We’ve not got a big injury list now but just a couple of key players returning will help the way we play. Then we can kick on."
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