Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 19th September 2020
King George's Arena. Att: 365
Report and Pics: Stuart Tree. (full set of photos here)
Two second half goals in three minutes condemned Casuals to an opening day defeat at King George’s as Haringey Borough ran out 2-1 winners in the Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division.
Daniel Akindayini and Laste Dombaxe’s 51st and 54th minute strikes dealt a fatal blow to James Bracken’s Casuals but not before a potential late comeback when Brad Wilson reduced the arrears with two minutes left.
King George’s looked resplendent as it hosted its first Corinth opening day fixture since 2016 but sadly it wasn’t to replicate the 2-1 win as seen against Whyteleafe that day. Haringey were the visitors and came to rectify the loss on their last visit.
Casuals opened brightly and Max Oldham and Ben Cheklit on the wings caused Borough defensive problems. Michael O’Donaghue came close as he dragged his shot from ten yards wide.
Haringey asserted themselves into the match and had a decent spell of possession for the bulk of the first half. Danny Bracken was called into action on occasion and the defence held firm.
Casuals perhaps should’ve gone into the break with the lead but Robert Paratore’s turn and shot in the box was well smothered by Jonathan Miles in goal. Cheklit also went close with a header at the back post.
But it was two goals in three minutes that decided the fate of the match. Bracken saved well from a Haringey attack but his parry was followed up by Akindayini who couldn’t miss. Three minutes later and a real piece of quality sealed the deal; Dombaxe unleashed a curling shot from the edge of the box that whipped inside the post, past a despairing Bracken.
Haringey were happy to hold onto the lead but Casuals threat grew. With two minutes to go, they gave the majority of the 365 in attendance hope. Keiron Cadogan broke into the box and chipped a cross to Brad Wilson who fired home from close range.
It was too little too late and despite the pressure, Haringey held on for the win. Many thanks to our visitors – with special note to their superbly-singing supporters for making this league return a special day to remember.
Next up for Casuals is a trip to Eastbourne United’s Oval ground where we face Little Common in the FA Cup on Tuesday.
“I was unhappy with the first goal conceded as the play stemmed from a free kick that never was. It was just a shoulder to shoulder challenge. From that, they’ve won a corner and scored. That’s disappointing.
“The second goal, the fella has stuck it in the top corner. We perhaps could’ve done better leading up to the goal. But it was a great goal – a bit of quality so fair play to him for that.
“It’s fine margins though. They’ve done the same things on the edge of their box as we had on ours and got away with it. We’ve done it on the edge of our box and the geezer’s stuck it in the goal.
“By the end, we’ve produced some great wing play. We’ve delivered balls into the box and put pressure on them. At 2-1, we had them rocking. Another day, we might salvage a draw from being two goals down.
“I can’t knock the players effort or performance. I thought there was plenty of performances that was very good today. Even the substitutes replaced those who had decent games. That’s nice. Sometimes subs pick themselves because they’re having a nightmare or they’ve run out of gas. But we just wanted to try something different and we scored the goal after the changes.
“But I’m happy with our energy levels, I’m happy with the performance which isn’t a million miles away and had we got the first goal today, I believe we’d have held onto it.
“In terms of where we are, I’m relatively happy. We lost six players through the pre-season but we have a team who proved today that we’re more than competitive for this level and we’ll only get better. That’s the bottom line.
And Bracken isn’t taking the FA Cup tie away to Little Common on Tuesday lightly.
“It’s the FA Cup. The FA Cup! I’d be an absolute fool if I didn’t say that this could be a banana skin of a tie. Little Common will be up for it. They’ve already won a couple of games to get to this stage and we’ll expect the best of them. We’ve played a number of sides at that level in pre-season and they were good. They were sides with confidence, could create chances and score goals. I’m sure Little Common will be no different.”