Stalemate Extends Unbeaten Run to Five

Corinthian-Casuals 0 - 0 Brightlingsea Regent
Isthmian League Premier Division
Saturday 27th November 2021
Report and Pics: Stuart Tree (set of photos here)
Additional photos: Andy Nunn (set of photos here)

Two hundred and two hardy souls braved Storm Arwen at the United Business Group Stadium who sadly, were not rewarded with a classic as Corinthian-Casuals and Brightlingsea Regent played out a stalemate.

Wintry conditions pounding in from the North led to any semblance of football being nullified as a scrappy bout quickly replaced what was a wonderful game at Lewes on Tuesday night.

Casuals remained unchanged from the win at the Dripping Pan and came into this game on a high, having not been defeated in four whilst Regent were looking for their first point since the 25th September, albeit with a new, determined Manager now at the helm.

Any ideas that this would be a straight-forward three points for the home side were quickly dismissed as Regent threatened twice in the opening minutes. First with a counter-attack resulting in only the woodwork keeping them out followed up by Danny Bracken saving with Jack Strange mopping up the leftovers.

But it was Casuals who were the dominant side, playing with the wind at their backs. Elliott Bolton’s fierce 20 yard drive smashed the bottom of the post before Ola Williams tucked away the follow-up… only for the Assistant Referee to brandish it offside.

It became 2-1 to Casuals in the struck upright stakes when Warren Mfula was played into a dangerous position via a one-two but again thwarted by the post.

The second half saw Corinth continue to search for a winner but Regent’s defence held firm – Captain Chris Ribchester lapping up everything thrown his way. Two more chances fell to Mfula who was unable to convert, both going agonizingly wide.

And so that’s how it ended. Despite their best efforts, the windy conditions coupled with the slippery surface condemned this match to the archives without troubling the scorers. Despite Regent’s lowly league position, it never felt like two points dropped and the visitors look like they’ll pick up a fair few points on this showing.

"The conditions were a leveller and made the game difficult for both teams,” said James Bracken after the match. “They came here to get a point and with the conditions as they are, it’s always going to benefit that team. I don’t think it was in our favour at all.

"When the weather is bad, it can be horrible here. I’d love to have an enclosed stadium where we can keep the elements out, but we have a wind tunnel and a pitch that you can hardly stand up on so it didn’t bode well for a good game of football, and it wasn’t. But what you ask for in these games is not to make mistakes that cost us goals. We made sure we didn’t do that. We kept a clean sheet and created enough chances to win. We hit the post twice and had the ball in the net once. Second half, three one-on-ones – we did enough to get three points. The chances weren’t easy – But we didn’t score and if you don’t do that, you don’t get those points. We just need to be a little more clinical.

"It's a point on another day, it could swing on a poor decision or a slip-up or bad pass because it’s boggy and you end up losing. It’s not what a purist would want to see. It’s not why we give up our time – I wouldn’t want to watch that every week. If it was, I wouldn’t touch football. I’d put my time into something else. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

"We carved out four or five good chances but we’ve not taken them and that’s what it boils down to. There’s no deep thoughts needed about why we haven’t won. Take the positives… kept a clean sheet. Didn’t cost ourselves the match with any errors, defended relatively well and played a better second half.

"I wouldn’t say we were good but conditions made it hard. Especially in the way we want to play. If we had a big, horrible ugly geezer up front who we sent balls up to, he’d be causing havoc on days like these. But we don’t play that way.

We’ll have had two training sessions this week but I’d much rather have two games a week and one session. But for the boys, it is hard to keep turning in ninety minutes, especially as the pitches are getting heavy now. Two days recovery coupled with going to work on Monday and Tuesday before getting out there on the pitch and being at 100% physically is unrealistic. So the training sessions will allow us to come into the next game nice and fresh, playing some decent attacking football looking for those three points."