Saffron Walden Town weekly roundup: Biblical rain, a massive away win and another Kaleel brace

 

Toby Salmon made his SWTFC debut against Barking on Saturday

What an eventful week to be a Saffron Walden Town fan. A win against second in the league, inflicting their first league defeat of the season in the process, a good point at home to top of the league and learning our FA Vase opponents in the second round proper.

When the draw was made on Monday, we learned that we would be welcoming March Town United (which one are they? Town or United??) to Catons Lane on 8^th November. I believe the last time we played them was during our Thurlow Nunn Premier days so should be a good battle as they’ve made a good start to their own Step 5 league.

Wednesday saw us take the long midweek trek to the Mile End Stadium to face SOUL Tower Hamlets, in a game which saw Salim Nassor return to the side, and possibly the worst rain I’ve ever experienced at a football match (I wasn’t there for that home match vs Ilford a couple of years ago!

It took SOUL 5 minutes to break the deadlock as ex-Walden man Steven Carvell’s corner was headed across goal for Garrett Kelly to fire into the roof of the net.

The Walden of old may have struggled to get back into the game, but we showed incredible character and discipline to turn it around.

Manager John Hughes had made a couple of tactical changes after the opener and they seemed to pay off over time, as SOUL were trying to play a very different style of play to us, which they found difficult in the rain, as the heavens opened shortly after Kelly’s opener.

On 14 minutes, Sal tried a long range shot that was diverted behind for a corner. From the resulting kick, SOUL couldn’t clear their lines, and there was Jack Clark to hook the ball over his head and into the net despite the best efforts of a defender on the line. It was Clarky’s first goal and I was delighted for him – what a time and place to get it.

The rest of the first period saw the two sides try and adapt to the rain, but we were unlucky not to go into half-time into the lead. Jordan found himself free in the box and stabbed a shot towards goal which went agonisingly wide – would we be made to rue missed chances?

After half time, the referee seemed to take a while to restart the match when the players were back in position and seemed to be in deep conversation with his assistants. Our fears were that he was thinking about abandoning the match, which was the last thing we wanted given that this match had been re-arranged already, and we were halfway to the ground last time before the club had decided that the pitch was unplayable.

Luckily though the referee blew his whistle to start the second half and the game was never really in doubt after that, despite the growing amount of water on the ground and increasing rainfall.

We got our reward for a disciplined display when Sam Deering burst into the box on 52 minutes and was tripped in the area by a SOUL defender, who could have no complaints with the referee’s decision of penalty.

Kaleel Green had missed his last penalty – in the shootout in the FA Vase four days before – and Salim Nassor was given the responsibility on his return to the side. He tucked it away confidently, sending Sidi Haidara the wrong way, and giving us a priceless lead.

Even though the hosts had two big chances to level the scores, Rian Patel skewing his shot wide when he should have scored before George Coton pulled off an unbelievable save to deny Georges Kebi, we held on for the win in arguably the performance of the season so far. We were soaked through but could not care less as we celebrated with the players at the end.

 

Despite the big win in midweek, we knew we would have to be at our best to get anything against top of the table Barking at the Lane on Saturday. John named an unchanged XI, but two new faces were on the bench – defender Toby Salmon, who signed for us at the start of the year but had been injured since, and midfielder Orlando Anker, who made a handful of appearances for us at the end of last season – in the absence of Robbie Allen, Ryan Auger and Ollie Rulten.

With literally 60 seconds on the clock, I had just emerged from the press box in time to see Kaleel find the bottom corner from about 20 yards – I missed the build-up but saw the finish. I can only assume he ran from his own penalty area, beat six defenders and nutmeg a seventh before scoring.

We actually made a flying start to the game and could’ve been 2 or 3 up after 15 minutes. The most notable chance saw Jordy meet Sam’s corner with a trademark header, but it looked like it hit the post before Barking were able to clear their lines.

The defence did its job in making sure we were a goal up at the break. First George made a wonderful save from a bouncing header on 10 minutes, before Clarky made a brilliant challenge on Chaka Barnett when he was through on goal in first half stoppage time.

Barnett was not to be denied, however, when he scored a wonderful shot from outside the box into the top corner, which left George with no chance.

And Alfie Attrill made it 2-1 on the hour mark, just after Toby had come on for Henry Mabassa for his Bloods debut, in our only substitution of the afternoon. (I wasn’t able to see much of the goal due to the blinding sunlight that had come over Catons Lane.)

But we deservedly got our equaliser with 15 to play. A cross was played to the back post, which was kept alive by Jeff and finished into a half-empty net by, you guessed it, Kaleel again. 13 goals already this season is ridiculous and we’re lucky to have him.

Neither side really had a massive chance to win it after that and we walked away pretty happy with a point. If you’d told me last week that we’d finish this week with four points from two games against the league’s top two sides, I’d have bitten your hand off.

“It was really good to be back out there”, Toby told me after the match. “It’s been a tough three and a half months on the sidelines, out injured, so it was good to be involved. I thought we were unfortunate not to get the win, but a point is OK against top of the league.

“We’ve got a couple of tricky away games coming up this week. Hopefully they go well, the lads have built up some good form over the last 10 games or so, so hopefully we can get through in the cup [against Athletic Newham] and get another three points next Saturday [against West Essex].”

Tricky couple of games indeed, Athletic Newham and West Essex both picked up league wins on Saturday so we will need to play well to get some good results. Newham have already beaten us twice this season, but we look a much better team now so let’s go and right that wrong.

As always, Up the Bloods.