Saffron Walden Town weekly roundup: Cup knockout, a late equaliser and a frustrating referee

 

SWTFC and West Essex lining up before kick off on Saturday. A bit of a kit clash?

It was another eventful week following the Bloods – crashing out of the Peter Butcher Memorial Cup at the first round stage despite a 3-0 advantage and snatching a late point away to West Essex, with both teams having to contend with some questionable refereeing decisions.

Tuesday saw us (not me though, prior engagement) travel to Parsloes Park to take on an Athletic Newham side struggling at the wrong end of the ESL table but having already beaten us twice this season: once in the league and once in the BBC Essex Senior Cup.

John Hughes made five changes from the side that earned a deserved point at home to high-flying Barking last time out. In came Toby Salmon for his full debut, Orlando Anker for his first start since returning to the club, Rgee Manyewe, Ryan Auger and Kieron Owusu, for Henry Mabassa, Tom Skellton (not in the squad), Sam Deering, Jeff Cobblah and Salim Nassor (on the bench).

Kaleel Green, who else, gave us the lead on 27 minutes when a long throw from Toby was flicked on by Jordy Gent and headed in by our number 9 to give us a deserved lead.

Kaleel then doubled our lead later in the half when Orlando went through 1 on 1 with the keeper but unselfishly squared for Kaleel to get yet another goal this season (as if he needed to make his stats look any more impressive! More on that in a bit).

Kieron made it 3-0 with 10 minutes played in the second half. Substitute Robbie Allen’s shot was saved by the keeper, Newham’s defence switched off which allowed Kieron to pounce and score his fourth of the season, his first since the double against Holland FC back in August.

But something must have clicked for Newham after that. Louis Socratous came off the bench and, in the space of about 25 minutes, had completely turned the game on its head with a stunning hat trick. I wasn’t at the game, but watching the highlights back, every goal was a stunner. It’s hard to take, but at the same time, you can’t complain too much about three goals from outside the box.

Newham then prevailed on penalties, scoring all of theirs while Jeff saw his penalty saved. Our other spot kicks were scored by Sal, Fahad and Toheeb.

A bitter pill to swallow, but we had the chance to make amends at Wadham Lodge on Saturday and face a West Essex side who had had a difficult start to the season but had some positive results under their new management team.

In truth, it was a massively frustrating game. We started with the same 11 that started at home to Barking, and played the same system that worked so well against them and SOUL Tower Hamlets last week. But it seemed that West had worked us out a little bit and were putting in a disciplined display to stop us from playing our game.

It was Reece Simpson who gave the hosts the lead against the run of play on 17 minutes with a precise shot from the edge of the box that beat George Coton.

It was around this point that the questionable refereeing decisions started coming in. Jordy was penalised by the referee for daring to be rugby-tackled by West’s number 5, who then went down like he’d been shot. It was one of those days that every minor foul could have gone either way, and I think we were given two free-kicks in the whole of the first half. Frustrating, but our system wasn’t working either so change was needed.

The second half was more of the same, though Kaleel hit the post with 5 minutes gone. A big penalty shout on 55 was turned down as our number 9 was tripped in the box, and unbelievably, he was booked 10 minutes later for daring to be chopped down on the edge of the box.

Frustrations were brewing, and it seemed like it was going to end 1-0… until John made a triple change on 77 minutes. On came Toby, Ryan and Orlando for Henry Mabassa, Jeff and Fahad, which seemed to give us a new lease of life. All of a sudden, Ryan was putting in good set-piece deliveries, and Toby and Orlando were showing real energy and a threat in their own ways.

It was backs-against-the-wall for West Essex, and we were massively unlucky not to equalise after 85 when Ryan put a corner in, and the ball fell to Toby who had a free header from 6 yards, which he just couldn’t keep down.

Our reward eventually came with three minutes of stoppage time played. Another set piece was delivered into a dangerous area, Jordy headed it back across the face of goal, and there was Kaleel to acrobatically finish, and give us a deserved point. That was Kaleel's 15th goal of the season in all competitions, and his 12th in his last 10 games. The man's a goal machine.

But the action did not finish there. Two minutes later, Kaleel went into their box with real intent, the West defender slipped and handled the ball, knowing that he would not catch up with Kaleel. Incredibly, neither the referee nor his assistant, who had a good view, seemed to think that was worthy of a spot kick, a decision that baffled even the West subs warming up near the travelling away supporters.

And considering the tackles that were flying in from both sides throughout, the fact that the only two bookings were given to Skelts for dissent and Jordy for daring to be held in the box made a bit of a mockery of the game.

But we go again in our massive FA Vase 2^nd Round clash at home to March Town United on Saturday as we look to continue our good run of having not lost inside 90 minutes since 16^th September.

As always, Up the Bloods.