Wealdstone 2 – 1 Rugby Town
Wealdstone2 - 1
Rugby TownStones continued their run with another home win, this time over Rugby Town. Not as effective or as dominating as the two previous games, stones really had to battle for the points and were up to the task.
Manager Gordon Bartlett again was prevented from playing an unchanged side, as Cort was unavailable through work and Montgomery having suffered a torn stomach muscle, new signing Anton innocent was given the role up front and Chappell moved forward to fill the wide role, but in the early stages it made little difference as Stones attacked from the off.
Winning four corners in the first eight minutes, Stones had the visitors under pressure – though they too created a couple of early chances of their own with quick movement of the ball and the general pace of their game – but it was stones who opened the scoring on 9 minutes when an excellent ball from Donnelly let Carbon get behind the visiting defence and he hit an early shot from 18 yards which beat the visiting custodian to settle in the back of the net.
Shell-shocked this rocked the visitors, and for the next five minutes or so the match was all Wealdstone as they pushed forward in waves, no surprise then that on 14 minutes they extended the lead. A Graham Hall free kick saw Papali beat the keeper in a challenge heading the ball on to innocent who shot home from 8 yards to double Stones lead.
Rugby were spurred into life from this point, and without doubt had the greater of the possession for the remainder of the half, but they were well marshalled by the Stones defence – blocks, tackles, and just about everything else being put in the way as the visitors tried to claw their way back into the game, but all effective as Carroll had little to do in the Stones goal. At the other end, O’Leary, Donnelly and Hall tried to create for Papali and Innocent but there were really only half chances for Stones as well.
Half time came with Stones weathering the pressure well and retaining their 2-0 lead, and though the second half started more even, real chances at either end were still scarce.
Just over the hour, Rugby did bring themselves right back into the game. After a period of pressure brought three corners in quick succession, a fourth brought the goal as the ball was only cleared beyond the far post where Taylor drove a low shot home from 10 yards, this again igniting the visitors as they looked for the equaliser.
Stones defence though continued to hold firm, the best the visitors could manage were forced corners, each in turn cleared by the home side, while breaks from Carbon and Chappell gave Papali and Innocent and later Gooderick the opportunity to try and create a third for Stones but it wasn’t to be and Rugby turned up the pressure a s the clock ticked down.
Five plus frantic minutes of injury time were played – yet neither Physio had been called into action – almost entirely in the Stones half, but again with little pressure on Carroll as Stones defended manfully, their spirit alone probably deserving of the three points when the final whistle blew.
Wealdstone: Lee Carroll, Josias Carbon 9 s85 Josh Cooper, Fergus Moore, Carl Martin, Ben Martin53, Scott Donnelly67 s76 Dean Clark, Graham Hall, Chris O’Leary, Anton Innocent 14 s88 Matt Gooderick, Dean Papali, Lee Chappell, Subs Not Used: John Henry-Hayden, Kevin Swift