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| Two goals for Josh Dolling |
With regular appearances in the Dev squad for Ntumba Massanka and Christian Hill recently, the pair again found themselves on the bench. Our defence had a slightly makeshift look to it with Hamam El-Fitouri at right back and Captain Waqas Azam slotting into the left back berth where Andy Nugent would typically feature but for injury. The midfield quartet had the most experience with only right winger Jamal Crawford not in his 2nd year.
We were caught cold early on through a Stanley set piece. They won a corner on the left wing and, through a combination of poor marking, indecisive keeping and top delivery we were one behind. The ball was whipped in and any one of three Stanley players could have put it in from deep in the six yard box.
It was a wakeup call for us and I think that for virtually the remainder of the half the hosts didn’t really have another chance of note – not to say that it was a dominant performance from us. The next 15 minutes saw us slowly come back into it and we should have gained parity through Josh Dolling as a ball drifted into the box from the left found him in space centrally, but he casually hung a foot out and sidefooted the ball over.
On 20 minutes a clinical 90 seconds saw the game turn on its head. Firstly Azam played Khius Metz through the middle with a slide rule pass. He ran on and drew the keeper, before playing in Dolling on the right, and the former Man Utd youngster slotted home. From the restart we quickly regained possession and this time Metz was released by a lofted ball over the defence. His pace took him clear and he easily slid the ball past the keeper to make it 2-1.
The game then dropped back off to a slower pace with very little by way of chances. Meanwhile a member of the crowd was doing his bit for the respect campaign suggesting that the linesman had made a shocking call on an offside, but only managed to incur the wrath of the flagman's father who was sat to my right. The official was all forgiven on 40 minutes though as he correctly motioned for offside to disallow a Stanley goal after a rebound was forced home after Tony Aghayere had parried a drive.
It wasn’t the only disallowed goal of the half though as Metz saw one chalked off after lobbing the keeper when running through. He had tried to delay his run while waiting for a Dolling pass, but the strike pairing were on slightly different wavelengths and got their timings a fraction wrong.
The 2nd half started with an early scare for us as Metz went down injured in the far corner early on. Fortunately he was able to recover enough to make a further contribution. Around 15 minutes into the half he broke down the right onto a ball into the channel. He cut back inside, wrong footing his man and crossed with his right foot. Brad Jackson had burst into the box but the ball was slightly behind him so he was forced to try something speculative that was blocked and the ball bounced clear. It ran into the middle of the park and was picked up by Azam. He looked up, took a touch to evade a challenge and smashed it into the net from over thirty yards. The keeper got a touch but the power was too much for him.
The game became a little scrappy following that as perhaps we felt we had done enough to secure the points. We made a double sub on 70 as Massanka and Hill entered proceedings for Jackson and Metz. The next real chances though fell to the hosts as the 7 clipped the post from range, then the 8 charged into the box but was well marshalled and blocked off by Shaun Hobson. At the other end Jamal Crawford make a jinking run into the box but just run out of space before a finishing touch could be put to it.
With around 10 left Vashiko Dixon was replaced by U-16 Alex Richardson giving the youngster a little more game time at a level up. Stanley were looking a little bereft of ideas by this time and we had a chance to get another as Hobson played a searching ball up the wing for Dolling. He took it down well and got into the box but his shot was blocked well and we had to settle for a corner. Hill took it from the right wing and his low left foot curler was met by Dolling, who volleyed it down into the ground, seeing it bounce up via a fingertip onto the bar and into the net for a 4th Claret goal.
Dolling had a chance to play in Massanka late on but he again delayed the through ball as he was probably looking for an opening to strike a hat trick goal. There was also a real opportunity for Andreas Bianga as the ball fell to him on the edge of the box, but he went for precision instead of power and put it the wrong side of the post. However, the result was emphatic enough and we now look to the next game hoping to keep up the momentum.
Team:- Tony Aghayere, Hamam El-Fitouri, Waqas Azam, Shaun Hobson, Vashiko Dixon (Alex Richardson), Brandon Wilson, Andreas Bianga, Brad Jackson (Christian Hill), Jamal Crawford, Josh Dolling, Khius Metz (Ntumba Massanka).
Sub not used :- Callum O’Neill.