Football News And Views

Horsham 2-1 Chelmsford City

Chelmsford City’s terrible away form continued yesterday as they squandered an half time lead to leave the Atspeed Stadium for the 2nd successive season with nothing.

Chelmsford started quite brighly for them for an away match but it was still  Horsham who were the better side and if it wasn’t for keeper Danny Gay they could quite easily have taken the lead twice but the former Heybridge man saved well down at his posts. Chelmsford had some counter attacks but the delivery was poor on a couple of occasions and because they were playing this stupid 4-5-1 formation again Kezie Ibe kept dropping back to receive the ball so there was no one in the box.

Ibe then had Chelmsford’s best chance of the half so far when Jeff Minton slipped the ball through on the run but the defenders on his shoulder proved hard to shrug of and legally in the eyes of the ref got a foot in and goalkeeper Alan Mansfield was able to easily save the strikers resulting effort on goal. Then for the moment we had all been waiting for Lee Protheroe’s deep corner picked out Ricky Holmes on the edge of the are who smacked it towards goal and then it Kezie Ibe on the head at the far post and went it. In truth I don’t think Kez knew alot about it but the City fans didn’t care one bit.

The Horsham equaliser came 4 minutes after the restart when an outrageous offside decision was given against City which resulted in the free kick being sent deep to the edge of the area where John Westcott was able to strike a low shot past Danny Gay into the bottom corner.

Danny Gay was then called into action again shortly after and thoughts turned to last years defeat and the recent away form and the City fans fears were realised when a passage of play from the home side  found Jacob Mingle who drove a shot towards goal it was a great goal and Danny Gay had no chance but he shouldn’t have had the room he did.

So no points away from home but at least there is a home game to bounce back to on Monday before the FA Cup came next weekend. I think its time to ditch the 4-5-1 formation as only Danny Gay could be happy with his performance today it was the worst City performance i’ve seen but i’m sure they know that and will put things right. Also Chelmsford need to get a new striker in with the news that Jason Hallet’s injury is worse than first expected and he could now be facing the whole season out.

Chelmsford City 5-0 Burnham Ramblers  

Today saw the return of FA Cup football to Melbourne Park as Chelmsford City took on Burnham Ramblers without Craig Hudgell who decided he wouldn’t be joining the Ramblers in the First Qualifying Round. In truth there was only ever going to be one team who progressed to the next round and it only took 5 minutes for the Ryman Premier League team Chelmsford to open the scoring against a team who ranked 2 leagues below them when Ricky Holmes was slipped into a shooting position scoring from a tight angle past goalkeeper Dave McCartney. It was all one way traffic and the Burnham keeper had to make two more diving saves before Chelmsford got their 2nd 12 minutes into the game when fit again Jeff Minton tapped in from a yard out after some good work from Chris Duffy.

Chelmsford controlled  the rest of the first half with Ricky Holmes crossing late on to  find the head of Mario Noto to glance over and some more Ibe trickery saw him square again to Noto whose lifted strike narrowly cleared the crossbar. Jeff Minton nodded just wide with his head moments before half time but right on the stroke of the interval Lee Protheroe’s corner wasn’t dealt with very well by the Burnham defence so Kezie Ibe guided the ball over his shoulder inside the six-yard box and into the net to give City a comfortable 3-0 advantage at the break.

It was the former Arsenal trainee Ibe who was again involved in the first meaningful attack of the second half which resulted in the ball being placed in front of Noto who had the simple chance of finishing in the 52nd minute and he did just that 4-0 to the Clarets.

An hour gone then Burnham’s first chance of the match arrived  A rare and momentary lapse in concentration meant a loose ball was presented to Nicholas Muir on the edge of the box with an open goal but his looper ended-up landing on the roof of the net. This would proof to be their only real chance of the game.

As the 2nd half wore on Chelmsford dropped the intensity level as they knew they had the game wrapped up but there was still time for Jamie England to cap his return from injury with a goal with help from a hefty deflection that took his 86th-minute shot past the helpless keeper and in, capping off a professional performance from City which sent them through and kept the dream alive that a league team could be coming to Chelmsford.

Burnham Ramblers have made an approach to take Craig Hudgell to Leslie Field. Burnham are short on strikers and they see Hudgell as the ideal man to solve the problem. Hudgell was an integral part of the Heybridge Swifts reserve side which won the reserves last time out and as a keen eye for goal finishing as the sides top scorer. He also made his debut for the senior side and made his first start against AFC Wimbledon at the Fans Stadium

At the start of this season Hudgell, 20 from Chelmsford left Heybridge and joined Tiptree United and after scoring 4 goals in 4 games he was told that his chances from now on were going to be limited after the club signed Luke Webster from Championship side Ipswich so Hudgell decided he wanted to be playing and not sat on the bench so he left by mutual consent and he went back to train with Heybridge.

Burnham have their biggest game in the clubs history on Saturday against Chelmsford City in the FA Cup Qualifying 2nd Round and would love to have Hudgell in their team for then but it is still to be seen if Hudgell wants to leave Heybridge again after all he has only been back a matter of weeks and Burnham play in the Essex Senior League which is two leagues below the Ryman Premier League which is where Heybridge play.

Billericay Town 1-1 Chelmsford City 

Billericay and Chelmsford fought out a typically tense local derby on Monday, with two penalties the only goals as both keepers impressed on the rare occasions that they were tested. The first half was a poor display which was played mostly in the middle of the park and Chelmsford did have slightly the better chances.

Chelmsford came out with plenty of purpose after the break and had already forced a series of corners when the linesman gave Chelmsford a penalty just 2 minutes after suffering a barrage of insults from the city faithful when coming to check the goal nets at the start of the 2nd half for his poor first half performance. Darren Blewitt was the offender as he held Kezie Ibe and conceded a penalty. Stuart Ainsley duly stepped up to score from the spot his 2nd penalty in 2 games.

The lead didn’t last to long though as minutes later Billericay were awarded a spot kick of their own when Jamie Dormer burst into the area only to be tripped by Ben Sedgemore. Lee Hodges saw his spot kick well saved by Danny Gay, but again the linesman stepped into the action and flagged to say he had come off his line before Hodges kicked the ball. For the re-take Billericay switched to Joe Flack who made no mistake.

The penalties sparked the game into life, and both sides had chances with Billy McMahon making a good save from a Lee Protheroe free kick and a Kezie Ibe header, whilst at the other end Danny Gay made an equally important save to tip a Flack header over the bar.

All in all its a good point for city who struggled in Essex Derby’s away from home so 8 pts from 4 games ain’t a bad start for the clarets.

Margate 1-1 Chelmsford City

Ricky Holmes came of the bench at Hartsdown Park to rescue an opening day point for the highly fancied Chelmsford City. I was surprised when I found out he wasn’t starting as I rate him as the best player in non league football but his introduction with 30 mins left changed the game as his pace and directness left the Gates defence tied in knots.

City handed competitive debuts to Danny Gay, Lee Protheroe, Andy Duncan, Aidan Collins, Ben Sedgemore, Bertie Brayley and John Keeling but it was the home side who had struggled with financial problems in the close season who made the brighter start on a beach of a pitch with very strong winds which is why Player-Manager Robin Trott tried a cheeky lob early-on to try and catch new ‘keeper Danny Gay off his line but the former Heybridge Swifts man was equal to it. Shortly afterwards, Jimmy Jackson forced Gay into a parry which resulted in a scramble in the goalmouth but nothing came of it.

Chelmsford’s best chance of the half fell to center back Aiden Collins who turned on the edge of the box but his shot deflected off of a defender and went wide. Margate should then really have been down to 10 men when Steve McKimm tangled with former team mate Brayley having just been recently booked but the ref turned a blind eye.

The first half was a typical first game of season affair with both sides feeling each other other out and it wasn’t the best spectacle with the best action coming when a kids football bounced onto the pitch so the ref had to run about 60 yards to remove it as it was the otherside of the half to were the linesman on that side was.

Immediately after half time the home team went close when Jackson thumped a drive onto the post and forcing it to bounce agonisingly across the face of goal. But the Clarets returned the favour eight minutes later, this time Protheroe holding his head as his free-kick whacked the crossbar.

Margate then took the lead when James Haworth appeared to be pulled down for a possible penalty but, in the resulting confusion, defender Luke Coleman found the net with the loose ball. After this it was all Chelmsford as the Clarets pushed for an equaliser with Ricky Holmes at the heart of every City attack and their reward came 5 minutes from time when the ball fell kindly for Holmes, who drilled low and hard from the edge of the area to rescue a point.

 After the game City manager had this to say:

 “We should never have conceded in the first place. but not many teams will come to Margate and take away three points so, on this occasion, we’ll settle for one.”

I was very impressed with some of the debutantes particularly Danny Gay who showed a safe pair of hands and he claimed any balls in the air. Lee Protheroe dead ball abilities really impressed me not only did he hit the bar with a free kick outside the area but all off his corners were whipped in with purpose and all threatened. Andy Duncan and Aidan Collins were also commanding at the back and dealt with everything that came their way. I was less impressed with Bertie Brayley and John Keeling but its still very early days and I wont judge them on one game on a difficult pitch.

Grays 1 -1 Woking

It’s not everyday a manager of his team will tell his players to stand still and let the other team score but this is exactly what Woking manager Frank Gray did. He didn’t do this because he share his name with Grays or because he is losing the plot. He did it out of good sportsmanship. The reason behind this is because during the match there was a drop ball situation. Gray’s Matt Pattison won the drop ball and passed it back to his golakeeper, Ross Flitney who was nowhere near the back pass and the ball just trickled into the empty net. So out of good will Woking manager Frank Gray told his team just to let Gray’s score and they did through Ben Watson who ran from the half way line around static players to walk it calmly into the net. Gray had no regrets about the goal and said it was the right thing to do.

“I didn’t consider anything else but letting Grays score. It was the right thing to do in the circumstances. If I hadn’t done it I don’t think I would have lived with it and I would hope that it’s something that everyone who is right-thinking in football would do.”

Late on the game the sportsmanship may not have mattered and Woking were handed a spot kick but Flitney was in the goal this time and he saved well from Danny Bunce.

Chelmsford City yesterday evening secured the signiture of local lad Aidan Collins on a one year contract. Aidan began his career at Ipswich Town and was part of a very sucessful youth side and made his first team debut at just 16 in 2003. In January 2007 he was put up for sale due to a persistant injury and was snapped up by Cambridge United. However in May 2007 he was forced to retire from professional football due to injury at the age of just 20. 

Despite this though he was handed a trial with the Clarets and has impressed in the 3 friendlies I have seen him play with commanding performances in the heart of the City defence against Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town and Colchester Utd. The management team at Chelmsford obviously don’t feel his injuries will strike again and if they are right this could prove to be a shrewed signing as The Clarets look to gain promotion to the Conference South after narrowly missing out in the play offs last year.