Croydon v Camberley

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Surrey Senior Cup 2nd round

Croydon FC (0) 1 (Louise Headley 69)

Camberley Town FC (1) 2 (Wes Hendrick 11, Hinga Amara 58)

Croydon faced a tough examination in this Surrey Senior Cup 2nd round encounter against fellow Combined Counties side Camberley Town, the past the test but unfortunately lost the game.

Camberley top the league by an emphatic 8 points and looked a decent side but they were often matched by a Trams side that is very much in a transitional stage. When they got their passing right they were a handful and although nobody could complain about the result they weren’t far off. A bit of luck could have seen a home win.

Ollie Young and Tim Murdoch were both cup-tied so Bronek Dabrowa got a start in the heart of a re-shaped 5-man defence. That plan went awry quite soon when marauding wingback John Gladwin sustained an injury that threw the sides balance out of kilter.

Camberley had already taken the lead at this stage with a simple but effective goal in the 11th minute. A punted free kick into the box was met with a flicked header by Wes Hendrick who had his back to goal, the angle of delivery make it difficult for a defender to get in front of Hendrick and his header gave the ball the perfect trajectory to give Manny Djornor no chance in the Croydon goal.

Camberley looked lively throughout but the Trams had their moments too. Louis Headley should have scored when he rode 2 tackles and found himself one on one with keeper Justin Gray but nerves got the better of him and his shot was tame.

Not to say that Camberley didn’t apply any pressure but they didn’t make Djornor work at all hard before early in the 2nd half Croydon went very close indeed, a neat ball from Lewis Goddard picked out Jensen Grant whose shot from distance rattled the underside of the bar, the ball was scrambled away for a corner but the anger wasn’t over and as a cross came in from Jake Pitt it should have been finished by Headley who sneaked in at the far post only to slide his shot wide.

Camberley hit what ended up the killer blow in the 58th minute when a defensive mix up allowed Ronnie Green the chance to set up Hinga Amara for a simple tap in.

Croydon did pull a goal back in the 69th minute. A Pitt corner was met by a powerful close range header form Rob Bartley, that deserved a goal in itself but Gray pulled of a fantastic point blank save, however his fellow defenders let him down by reacting very slowly and Headley made it 3rd time lucky and knocked the ball in from about 30 centimetres out.

There were some very bright patches for the Trams in this game, interspersed with some school boy errors, too many tricks and flicks and short passes going astray, but hen their were some lovely passages of play that showed that this group of players have some excellent potential.

Croydon’s next game is away to Chertsey this coming Saturday. The scheduled matched against Egham the following match is now cancelled due to cup commitments and the game the following Saturday away to Cove is in doubt due to sewage on the pitch – and that’s before the Trams visit!

Croydon FC: Manny Djornor; Lewis Goddard; John Gladwin (Ntipadem Sophonie 21) (Dexter Babalola 64); Justin Hemmings; Rob Bartley; Bronek Dabrowa; Jensen Grant (Nigel Ikocodo 64); Louis Headley; Phil Page; Jake Pitt; Ashley Kelly.

Sub not used: Joe Hart