Epsom & Ewell v Croydon

Wednesday 18 August 2009

Cherry Red Records Combined Counties League

Epsom & Ewell FC (0) 1 (Robbie Burns 54)

Croydon FC (0) 1 (Tim Murdoch 47)

A point, a veritable point – and Croydon are off the mark in the Combined Counties League.

And after an exasperating couple of weeks it wasn’t a bad performance to go with it. Epsom & Ewell have set the pace this season with 3 wins out of 3 and are certainly a go ahead team, trying hard to play the ball through the middle and looking very bright at times.

The Trams on the other hand had 3 defeats and the concession of 12 goals to look back on, confidence sapping statistics if nothing else.

Mike Robbins understandably changed things round again, Jimmy Beauchamp came in at right back, with the impressive Rob Bartley helping shore things up in the middle of defence. There were 2 debutants on the wing Manuel Aderito on the right and Jordan Taylor on the left for the unfortunately injured Aaron Agyeman. Aaron Smith resumed the captaincy and his partnership with Tim Murdoch in midfield.

The best thing that can be said was the Croydon deserved this point, they kept Epsom & Ewell at bay quite well throughout the game, the home side, despite their class, failing to make deep inroads all that often, and the Trams threatened at times at all with Grant Cunningham deserving a special mention, he ran all night, often without the ball and was a definite handful when he was in possession.

Croydon should have taken the lead in the 6th minute only to waste a fantastic opportunity to put their hosts on the back foot. Murdoch who also deserves plaudits for his mature, skilful and committed performance, threaded a fabulous ball through to Cunningham who checked inside and with a clear shot on goal was tripped in the 18 yard box for a nailed on penalty. Dan Westerman stepped up but the travelling Tram faithful could only groan as his low shot was cleanly taken by Paul Borg.

Epsom & Ewell did make progress but could only hit the occasional long shot to test Chris Arnold, Croydon hardly had a load of chances either, Steve McNamara hit a powerful speculative shot that failed to trouble Borg and good work from Aderito set up Cunningham who battled through alone only to see his shot go wide.

The best chances fell to Ramzi Bedj-Bedj who pounced on an uncharacteristic mistake by Smith but could only hack wide from a very promising position.

The Trams took the lead in the 2nd minute of the 2nd half after dome sustained pressure. Cunningham got away down the right and found Westerman whose attempt was blocked, the ball fell kindly for Smith who drove the ball hard towards the corner of the net on the angle only to see his effort cleared off the line in spectacular fashion.

Croydon scored from the resulting McNamara corner, the ball bobbled around a bit and eventually fell to Murdoch lurking 25 yards out. His coruscating drive nearly bust the net.

Unfortunately for the Trams it only took Epsom & Ewell 7 minutes to get back in the game, Ross Shoefield slipped his marker down the right and sent in a fine cross that Arnold could only parry away, the lurking Robbie Burns was on hand though and slipped the ball in form close range.

Croydon kept it tight but as they game wore on they began to tire as their hard working performance took its toll, although they remained committed to the attack and were desperately seeking the winner right up to the final whistle. The home side seemed to settle for a draw though and rarely troubled the Trams. Dale Marvell did shoot straight at Arnold when he could have done better and Burns headed over a right wing cross when he was in a promising position but in general Croydon dealt with the threat adequately. Indeed a last gasp effort from Cunningham could have brought the Trams all the points but his final shot was testament of how tired his non stop commitment had made him.

All in all this was a much improved display from the Croydon team and without any hyperbole it augurs well for the future, although new faces are still manifestly required in a number of areas.

This Saturday, Croydon are at home to Bedfont, lets hope they keep up the good work and improve on this result with a win.

Croydon: Chris Arnold; Jimmy Beauchamp; Steve McNamara; Timmy Murdoch; Rob Bartley; Sam Groombridge; Manuel Aderito (Zim Zou Lelo 56); Aaron Smith (c); Grant Cunningham; Dan Westerman; Jordan Taylor (Darren Delgrado 63).

Subs not used: Rhod Davis; Jamie Lawrence; Jamie Williams (gk).

Simon Hawkins