North Greenford United 3 - Croydon 0

Saturday 5 September 2009
Cherry Red Combined Counties Football League
North Greenford United FC (1) 3 (Dave Lawrence 7, 90+2, Chris Hibbs 84)
Croydon FC (0) 0
The eventual scoreline doesn’t really tell the whole tale of this match, although it would be hard to grumble unduly about the actual result. In some ways this was the Trams most cohesive performance of the season but too little threat up front against a very competent North Greenford United side was always likely to leave them 2nd best.
The home side were unbeaten with 4 wins and a couple of draws to their names, so Croydon could have faced easier opponents as they strove to get their 1st win of the season and North Greenford maybe got the rub of the green as well, if you discount the 3 goals they had scrubbed out for offside.
The Croydon side is beginning to have a settled look to it, Tim Murdoch was suspended so Louis Hollingworth got a 1st start in midfield, James Brown made his debut in place of Kevin Sefaah down the right and Grant Cunningham returned up front in place of Jamie Marriott.
Before Croydon could settle into the game, North Greenford took a slightly fortuitous lead in the 7th minute. Dave Lawrence seemed to receive the ball in an innocuous position about 25 yards out but he had other ideas and without any discernable backlift hoisted the ball into the far corner of Michael Holder’s goal. It was a perfect, unstoppable strike, possibly aided by the gusty conditions and just the start the visiting team didn’t want.
The Trams tried to play some football and to work their way into promising positions and they looked as comfortable with each other as at any time this season, North Greenford played a bit more directly but hardly threatened for the remainder of the half.
The best efforts fell to Sam Groombridge who had Gary Jallow scrambling with a cross shot that may have been creeping in but for the keeper’s acrobatics and Grant Cunningham who should have done better when he latched onto Aaron smith’s quick free kick. There was the suspicion of offside about the move but it was a golden opportunity for Cunningham who went one on one with Jallow but dragged his shot agonisingly wide.
In all fairness Croydon didn’t look like scoring in this game, the lively Danny Akpoveta was constant thorn in North Greenford’s side but his best attempt was a shot wide after a nice little run. The home side did get the ball in the net a couple of times but were ruled of side, from legitimate play the hardly made the Trams sweat although substitute Steve Coultas had a decent shot that went just wide.
North Greenford scored 2 late goals that were both a bit lame. The linesman adjudged that there was a bit of shirt tugging in the box as Croydon lined up to defend a free kick. I’m sure he was right but it’s always a brave call when you know both sides do it habitually. Chris Hibbs converted the spot kick.
It was almost certainly academic as the Trams had run out of steam by this stage – fitness is an issue for some of the team – and their concession of a disconsolate 3rd 2 minutes into stoppage time, Lawrence scored again from close range, was due to tired defending and wavering concentration rather than good play.
North Greenford rode their luck with the goals but shaded the game in any case but there were signs of improvement for the Trams.
They have 2 home games this week to put things right, against Molesey on Wednesday and then the following Saturday against Bookham.
Croydon: Michael Holder; Jimmy Beauchamp; Steve McNamara; Aaron Smith (Brett Law 80); Ron Bartley; Sam Groombridge; James Brown (Kevin Sefaah 80); Louis Hollingworth; Grant Cunningham; Daniel Akpoveta; Micah Banton (Jake Pitt 77).
Subs not used: Rhod Davis, Darren Delgrado.
Simon Hawkins