Horley Town 1 Croydon 1

Saturday 3 October 2009
Cherry Red Combined Counties Football League
Horley Town FC (0) 1 (Luke Ragetti 57)
Croydon FC (0) 1 (Nigel Ikpcodo 51)
This was another promising performance from Dickson Gill’s young team, and a draw against unbeaten Horley Town away from home would have been hard to turn down before a ball was kicked.
Croydon were well worth a share in the points and they very nearly grabbed a late win when Billy Chincharo smacked a shot against the bar in stoppage time, that would have been more than his team deserved, but a little bit of luck never goes amiss, especially as the post denied the Trams when Jensen Grant’s penalty hit the woodwork towards the end of last Saturday’s game versus Dorking.
With Jake Pitt pulling the strings in the centre of midfield, Croydon tried to play their way through their more physically imposing opponents, but a combination of an uneven pitch and a lack of stamina meant their performance ebbed a little as the game progressed.
Gill along with his assistant manager Peter Burdett and coach John Domfe made only one enforced change to their team, the powerful Nigel Ikocodo replacing Micah Banton who has returned to Greenwich Borough. When he gets match fit Ikocodo looks like he’ll be a real handful – he was good enough to get a debut goal in any case.
The 1st half brought only the minimum of attacking zest as both sides cancelled each other out. Croydon were faced in goal by a former favourite James Wastell, Wazza, always a character was a fine keeper for the Trams and very difficult to beat, this match was no exception and he easily saved a trio of attempts from Chincharo, Pitt saved him the trouble dragging a shot wide after working his way into a very good position.
Similarly Dean Cupit was master of his box too, saving efforts from George Smith and Christopher Weller comfortably.
The 2nd half saw Croydon take an unexpected but welcome lead. At that stage the game had 0-0 written all over it, Chincharo made the initial inroads, then as Horley failed to clear their lines, Ikocodo picked up the loose ball and slid it into the goal from a difficult angle.
The lead didn’t last overly long – a mere 6 minutes in fact. Croydon conceded what look like a soft foul on the edge of the box, Luke Ragetti stepped up and looped the ball round the wall and into the net, it all seemed a bit too easy but my view wasn’t ideal.
The match hardly burst into life after that but it was entertaining enough, Rhod Davis had a powerful shot that hit the side netting and Ragetti had a deflected shot that brought out the save of the game from Cupit.
Jon Doherty came on for Davis and had a hand in what was nearly the games decisive moment, dancing past his marker an unleashing a shot that Wastell could only parry, eventually the ball fell to Chincharo but he couldn’t keep his shot down and it bounced away to safety off the crossbar.
With team spirit and discipline ever improving things look on the up for the Trams at the moment and if encouraging performances can be transformed into wins then the garden will indeed begin to be rosy.
Croydon host Lewisham Borough on Wednesday 7th October with Wembley visiting the Arena the following Saturday.
Croydon: Dean Cupit; Lewis Goddard; Mohamed Shugaa; Jensen Grant; Rob Bartley; Ntipadem Sophonie; Jake Pitt; Dexter Babalola (John Gladwin 77); Rhod Davis (Jon Doherty 84); Billy Chincharo; Nigel Ikocodo (Fehmi Ali 88).
Subs not used: Asher Colbourne; Brett Law.
Simon Hawkins