Guildford City (0) 1, Badshot Lea (1) 3
by Barry Underwood
At a rain sodden Spectrum Guildford City fell foul of an impressive Badshot Lea side that on this performance look well set for end of season promotion. After a good performance themselves the previous week against another promotion hopeful, Pete Ruggles and his City side would have gone into this match hopeful of a repeat performance. But it wasn’t to be and throughout Guildford were second best to a fast moving and lively opponent.
The Baggies were on the scoreboard on seven minutes. The visitors had plenty of space down the left flank and Tane Caubo’s perfectly timed run behind the defence gave him the chance to latch onto a through ball and fire home inside the back post. The pitch was heavy and the home side just couldn’t put their passes together. Conditions were the same for the Baggies who seemed to cope much better on the difficult service. On 20 minutes the visitors hooked an effort onto the top of the goal, but minutes later Guildford did come close when Luke Roberts made a flying save to keep Cameron Gyeabour’s effort out. With half-time approaching the Baggies scored their second. The dangerous Malachi Thomas fed Dean Rule unmarked on the left who had the simple task of shooting into an empty net. Thomas immediately had another chance but shot well over the bar.
A raft of substitutions during the second period lifted City to a degree but the visitors were in control. On the hour former City player Harrison Livingstone spun on the edge of the box and drilled a low shot into the corner. Several crosses into City’s box eluded strikers, and Stuart Norman saved brilliantly low down from another Livingstone shot. To their credit Guildford kept going until the end. Enow Ojong shot wide after a good run, before in the final minute Cameron Gyeabour fired high into the net after good work from Joe Condon.
Team: Stuart Norman, Stephan Langley, Billy Nutbeam, Campbell Scott, Jamie Pearce (Jamil Saleh 46), Tom Hegarty (Zeid Hannachi 70), Ashley Hitchinson (Joe Condon 61), Scott Costello, Cameron Gyeabour, Enow Ojong, Leon Dadey (Shane Cheeseman 81). Unused sub: Neil Roissetter.
Referee: Joe Wright
Attendance – 130
