Bedfont & Feltham (0) 2, Guildford City (2) 2
by Barry Underwood
It might be December but is was still a little early in the month to gift bottom of the table Bedfont & Feltham two late goals to claim a point they seldom looked like achieving. Make no mistake this match was no classic. On a cold and windy day passes from both sides were too often going astray and there were few periods of cohesive play. Although City were nowhere near their fluent best they did keep Tristan Thomas in the home goal busy for the first 45 minutes. Leon Lalor-Dell had seen a shot saved in the opening minutes, before on four minutes a cross from Bobby Dormer was turned in at the far post by Dan Akinwande. City continued to create half-chances, mainly from set-pieces, but couldn’t find a clear opening. Leon Lalor-Dell saw another curling effort saved at full stretch by Thomas and it wasn’t until 20 minutes were on the clock that the home side forced a save out of Matt Petts. From another free-kick Dan Akinwande headed back across goal but Mario Embalo wasn’t able to get enough power on his resulting shot. Minutes later it was Kiye Martin who headed over from a cross to the back post. City were winning good possession with Dan Akinwande and Shawn Lyle picking up the pieces, but too often the possession was being lost too easily in a congested middle of the park. Five minutes before the interval Guildford scored a second goal. Again Leon Lalor-Dell curled a free-kick towards goal and on this occasion the ball evaded everybody to creep into the corner.
Although the home side lifted their game in the second half and enjoyed more of the ball Guildford, for the most part, weren’t troubled. The game though changed just after the hour mark with the first of two errors by the visiting goalkeepers. A seemingly innocuous ball over the top was dealt with by Matt Petts on the edge of his area. However crucially the assistant referee’s waving flag alerted referee Desai that Petts had handled outside the area and he was duly shown a red card. To rub it in the resulting Bedfont free-kick smashed against the crossbar and was turned home from the rebound by Jason Pinnock. It was as they say “Game on”. To be honest City still looked secure at the back and on 76 minutes Terence Cariba had a golden chance to clinch the game but his shot on turn went wide of the post. In the sixth minute of stoppage time Cariba again had a great chance to confirm the three points, but home defender Joe Ataro made a quite brilliant headed clearance to keep Cariba’s goal bound shot out of the net. A minute later from a speculative ball forward the advancing Luke Badiali miskicked his clearance straight to Aaron Morgan who took a few steps forward before smashing a powerful shot into the net. Cue considerable home celebrations. Ataro and Morgan were heroes and when the final whistle blew just moments later Guildford knew that they had quite simply thrown away two points.
Team: Matt Petts, Suleiman Djalo, Alex Rose (Jordan Goater 53), Greg Haydon, Bobby Dormer, Dan Akinwande, Shawn Lyle, Leon Lalor-Dell (Luke Badiali 64), Mario Embalo (Terence Cariba 56), Jacob Lambe, Kiye Martin. Unused subs: Rashid Obbadi, Martin Dynan.
Referee: Anand Desai
Attendance – 29
