Molesey (0) 1, Guildford City (1) 1
by Brian Bloomfield
After a morning of heavy rain in Molesey the sun beamed down at The Herds Renault Stadium as kick off approached. What was witnessed by a sparse crowd was a highly competitive match that certainly went against the grain of Molesey’s low league position. It was Molesey that started the better with two whipped crosses finding the head of front man Josh Andrew only for both connections to fly over the bar. On the 4th minute a foul 35 yards out saw Molesey in the ascendancy but again the Molesey faithful saw the free kick fly over the bar. The high tempo box to box play from both sides, kept the crowd enthralled and on 10 mins Guildford had their first real chance when an excellent through ball on the left from Prince Mbengui saw a great cross from Fred Hill just evade Nathanial Mensah and Mike Coppinger in the box.
The next 10 minutes saw a lot of loose balls with both teams being complicit in poor possessional play. Max Oldham went on a couple of good runs that failed to see attackers getting on the end of good crosses. It was Guildford though that managed to break the deadlock on 20 minutes. A clinical diagonal pass from James Glover found Prince Mbengui on the right wing, and a superb ball in found the incoming Nathanial Mensah saw him calmly slot the ball past Theo Bromley in the Molesey goal. Molesey then had a good 10-minute spell with Harry Boxall just clearing the bar from 30 yards, and the solid Josh Andrew and the diminutive Kissi Williams proving a handful with his direct runs at the City defence. James Glover went into the referees’ book for what seemed like an innocuous challenge outside the box. Yannick Monga for City was very industrious covering ground and breaking down many Molesey attacks.
On 31 minutes Mike Coppinger found himself on the edge of the Molesey box but his shot was easily collected by the Molesey goalkeeper. On 33 minutes midfielder Ben Cotton was replaced by Josh Everard after suffering an injury from a challenge from a Molesey midfielder. The first half finished with both sides having good attacking play with Mike McEntegart having an assured half and both Mensah and Glover failing to finish good attacking moves.
The second half saw Molesey start well putting Guildford continually on the back foot and on 49 minutes Molesey’s’ number 10 Robinson had a 30-yard free kick well saved by McEntegart. On 51 minutes James Glover saw red for a second contentious booking after Kissi Williams fell into Glover and pulled him down. Now down to ten men Mike Coppinger was sacrificed and Campbell Scott came on to shore up the City defence. On 60 minutes Mensah just failed to connect cleanly with what seemed like a good opportunity. Guildford continued to defend well with 10 men with Campbell Scott having a great passage of play and Antonio Simeone marshalling well at the back. Molesey now had their best period of the game with McEntegart having an equally good period in the Guildford goal saving a hard long low drive from Connor Champion and being resolute in collecting the crosses that were peppering the Guildford penalty area. McEntegart continued to deny Molesey with three good saves only for Cadell Fraser-Robison to spoil the afternoon for the Guildford travelling supporters with a poachers goal in the 88th minute.
It was certainly back to the wall stuff for the last couple of minutes but ironically Jordan Adeyemi had a chance with the last kick of the match as he turned the Molesey defence only to see his shot from the edge of the box go agonisingly over the bar. Guildford came away with a point and to be fair we should be grateful for that. McEntegart had a great game again in goal, captain Simeone kept the back line in check with Campbell Scott having an excellent 40 minutes. However the accolade for Citys man of the match goes to Yannick Monga who didn’t stop running all game and blocked two attacks in the last few minutes.
Team: Michael McEntegart, Isy Nzelo, Fred Hill, James Glover, Antonio Simeone, Prince Mbengui, Max Oldham, Yannick Monga, Ben Cotton (Josh Everard 32), Nathaniel Mensah (Jordan Adeyemi 75), Mike Coppinger (Campbell Scott 52). Unused subs: Josh Bullen, Luke Roberts.
Referee: Callum Peter
