Basildon United 3 London APSA 3

Essex Senior League, Thursday 13th March 2014

So my fourth game in as many days took me to Basildon United’s Cohart Stadium for the visit of London APSA in an ESL clash.  The game began slowly and took on much the same pattern as other games I had seen this week.  On 20 minutes however we had a breakthrough and it came from the home side when Bees full back Leon Smith crossed for Jimmy Cox to control and finish past the keeper for 1-0.  Six minutes later it was 2-0 when poor defending allowed Bees midfielder Daniel Udoh to get goalside of the defence and finish past the keeper.  Basildon were in relative control although APSA did look dangerous on a couple of occasions but at half time the home side seemed to have the game in their hands.  Little did we know what was to follow!!  APSA came out with more purpose second half and ten minutes into it they pulled a goal back when after a free kick was awarded to APSA on the edge of the box,  Farhad Nyanja stepped up and struck a low shot beyond Bees keeper Steve Brown into the bottom corner.  Basildon were now suddenly on the backfoot and the game had totally changed from the first half as APSA attacked far more often than they did first half.  The Bees were trying to break out when they could but found no way through.  Then on 72 minutes APSA made it 2-2 when the ball found it’s way through to Samson Ogunwole and he slotted the ball past the advancing Brown.  A minute later and the comeback was complete when poor play allowed APSA to ball back and it was fed through to substitute Vendal Nunes who slotted past an exposed Brown again to give APSA a 3-2 lead that at half time seemed impossible.  Basildon had to try and rally and brought on Greg Akpele and he immediately tried to get into the game by trying to run at the APSA back line on the left hand side of the pitch.  Then on 87 minutes Akpele twisted and turned but was then brought down in the box on the byline and the referee pointed to the spot, much to APSA’s annoyance as they thought Akpele had gone down a bit to easy.  Akpele picked himself up and duly slotted home the penalty to make it 3-3.  Into injury time and still anyone’s game., it had been a crazy second half of football.  APSA almost won it with a header but the ball cannoned off the post and out for a goal kick before Basildon had a shot at goal immediately at the other end which went just wide.  The referee then brought proceedings to an end in a game which started slowly but like a hurricane over warm seas picked up pace and turned into a classic entertaining encounter.  A thoroughly enjoyable watch it sure was.