Thurlow Nunn Division One South, Wednesday 13th October
Wednesday night saw me over at Park Lane for a Thurlow Nunn One South top of the table clash between Benfleet and Burnham Ramblers, and a late Harry Shawyer equaliser saw the visitors grab a very fortunate point on Canvey Island.
Both sides knew a win would send themselves into second spot behind leaders Ipswich Wanderers and after both had lost at the weekend, each side wanted to bounce back in this one and get one over another promotion hopeful, and also local bragging rights were at stake to seeing this was an Essex Derby too (only fifteen or so miles separate these two geographically).
The visitors were probably lucky not to have gone down to ten men inside two minutes in my view after a rather poor challenge from Liam Barry on hosts keeper Flo Gislette which left the latter in a heap and in a lot of pain, but the referee deemed it only a yellow card offence, I did wonder had the offence happened later in the game it may have been a different colour, but there you go, it was a yellow that was handed out.
It seemed that there would be no way Gislette would continue, but with no keeper on the bench the hosts decided to risk him staying between the sticks, and you would have thought Burnham would have done all they could to try and force the keeper into action with practically one leg, but the only shot they managed in the opening half hour was off target and high by Adebolu Adeyemi.
On the half hour mark though Ramblers did go in front as after Samir Ali had been impeded inside the box, he stepped up to thump the penalty into the bottom left hand corner, giving the injured Gislette no chance whatsoever, although a fully fit Gislette probably wouldn't have got no where near it anyway, it was a superbly taken spot kick, and the visitors had edged ahead.
This seemed to wake Benfleet up, and they saw two efforts off the line and then saw another effort well saved by Adam French, and as the game entered the second period the hosts began to dominate proceedings.
The visitors had keeper French to thank for keeping them in the game, he produced a couple of decent stops early in the second period but he would have been disappointed with himself for the leveller twenty minutes into the second half when a shot from distance took a big bounce, causing the keeper to palm the ball way up into the air, and as it came down, Ben Foord beat him to the ball to head beyond him, and the hosts had a well deserved leveller.
French then made a brilliant double save to deny the hosts, before he then pulled off another diving save to his left to keep another decent effort out, however, with seven minutes to go it looked as if Benfleet's pressure finally got them a winner when Billy Bonham-Dare, just on as a substitute, converted a pass from Luc Harpin, and it looked as if the hosts would go on and win it.
But no, because just two minutes after that moment, the hosts went to sleep defensively and allowed the superb Shawyer to stroll onto a pass and fire a decent effort across goal and into the far corner, it had been their only shot on target in the entire half, but they made it count and were now back level again, could they snatch a win from the jaws of defeat perhaps?
In the end no, both sides had to settle for a point a piece, Benfleet would have been immensely frustrated not to have won that game after so many second half chances, whilst Burnham would have been delighted to have nicked a point in the end and definitely had Frenchy (the keeper) to thank for that point for sure. And well done for Gislette to get through the game with a very painful left leg for the entire game, be interesting to see how long it keeps him out for, if it does.
It all means Benfleet do climb into sixth spot, that is still a point behind Burnham who jump up to third spot themselves, both sides are on the road at the weekend, Benfleet are at Holland whilst Ramblers travel to The Royal Oak to take on Harwich & Parkeston, and both would fancy winning those games too.
Full time Benfleet 2 Burnham Ramblers 2
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