Essex Olympian League Premier Division, Wednesday 8th February
Garon Park was my venue for a rare midweek Essex Olympian Premier contest and saw early goals from James Warder and Mike Sammut enough for Catholic United to get the better of local Southend rivals Old Southendian and leapfrog them into second spot.
This was billed as a pretty big game at the top of the Olympian's Premier division, OS began the night in second spot and a point ahead of Catholic, although the visitors did have the small matter of five games in hand on their opponents, but a very decent crowd of just over 100 turned up to watch what they all thought would be a decent contest, despite the very cold temperatures.
OS have surprised this season at being so far up the table, and their form since the new year had been very good, four straight wins in all competitions and scoring eighteen goals in that period too whilst only conceding two, although Catholic would certainly provide a sterner test perhaps than the sides they had already played this year, with of course no disrespect to those sides.
The visitors had won nine of their twelve league games so far this season, and lost the other three, and believe it or not their last league loss had come at home to, yep you guessed it, OS, back on bonfire weekend, but since that loss they had won seven out of eight games in all competitions so like the hosts were in very good form too, so surely we would get a very decent derby game.
The opening exchanges certainly belonged to the visitors as they grabbed an early advantage, grabbing the lead on eleven minutes when a corner found its way into the six yard box where Warder was on hand to bundle home, and then three minutes later an absolute rocket from Sammut from long range flew past Pete Loveday in the hosts goal and into the net.
A shell-shocked hosts tried to find a way back into the game and saw Callum Ludlam miss a golden chance, although that was pretty much the only decent chance OS created in the opening forty five minutes, and in fact in could have been worse had the visitors not stuck the post late on in the half, however the hosts would come on very strong in the second period.
Catholic keeper Woody Wells was in superb form in the second period, pulling off two terrific stops to keep the hosts at bay as the visitors were having to dig very deep in the second half, and it looked like a very frustrating night would see the home side unable to find that net, but with thirteen minutes remaining they gave themselves hope of a comeback when Nico Debouchet broke the offside trap to rifle an effort past Wells to reduce the arrears.
Catholic had fleeting attacks but it was mainly them on the back foot in the second half, and they had Wells to thank once again late on when he pulled off another brilliant stop, and the defence also pulled off several blocks to deny shots on goal from the hosts who certainly deserved something from the game, but you don't always get what you deserve in sport, and the visitors managed to hold on to take the points and go above OS into second spot after a very decent hard fought win which will please them no doubt.
OS will be disappointed to have lost but they still remain in a decent position in the table, although both sides are miles behind runaway leaders Hutton, who hold a thirteen point cushion over second placed Catholic, so realistically they are all vying to try and finish as runners up to Hutton, who look almost certain to win the league and gain promotion to Senior Football.
An enjoyable night though, even if it was freezing, I am still waiting for the feeling to come back in my toes and fingers.....
Full time Old Southendian 1 Catholic United 2
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