My latest Saturday viewing on the penultimate weekend before Christmas saw a local battle between Old Southendian & Leigh Ramblers with both sides looking to grab a win before their two week festive break for differing reasons.
The hosts are trying their best to keep tabs with the top two (Rayleigh Town & Sungate) and knew if they could win today they could cement third spot even more and also close the gap to the leaders too, whereas Rams were having a very different season to their opponents today, sitting in 10th and looking for the points to put daylight between them and the bottom four, the bottom half of the league is only separated by six points (8th down to 14th (bottom) so any points would probably prove crucial in what is one hell of a tight battle down at the foot of the league.
Despite the differing fortunes and positions of both sides though, this was always going to be a tough battle for both, local pride was at steak so form normally goes out of the window at such contests, and this being their final games before the two week break, they wanted to go into the festive season in good cheer too and have a win over a local rival to look back on.
And it proved to be a very hard fought battle, the first half yielded very little in terms of chances as both sides failed to keep hold of the ball as well as they would like, a lot of misplaced passes were certainly frustrating the sides, especially the hosts who could not get themselves going as they would have liked, coming up against a very tough and determined Rams outfit.
And it was the visitors who so nearly edged in front late on in the first period too as they created two clear cut openings, firstly seeing hosts keeper Jonathan Pitts save a one on one opportunity before the loose ball was then blasted over moments later, they would have certainly been the happier of the two sides heading into the break, that was until first half stoppage time when a slip at the back allowed Callum Ludlaim to nip in a slot under Dylan Skinner and hand the hosts the half time advantage.
However this set back for the visitors didn't seem to affect them too much, although they were lucky not to fall two goals behind early on in the second period when hosts centre half Jordan Faulkner turned into prime Messi when his amazing run ended with his effort striking the post, and in a contest of small margins Rams went down the other end and won a penalty after a ball to the back post saw a foul resulting in a penalty for the visiting side.
And Tommy Pinkerton stepped up to thump the spot kick home, and instead of a two goal advantage for the home side, the contest was level, and if truth be told it was a deserved one for the visitors based on the game up to that point, which way would the contest go now?
It remained in the balance for some time and it was fast becoming one of those contests which could go either way, Rams had two golden chances to take the lead when Pinkerton dragged an effort wide before Pat Cannon nipped in after a poor pass back towards Pitts by a defender ended with the ball being cleared off the line by a scrambling hosts player.
OS though had to remain patient and try and break down a stubborn visiting back line, and with 85 minutes on the clock they finally found a way through for what turned out to be the winner when superb play down the right by Neil Maclean saw him fire a brilliant ball across goal where both Jack Mead & Ludliam were waiting and it looked as if the latter got the final touch to fall over the line with the ball for his second of the contest and net a big goal for the home side.
It had certainly been a hard fought win for the hosts who felt they probably deserved to win the game when talking to their management after the game, I wasn't so sure and felt Rams were hard done by to have lost this one, I felt as did their management that a draw was probably a fair result, but it's a game of opinions as they say and the bottom line was OS managed to get the win and the points, which as they say is all that matters.
It means that OS sit third, and now have an eight point buffer to fourth placed Old Chelmsfordians who lost at home to second placed Sungate today, OS remain three behind Sungate as a result, and are now four behind leaders Rayleigh Town, Rams, well they remain 10th and just two points above 14th and bottom side Toby in what is a ridiculously tight bottom few places, but if they continue to play this way they will certainly put themselves in a good position for sure.
A good battle though and well done to both sides for playing out such a tight, hard fought but fair contest throughout.
Full time Old Southendian 2 Leigh Ramblers 1
No comments:
Post a Comment