Isuzu FA Vase First Qualifying Round, Sunday August 25th
My third and final Isuzu FA Vase game of the weekend saw me travel to North London and Coles Park, home of Haringey Borough, although it was not them involved in this game as tenants NW London were the hosts today as they took on Wembley.
The hosts play in Step Six of the non league pyramid. the Thurlow Nunn First Division South, a league they have played in for two seasons prior to this one, and after a third bottom finish two seasons ago, and a 17th placed finish (five points above the bottom three) last season, they have begun this one in similar fashion, one win in six league games and just five points from a possible eighteen and sitting in 16th place, just five places off the bottom.
There last two league games have seen them concede ten goals two, this after picking up a first win of the season before that, so they were going to have their work cut out against a Wembley side who play a level above their opponents today in Step Five, the Combined Counties Premier North Division, however, the visitors haven't started the season well themselves so they may have seen this one as a banana skin perhaps?
Wembley have played for league games thus far and one FA Cup encounter, and have failed to score in four of those games, losing them all in the process, the only game they did score in was the only one they have won so far, a 3-2 home win over Burnham, although despite this the visitors would still feel they should see off their lower league opponents here, although football is not played on paper is it, and it's cup football so anything can happen right?
No doubt confidence was low amongst both sets of players though after such poor starts to their seasons, so grabbing an early initiative in this tie was paramount, well Wembley had Yashua Smith making his debut for them and it only took him eleven minutes to grab his first goal for his new club when after he had pinched the ball off a defender, he rounded hosts keeper Brandon Bullman before firing home with aplomb, and the visitors had the perfect start.
You could see the confidence surging through the visitors after that and for the remainder of the half they were the team doing most of the attacking, Jaden Newman had several openings himself but was unable to test the keeper, and the only frustration for the visitors was their inability to add to that lead, they were rarely troubled by the hosts in the opening forty five minutes, the only time they were was when Emarjay Jones cut inside onto his left foot late on in the first half but saw his effort dragged wide.
Visiting midfielder Nathan Osaji then saw a point blank effort beaten away by Bullman, but, with barely a minute of the first half to go Wembley doubled their lead to make it a bit more comfortable as Smith turned provider this time by laying the ball into the path of Osaji who burst into the box and slotted past Bullman into the far corner, and the visitors were well in control of this tie heading into the break.
Did NW London have anything to fight back with? Well, the second half was a far more competitive affair, partly due to Wembley's levels dropping somewhat in the second period, and the attacking prowess of Amin Mohammed, Bernardo De Quadros & Jones certainly gave the visitors something to think about, they had a couple of openings to get back into the contest, one effort deflecting wide and then another powerful effort fired straight at visiting keeper Jack Gordon.
Wembley though were always fairly comfortable and could have made it even more comfy had Ned Jones not missed an absolute sitter from close range, however the first half performance had earned them this win, although it was to end on a rather sour note for Wembley when substitute Marvin Emmanuel was sent off for disputing a throw on deep into stoppage time, he had originally been sin binned but obviously the referee took exception to whatever was said and brandished the red card.
Emmanuel was clearly upset with the decision and once the referee blew for full time he climbed back over the fence and onto the pitch and made a beeline for the referee and had to be held back by his own teammates, not what you want to see and especially after you team has just recorded the win, he obviously felt hard done by but still, not a great example to set, even if he did feel this way and it maybe was a harsh one, who knows.
Despite this ending, Wembley do record a win, a win that takes them into the next round where they will face a home tie with FC Deportivo Gallcia, for NW London it was a lot of effort with very little output, they improved second half for sure but they just did not have enough to get back into the contest and gave themselves to much to do after the first period, they now need to get back to league action and start picking up some points.
Full time NW London 0 Wembley 2
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