Thurlow Nunn First Division South, Wednesday 5th August
I was back over at Leslie Field for the second successive Wednesday evening to once again see Burnham Ramblers, and they were welcoming Coggeshall Town to The Crouch for a game between two sides who had won both their opening games of the season, meaning something had to give this evening.
Both of Burnham's fixtures, that have also been played at home, were both very toughly fought victories, both of Coggeshall's wins were only by the odd goal as well, so both knew how to 'tough it out' so to speak, so this game had the makings of being quite a battle, and so it proved to be.
The visitors had pretty much all the play in the opening twenty minutes but were unable to take advantage of this, and low and behold when Burnham mustered their first real attack of note, they took the lead, as in the 22nd minute a ball across the box into the path of Bertie Whymark saw him slot a first time effort past the keeper and into the net.
And just six minutes later with the hosts second attempt at goal, they doubled their lead, a great ball in from the left hand side was perfect for player boss Stuart Zanone, and he made no mistake at the back post to nod home, the visitors could not afford to leave him so much time and space though but they did, and were now two goals down having arguably been the better side, clinical from Ramblers you could say.
The hosts then shot themselves in the foot by receiving a sin bin for back chat to the referee, meaning ten minutes with ten men, and just past the half hour Coggeshall took full advantage, reducing the arrears when Tyler Hayes thumped home from close range, although a few minutes after they themselves saw a sin bin, meaning the game was ten a side, then eleven Vs ten the other way round.
It had certainly been a very eventful forty five minutes, there were no shortage of tackles flying in, and much ill discipline towards the officials of which neither side seemed to be happy with, and due to that sin bin for the visitors, they actually had to play the first few minutes a man light after it carried over from late in the first half.
It was soon eleven Vs eleven again, how much longer for was anyone's guess, but the second half became rather stop start and disjointed, and then Burnham lost their keeper after a collision with a forward, a dislocated shoulder was the diagnosis, and it meant player boss Zanone had to go in goal, although the keeper jersey wasn't big enough for him, so he was about to play with just a bib over his bare torso but then was given a home jersey to wear (the hosts were playing in their yellow away tops for this one), anyway that caused a lengthy stoppage.
It certainly felt though the visitors had the momentum, and with a non keeper in goal certainly would have fancied beating him, but they didn't really test him, which would have been disappointing, but they certainly caused alarm at the back for the hosts who survived a few nervy moments, and then in the 86th minute the hosts broke away, they played a lot of the second half on the break, and after they drew a foul inside the box, Aiden Brown struck away the spot kick to give Ramblers some breathing space.
Their were however to be fourteen minutes added on due to all the stoppages in the second period, including that lengthy one for the keeper, so it certainly wasn't game over just yet, and seven minutes into added on time Hayes struck home a beauty from range which Zanone kind of waved past him on it's way, to be fair a normal keeper would have struggled to save it so that's no criticism of him, but it meant Ramblers would have to survive a nervy few more minutes.
Then came a flashpoint at the other end of the field, this was defused quite quickly but it had been threating to boil over for pretty much the whole contest, Coggeshall tried their best to muster a final chance but Ramblers held firm at the back once again and managed to ride out the remainder of the game to take another superb battling win at Leslie Field.
It had been a proper game played between two sides who were fully committed to the cause, a titanic tussle you could say, sadly there was to be a red card after the final whistle when one of the visiting players was shown a second yellow for telling the ref what he thought about him, but spirits and passion was obviously running high straight after the final whistle although it was a pretty stupid thing to do.
Anyway, Burnham top a very early league table, nine point from nine so far, with their first away test coming this weekend at Parsloes Park against Athletic Newham, Coggeshall's perfect start ends after this loss, they now have nine days off and will welcome Herford Heath to West Street a week on Saturday, so some time to recover and get ready for that no doubt.
Full time Burnham Ramblers 3 Coggeshall Town 2
Great report!! 5 goal thriller!!
ReplyDeleteappreciate that thank you, yes was a very eventful game for sure!!
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