Cirencester Town FC
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Cirencester Town FC
The home of football, corporate events, courses and celebrations
Click photo to view a slideshow of photos from the match
Courtesy of Steve Rolfe Photography
Match Report by Dave Pyzer
Following their encouraging victory over fellow strugglers St. Neots the previous week The Centurions welcomed mid-table Redditch United to The Corinium Stadium. ‘The Reds’ won the reverse fixture in early December 4-1 as Cirencester struggled to adapt to the newly installed 3G pitch at The Valley. Recently Redditch have suffered a dip in form and prior to the match sat 22nd in the ‘6-Match Form Guide’ (with 4 points from the 18 available) and 15th in the Premier Division table. Cirencester were 16th and 21st respectively.
There was one change to the Cirencester starting eleven from the previous game against St. Neots as Henry Spalding replaced Kerry Morgan who had failed to recover from an injury he sustained in that match.
Redditch United kicked off playing towards The Shed End of the ground and began to play the ball across their back line, left to right. DAN DEMKIV anticipated their intention and intercepted the pass to their right back. He immediately cut right to the left channel and without hesitating he unleashed a right footed shot from 25 yards that flew into the top right corner to open the scoring in the first 15 seconds of the match. 1-0.
Encouraged by this early success the home side pushed forward and within minutes a neat exchange of passes between Adam Connolly and Alan Griffin, on the left flank, supplied the ball to Aidan Bennett who instantly fired narrowly wide of the left post from the front edge of the visitor’s penalty area.
Cirencester were taking the game to their visitors and not allowing them to settle but they couldn’t find the second goal that their possession suggested.
Ellis Dunton headed a free kick across the penalty area from the left but none of his team-mates managed to latch onto it, Bennett fired wide of the right post and a succession of blocks in their penalty area from the visitor’s defence, after some neat approach play on the left flank, kept the home side at bay.
As the half hour mark was approaching Redditch sent a free kick from their right flank to the far post where the giant Hafeez Sanusi was waiting but one of his team-mates got his head to it first and it skimmed the top of his head without reaching Sanusi and passed wide of the target.
Shortly afterwards Dior Angus won the ball in a challenge on the right side edge of the home penalty area and moved into the area before firing a fierce right footed shot at the near post where Glyn Garner was in position to block above his head with solid hands to push it wide -resulting in a corner kick. Donnell Benjamin played the kick short to Jhai Dhillon in the corner and the latter crossed towards the far post where Duane Courtney rose to head – requiring Garner to push it wide of his right post for another corner kick that came to nothing.
Back came Cirencester as they had a throw-in from the left to the penalty spot – defended and cleared for a throw on the right. The ball eventually reached Griffin at the far left post but his header passed wide of the post with Henry Spalding just unable to reach it.
In the final five minutes of the half Matt Liddiard headed wide of the right post and Spalding shot over on the turn.
Half Time: 1 – 0
Cirencester started the second half as they had finished the first – on the attack – as Spalding crossed from the left corner. It was blocked and returned to him for another cross that was intercepted and cleared.
Five minutes after the interval Aidan Bennett and Jordan Cullinane-Liburd challenged for a ball just inside the centre front edge of the Redditch area. The two adversaries fell to ground and as Bennett got up he put his hands on the shoulders of his opponent who was also trying to get up. Cullinane-Liburd reacted to the contact and pushed Bennett over. The ‘hand-bags’ incident resulted in both players being dismissed and shortly afterwards the Cirencester Assistant Manager, Paul Hunt, was also dismissed following comments made to the Assistant Referee.
As the teams returned to playing football a Redditch free kick was caught by Garner and quickly thrown to Dunton for a charge down the left flank. He crossed to Demkiv, right channel, who laid it back to a supporting Ben Brown as he made ground to the front edge of the visitor’s penalty area. Once there Brown attempted to slip the ball to his left for Demkiv to collect but it was intercepted.
Just after the hour mark Luke Keen reached the by-line on the Redditch right flank and crossed to the near post where the tall Sanusi burst forward to get on the end of it. Matt Coupe had spotted the danger and matched the run ensuring his opponent didn’t make a clean contact with the ball and a goal kick followed.
At the mid-point Cirencester finally scored the second goal they had been desperately searching for as Connolly reached the by-line on their right flank. His cross was blocked but rebounded to Kieren Diaz-Benitez who was behind him and he clipped the ball to the back post where ALAN GRIFFIN managed to head the ball down and inside the left post. 2-0.
Before the game could re-start Danny Gudger, a prolific scorer for the Development Team, came on for his first appearance for the First Team this season in place of the hard working goal-scorer Dan Demkiv.
Eleven minutes later Redditch pulled a goal back as Sanusi head flicked a Catlow kick down the left flank for Keen to collect near the corner. Once there he crossed to the far post where DIOR ANGUS was in position to head back across goal to score inside the left post. 2-1.
Despite this setback Cirencester continued to push forward but a little more cautiously and as the game was drawing to a close they became more nervous thereby encouraging Redditch to press them - but Cirencester were not to be denied the result their performance deserved and they held on to their slender lead to keep their survival hopes alive.
Final Score: 2 - 1
Cirencester got off to the perfect start when they opened the scoring in the first minute and buoyed by their early success dominated the first half.
After the interval it became a little scrappy, and at times tetchy, with a player from each side being dismissed – perhaps a little harshly.
The three points were certainly very welcome in their bid to remain in the Premier Division next season.
Attendance: 135
Referee: Robin Cox
Cirencester Town:
1. Glyn Garner
2. Ben Brown
3. Ellis Dunton
4. James Mortimer-Jones
5. Matt Liddiard (C)
6. Matt Coupe
7. Henry Spalding
8. Adam Connolly
9. Alan Griffin 67
10. Aidan Bennett
11. Dan Demkiv 1
12. Charlie Griffin
14. Danny Gudger (Dan Demkiv-68mins)
15. Lewis Thompson
16. Ryan Elliott
17. Kieran Diaz-Benitez (Henry Spalding-45mins)
Redditch United:
1. Bradley Catlow
2. Jordan Jones
3. Jordan Brown
4. Max Loveridge (C)
5. Duane Courtney
6. Jordan Cullinane-Liburd
7. Arjun Jung
8. Khaellem Bailey-Nicholls
9. Hafeez Sanusi
10. Dior Angus 78
11. Donnell Benjamin
12. Luke Keen (Khaellem Bailey-Nicholls-46mins)
14. Zaqib Hussain (Donnell Benjamin-62mins)
15. Shuja Mahmood
16. Justice Campbell
17. Jhai Dhillon (Arjun Jung-21mins)