Cirencester Town FC
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Cirencester Town FC
The home of football, corporate events, courses and celebrations
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Cirencester made the long mid-week journey to the outskirts of Barnet for a re-arranged fixture against Hadley and for the second successive game conceded a goal after 7 minutes and despite a spirited reaction they were unable to pull the goal back so their hosts took the 3 points on offer.
Examination of the current positions and form of the two teams before the match revealed that Hadley sat in 13th place in the Division with 20 points from 16 games and Cirencester 9th place with 25 points from 17 games. In terms of current form, based on the last six games, as indicated in the ‘6-Match Form Guide’ table Hadley were 9th with 9 points and Cirencester 2nd with 13 points.
The Cirencester starting eleven for this match was unchanged from the side that suffered defeat to Biggleswade Town on Saturday. The bench was the same except for Josh Parsons (reaction to his first game of the season) and Louie Barnfather who did not travel.
The long journey was delayed further by an accident in the vicinity of the ground and despite leaving at 4.00 pm players arrived just under an hour before kick-off.
The Centurions kicked off on a bitterly cold, damp evening and immediately attacked to the left corner and after working to the centre lost the ball enabling Hadley to launch it their far-left corner where Cirencester cleared the danger and began to work their way down the centre – a period of ‘head tennis’ followed just inside the home half and when the ball was sent forward Cirencester were adjudged to be ‘offside’.
Almost immediately Hadley sent the ball down their right channel where Peter Rosemin collected, 30 yards from goal, and slipped it to the right flank for Lawrence Ajong to move forward a couple of yards before returning it to PETER ROSEMIN who was now on the edge of the Cirencester box and he instantly tucked his shot inside the left post. 1-0.
At this point only 7 minutes had elapsed, the exact time Cirencester conceded a goal on Saturday against Biggleswade Town.
Cirencester responded to the early setback as Ellis Dunton collected a loose ball and delivered it to the left corner where Levi Irving gathered and his cross was blocked for a corner kick that was initially headed out of the home box but quickly fed back in by Joe Turley – resulting in another corner kick from the right flank. This kick was also cleared but to a lurking Andy Lewis who shot towards the bottom left corner where Luke Ward dived full length to block before picking it up.
The visitors continued to press forward in search of a goal and when Jordan Morris collected a miss-placed cross-field pass on his left flank he immediately cut inside, rode an incoming tackle and advanced down the left channel before shooting from 20 yards – deflected for a corner kick from the left flank that was defended and cleared.
Shortly after the mid-point of the half as Cirencester continued to press forward Lewis switched play from the right flank to the left where Morris and Dunton exchanged passes for the former to advance to the corner – corner kick. Joe Turley delivered the kick to the Penalty Spot where Jake Lee rose to head against the home crossbar and when it was cleared it reached a lurking Nick Hancock and he lobbed it back into the mix for Dunton to head down to an area just outside the 6-yard box where Reegan Messenger instinctively shot narrowly wide of the right post.
A minute later as Cirencester worked their right flank a sliced clearance was collected by Irving and fed left, via Lewis, to Morris and his cross deflected for another corner kick which eventually reached Josh Nelmes but his cross was blocked.
It had been a sustained period of pressure from the visitors that the home side had survived and on the half hour they launched an attack of their own as they reached the right corner but the cross was caught by Ciren custodian Alex Harris.
A few minutes later they tried the left flank for Finley Aldridge to produce some nifty footwork near the left front corner of the visitor’s box before shooting wide of the far-right post.
A couple of minutes before the scheduled interval Hadley worked the ball down their left flank and were awarded a corner kick that Turley headed clear at the near post for Hancock to send down the channel for Irving to collect and gallop to the right front corner of the home box. As he cut left he was unceremoniously dumped to the ground and the culprit awarded a Yellow Card. The resulting free kick was wasted.
Half Time: 1-0
The second half was a much more open affair of end-to-end attacks as Cirencester lived dangerously in an attempt to level and this led to a number of desperate blocks when their hosts countered in numbers.
From the kick-off Hadley reached their left corner but it was a Cirencester throw-in and when the visitor’s countered they were denied further progress on both flanks.
A few minutes into the half Aldridge worked his way from left to right, 25 yards out, and as he reached the centre he had a pot at goal but it was blocked and cleared for a counter attack down the visitors left flank that produced a punt from Dunton into the home box that was cleared and eventually reworked back to him to cross from the left channel to the far-right post where Irving headed wide of the post.
Shortly before the hour mark Hadley stopped a Cirencester attack and countered to the right corner and cut inside for an Aldridge shot to be blocked by Will Christopher. They were back again a few minutes later as a clever ‘chip’ from the left channel of the visitor’s box reached the far-right post where another one was performed to reach the goalmouth – a scramble resulted, followed by two blocks from Nelmes before the ball was cleared but it was recycled for Rosemin to attempt a volley that was caught by Harris.
At every opportunity Cirencester were throwing caution to the wind as they launched balls downfield to press the home side and in turn Hadley countered quickly to catch their opponents out of position and from one such counter Billy Hayes fired over the bar.
After the mid-point of the half substitutions were being made and as the game approached the final scheduled 15 minutes Aldridge collected a loose ball and cut in from the left flank to reach the by-line where he shot into the side netting.
A few minutes later as Cirencester worked the ball down their right channel to Irving he was once again flattened but the Referee decided to lecture the culprit rather than issue the expected second Yellow Card much to the surprise of even the home support.
Into the final five scheduled minutes and Cirencester produced probably their best move of the night, with several players involved, as they worked the ball from left to right, and down the pitch to the right corner where the ball was lost for Hadley to counter quickly and Hayes to have his shot blocked.
A couple of minutes later the hard-working Hayes was involved again as he combined with Ajong in the right corner before working his way along the front edge of the Cirencester box but his eventual pass was intercepted by Christopher.
In ‘added-time’ the game became a little silly as the Referee issued three Yellow Cards and the home side ran the clock down by taking the ball to the right corner.
Full Time: 1-0
Cirencester made it hard for themselves by conceding an early goal again but despite their best efforts to recover they found their hosts in determined mood and were unable to break them down.
Attendance: 82 Referee: Adam Steele
Hadley:
1. Luke Ward
2. George Alfieri
3. Billy Baird
4. Shehzad Griffiths Anwar
5. Moise Ndandani
6. Germaine Dua
7. Peter Rosemin 7
8. Billy Hayes
9. Lawrence Ajong
10. Finley Aldridge
11. Luke Alfano
12. Thomas Milton (Billy Baird-46mins)
14. Edward Davis
15. Joshua Banfield (Peter Rosemin-85mins)
16. Herbie Townsend (Finley Aldridge-85mins)
17. Zacharias Uribarri
Cirencester Town:
1. Alex Harris
2. Will Christopher
3. Ellis Dunton
4. Joe Turley
5. Jake Lee ©
6. Josh Nelmes
7. Nick Hancock
8. Andrew Lewis
9. Levi Irving
10. Reegan Messenger
11. Jordan Morris
12. Nick Peare (Reegan Messenger-73mins)
14. Sergio Mills (Nick Hancock-67mins)
15. James Mortimer-Jones