FA CUP 1ST QUALIFYING ROUND

Cirencester Town 1 Cinderford Town 1

The Foresters, with former Centurion Keith Knight in the dugout, have a bunch of ex-Centurions and ex-Tigers in their experienced squad and arrived on a bright sunny day to face a home team missing skipper Chris Collins and Lee Molyneux in defence. Mr Knight included his latest signing from Meadow Park, Dave Wilkinson having faced us many times over the past few years and never had a bad game yet in one of those derbies.

Mr Viveash decided to go with Kev Davies in the middle of the defence, to mesh with Ollie Holder and Alex Stanley. Deciding that he would not risk Snaky Stanley, still feeling a recent tweak, he put him and Harry Etheridge on the bench and left Jon Else out of the line up this week and put himself on the bench 'just in case'.

Steve Robertson, making his first start for Ciren in place of the injured Nick Stanley, was paired with Mark Draycott up front as the injury hit home team looked for their first home goal of the season.

Within 4 minutes Ian McSherry had an opening when Robertson and Draycott cleverly worked a good pass from Michael Jackson between them and freed him on the edge of the box. Nobody gave Shez the shout that he had both time and space and he slashed first time when control and a measured shot was a better option

With Richard Kear operating wide right of the attack, looking to come inside and work Daryl Addis free and use Steve Cowe as a link man, Cinderford looked dangerous early on. Addis spun onto an early half chance when the ball broke free to him but Matt Bulman anticipated well and was in place to stop the effort.

Wilko did the same just a few minutes later, again with Bulman reading the move and making the reaction stop with his legs look easy. It wasn't. It was just very competent goal keeping.

The lively Cinderford interplay was making the Ciren defence edgy. Steve Cowe made a spectacular dive to get his head on a Nathan Jukes cross, nearly hitting the net behind the fence with his effort. The defence wanted to get rid and seemed reluctant to use Dan Wallington and Dan Hilder for the out ball.

Robbo and Drakey were more than up for the contest, Robbo in particular showing good timing to win high balls and knock them down well. And Marvin Thompson was soon uneasy himself, conceding free kicks and putting his imperturbable skipper Neil Griffiths under some pressure with his unease.

In a first half of few chances Cinderford collected 4 cautions as they set about imposing themselves on the match, with Tim Haddock very lucky indeed to remain on the pitch after a petulant stamp on the rampant Nathan Haisley after 40 minutes.

Earlier, Mark Draycott had beaten Thompson with a smart spin and go only to have his legs chopped from under him. The referee, who had seemed incredibly lenient in the face of some fairly robust Cinderford tactics, finally waved cards at Wilko and Thommo when they cynically took out first Nathan Haisley and then (again) Draycott as Ciren kept the pressure on the Cinderford third of the pitch.

It needed width to draw the defence out but both Dan Wallington and Dan Hilder now seemed reluctant to offer wide for passes when Ciren had the ball upfield. It was going to need cunning and timing if the attack were to get through the defence on a narrow front.

Finally, Shez was again worked free by Drakes and Jacko but his shot was too comfortably close to Matt Bath to trouble him in any way.

Then, on 41 minutes Mark Draycott did very well to time his run onto a perceptive early pass from Dan Hilder. How important that pass is in breaching a back line. And how often in this match did Drakes offer for the early ball but never saw his work rewarded.

This time Draycott had read the build up play when Nathan and Jacko scampered to break up the Cinderford midfield and Hilds made his support move up the left.

The ball slotted to Hilds and Draycott checked back out then up and out again, freed himself from the tentacle arms of Thompson, and was into the gap and clear on the left. Hilds had seen it and slotted him clear with a lovely rolled pass outside the forward and Thompson left on the 'wrong side' with not a hope in hell of getting to it.

With the cover drawn in to him, Draycott did exactly the right thing to send his cross into the danger area beyond the defence and slowing 10 yards out at the far post. With nary a Ciren forward alert enough to gamble it was a glorious opening not seen and thus wasted.

Minutes later another Draycott burst, this time through the middle as Griffiths and Thompson hesitated, ended with him chesting the ball beyond them only to be felled by a double body check, right on the edge of the box. After a lot of fuss and nonsense the ref booked the wrong man, Griffiths, and Matt Bath had an easy stop off a woeful free kick.

Second half Ciren began to look as if they were running out of ideas. Cinderford were no great shakes themselves but the Ciren defence was making it harder and harder for the Ciren attack to make openings, with the ball regularly being overhit into the channels and the Foresters defence shepherding the isolated front pair into blind alleys.

58 minutes gone and Draycott had a chance to break the deadlock. Again, his positional sense and timing of the run got him through the defence onto a Haisley pass but, perhaps wearied by the constant buffeting, got no power into his left foot shot and Bath had a comfortable stop

With an hour gone and needing to pose problems for the Cinderford defence, who had begun to dominate possession and feed their increasingly frisky forwards, Mr Viveash risked the not fully fit Nick Stanley in place of Draycott and put Phil Hall on to freshen up the front line. The change had an immediate effect.

The Forester's Marvin Thompson had never really managed to control the mobile Steve Robertson and as Stanley started to put himself about and create uncertainty in the Cinderford defence, Cirencester broke quickly from a Cinderford corner. Nathan Haisley, once again a driving force in midfield, claimed the clearance, ran on and passed Phil Hall into space 30 yards out.

With Stanley dragging Griffiths left side into the channel, Steve Robertson went for the gap on the right behind Thompson to collect Hall's well timed pass and marked a good overall display when he calmly finished beyond an exposed Matt Bath to put Ciren ahead on 70 minutes.

Cirencester were so close to clinching the game on 73 minutes when a rare moment of composed passing saw a Cinderford corner cleared to where Nathan Haisley was once again first to the ball.

He combined with the feisty Michael Jackson to get through the challenge of Haddock and put young Dan Hilder in down the left only for Matt Bath to get up and across to reach his fierce drive heading for inside the near post.

In a close encounter like this, one goal might well have settled it. But the Foresters manager had immediately subbed former Tiger Jimmy Cox into his front line after the goal and moved the always dangerous Richard Kear infield and further forward.

That brave tactical gamble paid off within 5 minutes, a long cross from Cox twice being cleared and twice being forced back into the middle of the goal with Daryl Addis and Kear both having close in shots brilliantly blocked by Matt Bulman in the Ciren goal.

The final block saw the ball fall to Jamie Addis two yards out. With the Ciren defence in disarray after the frantic barrage the Cinderford youngster forced it just over the line, in spite of yet another defiant clearance by Bulman who scooped the ball back into play only for the referee to indicate a goal.

The experienced Foresters had dominated much of the second half and now pinned the home team back. Matt Bulman was calm and composed behind an increasingly beleaguered home defence and his safe handling and immaculate positioning did much to calm down his colleagues.

Cinderford could well have won it, former Cirencester player Richard Kear fizzing a good shot wide on 79 minutes when he had worked himself clear on the edge of the box. They certainly will be optimistic in the replay at The Causeway on Wednesday night.

The Foresters may however find that a repetition of their uncompromising way of dealing with the threat from Draycott and Robertson will be viewed less favourably by the referee. In this encounter he was remarkably forgiving when both Haddock and Thompson could well have walked and will reflect on the improvements needed in his own game for the replay.

And Mr Viveash, possibly able to restore Lee Molyneux to the heart of the defence, will also certainly have spotted that his young wing backs need to show more verve and confidence in supporting their forwards and will have worked on that in training on Tuesday night.

Centurions: Matt Bulman, Dan Wallington, Dan Hilder, Ollie Holder, Kevin Davies, Alex Stanley, Nathan Haisley Y40, Michael Jackson (c), Steve Robertson, Mark Draycott [Nick Stanley 59], Ian McSherry [Phil Hall 59]
other subs: Harry Etheridge, Paul Hunt, Adi Viveash

Foresters: Matt Bath, Nathan Jukes [Jimmy Cox 71], Jamie Hammond [Greg Lewis 45]. Neil Griffiths (c) Y44, Jamie Addis, Marvin Thompson Y34, Dave Wilkinson Y17 [Craig Tait 65], Steve Cowe, Daryl Addis, Richard Kear, Tim Haddock Y40
other subs: Keith Knight, Ben Gasgoyne

Ref: Mr R Martin, Weston super Mare Not a good game for him today. Erratic, he seemed not to recognise the difference between a firm tackle and a defensive intervention that will not win the ball but nudges the attacker off balance.

Att: 170

MoM: Nathan Haisley, Steve Robertson and Mark Draycott showed well but standing above their '8's' today Matt Bulman was way ahead of them for me. Without him, we'd have lost with barely a whimper.