Beaconsfield Town 1 v 1 Yate Town
Rams Man of the Match - James Taylor
When James Taylor found himself in hospital with a severely bruised kidney after a freak challenge in the League Cup win over Harrow Borough on the 10th September the chances of a pre-Christmas return looked pretty slim. On Saturday at Holloways Park the young centre half capped off his recovery with an important goal after a fine individual performance, stepping up to fill in for the injured Reece Yorke.
The 44th minute equaliser was no more than The Rams deserved after dominating the first half and reducing the visitors to one strike on goal. The trouble is this season the one shot was all they needed to be in front after 12 minutes as Nicholas Pearce’s flick on from a long throw was met by Joe Guest who struck a sweet volley from the edge of the box giving Myles Bowman no chance.
The first half was a clash of styles Yate mixing the youthful enthusiasm of Bradley Webb with a muscular no nonsense style that largely bypassed midfield and pitted Britton, Guest and Olly Mayhew against the home defence. For the most part Beaconsfield coped, give or take the odd miscued clearance and Taylor was a towering presence at the centre of the defence.
Ahead of him Nathan Webb was again prominent, drivng forward pressing and snapping into the tackle while ahead of him Jon-Jo Bates was a constant threat and annoyance to the visitors backline and it was his shot come cross which lead to Taylor’s equaliser on the stroke of half time. Charlie Losasso’s corner, after Bates initial shot had been blocked wide, was half cleared but fell to Bates on the edge of the box. His low drive was met by Taylor three yards out and he had time to take a touch before stabbing home. An anxious glance towards the linesman confirmed no offside flag despite some half-hearted Yate protests.
Half Time 0-0
Second half performances have been at best patchy in recent weeks but the home team began on the front foot and continued where they had left off before the break. Adam Forster in the visitors goal dealt unconvincingly with a long range Losasso freekick before making excellent saves, a smothering block in a one on one with Losasso and an instinctive save from a close range Brendan Matthew header.
As the half wore on both managers rang the changes and Yate finished the stronger with a more studied approach than the first half. They created space on the flanks and had the home defence at full stretch on a number of occasions as Bowman made regulation saves from Bradley Webb and Michael Bryant and dealt well with the closing aerial and set piece bombardment. Beaconsfield remained threatening on the break but after recent weeks succession of late goals against home fans were more relieved to hear the final whistle than the vociferous Yate Town following who generated one of the better atmospheres at Holloways Park this season with continuous noisy and good humoured support.
In the end a draw was a fair enough result but the visitors will probably be happier than The Rams who missed an opportunity to close the gap on another basement rival after the disappointment last week at Hendon.
That said there were many positives in the performance. This was the most cohesive and certainly the most attacking threat we have seen from The Rams for some time. While they remain in games and competitive every week, at some point, they must start to convert their periods of dominance into goals.
Next up is the visit to Ascot United for the Berks and Bucks cup tie on Tuesday night.
COYR
Beaconsfield Town
1. Myles Bowman 2. Alex Nolan 3. Mayo Balogun 4. James Taylor 5. Luke Neville © 6. Nathan Webb (Sub14 Ade Shokunbi 75) 7. Louis Stead (Sub15 Kane Guy-Seifert 85) 8. Jordan Ajanlekoko 9. Jon-Jo Bates (Sub) 10.Brendan Matthew(Sub16 Shawn Clement-Peter75) 11. Charlie Losasso. Subs Not Used:
12. Wes Daly 13. Borja Loeches
Manager: Gary Meakin |
Berkhamsted
1.Adam Forster 2. Mayson Evans 3. Grant Horton 4. Nicholas Pearce © 5. Jake Lee 6. Elliott Keightley 7. Sam Kamara (Sub17. Luke Spokes 71) 8. Joe Guest 9. Louis Britton 10. Olly Mayhew (Sub12. Michael Bryant 62) 11. Bradley Webb
Subs Not Used:
14. Nick Humphreys 15. Jack Twyman 16. Sam Boulton
Manager: Polly Britton |
Ref: Thomas Holden - Assistants - Mark Millard - Jake Atkinson
Att: 119 |