Salisbury 3
Ashford United 0
From Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent
And
so the undreamt of adventure continued. Just two weeks after that unforgettable
trip to Tyneside, to see the boys triumph over Dunston UTS, one of the big guns
of the fabled Northern League, we went west, to Salisbury, for the FA Vase
Quarter-Final.
Ashford
did tremendously well to match Dunston over 3½ hours of football, in spite of
eventually sneaking through with an own goal with the last (involuntary) kick
of the game – but Salisbury promised to be yet tougher opponents. As the Vase
field narrowed down to 16 teams, Dunston had been fourth-favourites to win it,
in the bookmakers’ lists, with Salisbury second-favourites. (Ashford were
derided with a price of 40-1, a fortnight ago, and 25-1 was available this
morning). With eight teams remaining, Salisbury were still second-favourites,
with Hereford leading the market, confirming that the competition this year has
a rather different look about it, compared to previous, Northern
League-dominated seasons. With those two being newly-formed clubs emerging from
the wreckage of wound-up Conference outfits, it was always likely that they
might dominate the competition, for as long as they were kept apart in the draw
– and for what will almost certainly be their one and only season at Step 5.
Ashford
United, of course, have a great deal in common with Hereford and Salisbury,
certainly in being a “Phoenix” club, but, more importantly, in having our heart
and soul in the old Southern League. So was today’s game at the Raymond
McEnhill Stadium the biggest in the short history of both clubs, or was it the
meeting of old Southern League rivals ?
I suppose it depends on how much grey hair you have – but it was
probably a bit of both.
One
difference between the three (or six) clubs is that the old Ashford Town never
threatened to scale the heights of the Conference, which is why Salisbury
started today’s game as 2-7 favourites, with Ashford United as big as 6-1. I
was slightly surprised at that price discrepancy, given that both teams were
about to face their strongest opponents of the season to date, and Ashford
could not have been in better form, having followed last Saturday’s 6-1 victory
over Beckenham Town with an easy 4-0 win against Rochester United.
It
almost goes without saying that Salisbury came into the match in great form, as
they’ve been brushing aside most opponents this season, (won 18, drawn 2 and
lost 2, in the Wessex League), but Steve Claridge’s boys were actually on a winning
streak of 14 consecutive victories, the
most recent being a 6-2 thrashing of Corsham Town, on Wednesday.
As
with the trip to the north-east, the preferred mode of conveyance was the battered,
but trusty, Astra Estate – which, beyond all hope, got through an MoT test, on
Thursday. (A friend advised me to take it to a priest for a service beforehand,
but, in the end, that wasn’t necessary). Instead of heading north up the M1, as
we did a fortnight ago, today it was the equally unfamiliar route of M1 – M25 –
M3. The trip began under overcast skies – then it mizzled, and basically got
wetter the closer we got to The Atlantic. As kick-off time neared, there was
horizontal drizzle sweeping across the ground.
It
was nice to be part of a proper football crowd, today. As I approached the Ray Mac from a southerly
direction, at about 1.45pm, there were already small groups of people walking
to the ground. On arrival, there was obviously a full-scale car park
marshalling operation going on – and the whole shooting match seemed to be extremely
well organised.
For
those who have not visited the venue, the main stand is very similar to the one
at Homelands, in as much as it’s a large building that contains many facilities,
with a relatively small area of seating at the front. What creates a really
good atmosphere at the Ray Mac is the large area of covered terracing at one
end of the ground. It’s been many years since I’ve been at an Ashford match where
there is a crescendo of noise when the opposition mounts an attack – but there
was almost as much noise coming from the smaller knot of visiting Ashford fans,
today.
The
teams: -
Salisbury:
Searle, Colson, Perrett, Whelan, Walker, Hart, Demkiv, O’Keefe (Capt.), Wilson,
Young, Taurean Roberts. (Sub.s: Jarvis, Sam Roberts, Herbert, Matthews, White).
Ashford
United: Kamurasi, Adam Cuthbert, Woolley, Luke Cuthbert, Kingwell, Palmer,
Phillips (Capt.), Lye, Pilbeam, Welford, Booth. (Sub.s: Hassan, Dalton, Fagg, Savage,
Saunders).
Ominously,
Ashford looked very nervous from the start of this game. The visitors’ short
passing was tentative and inaccurate, and longer passes appeared to be hurried,
in an attempt to get rid of the ball before being caught in possession by
Salisbury’s pressing game. Ashford barely managed to string two passes together
for the first half an hour. Salisbury did little that was extravagant during
this period, but everything the players in white did was neat and composed.
Ashford’s work, in contrast, was made to look ragged.
Another
ominous sign early on was that Salisbury’s left-winger, Taurean Roberts, soon
showed himself to be the best player on the pitch by some distance, and he was
obviously too good for full-back Adam Cuthbert, being able to run around the
Ashford No.2 with ease. Roberts roasted Adam’s nuts for the entire time that the
pair were on the pitch, and he was to be responsible for the game’s first shot
on target, in the 15th minute. Up to this point, it had been the
home side playing the controlled football, with Ashford having their
opportunities with a handful of corners and free-kicks. Roberts’ chance came
about as a result of the visitors giving the ball away carelessly in midfield; the
Salisbury No.11 sent in a low shot from just outside the Ashford penalty area,
and George Kamurasi had to dive low to his right, to save at the near post.
In
the 24th minute, shortly after Ryan Palmer’s high, looping free-kick
had landed harmlessly on the roof of Salisbury’s net, Roberts again dribbled around
the outside of Adam Cuthbert, and sent a high cross towards the far post. The
header across the face of goal invited someone to turn it into the net, but nobody
was able to administer the vital touch.
From
the resulting goal-kick, George Kamurasi hit the ball straight to Sam Wilson, but
the young centre-forward was unable to capitalise on the unexpected opportunity.
Big George must have kicked the ground, or something, as he needed treatment before
the restart, which was largely responsible for the three minutes of injury time
that were played at the end of the first half.
Soon
after, in the 26th minute, Salisbury took an unsurprising lead. Tom
Whelan attempted a shot from long range, which was blocked, but skipper Kane O’Keefe
was there to turn the ball into the net.
On
the half-hour mark, Taurean Roberts again rounded Adam Cuthbert, forcing Adam to
commit what seemed to be an inevitable foul – and the Ashford defender might
have been a shade lucky not to see a yellow card. Seconds later, after a Salisbury
corner, Roberts found himself in possession on the edge of the Ashford area,
and sent in a low shot, but Josh Woolley was comfortably able to clear off the
line, at the far post. But the danger was not cleared, and Shaun Welford was soon
heading the ball away from his own goal line, after a sliced clearance from an
Ashford defender looked like it was going in.
Whilst
The Whites were looking the better side, and Ashford were being largely
restricted to hopeful flick-ons from long balls, the visitors did show
themselves to be capable of creating the odd chance, in the first half. In
fact, Ashford had two clear-cut opportunities to score. The first, and best, of
these chances came in the 35th minute. Ryan Palmer picked the ball
up on the corner of the Salisbury penalty area. He jinked inside and sent in a
curling cross which found the head of an unmarked Paul Booth, just six yards
from goal. The Player-Coach’s task was to cushion the ball past goalkeeper
Charlie Searle and into the net, but, instead, he directed his header just
wide.
Ashford’s
second chance came in the 44th minute, and was created by a neat
one-two involving new signing Jon Pilbeam and Paul Booth. This gave Pilbeam the
opportunity to bear down on the Salisbury goal, but he pulled his shot, from
inside the home side’s penalty area, wide of the goal.
Prior
to this, it had become obvious that George Kamurasi was struggling with some
sort of injury, as his kicking was all over the place and Pat Kingwell was
having to take Ashford’s goal-kicks – but, in the 39th minute, George
did well to save a shot from Taurean Roberts that had deflected, in a looping
arc, off Kingwell, who had come across to make the block.
Referee
Dean Treleaven had been fairly lenient with a number of late tackles during the
first half, but his patience ran out in the 40th minute, when he
yellow-carded Shaun Welford for a late one on Eddie Perrett. Worse was to follow
for the visitors, however, when Salisbury increased their lead, in the first
minute of first-half injury time. The goal came at a time when it appeared
that, in spite of being outplayed, Ashford had hopes of hitting the home side
with a counter-punch – provided that they could make it to half time with just
a one-goal deficit. It was not to be, however, as Luke Cuthbert, one of United’s
outstanding performers at Dunston, just two weeks ago, gave the ball away in
defence. The ball was picked up by Taurean
Roberts, who played a one-two with Sam Wilson, before hitting the ball low,
into the net, from just outside the penalty area. I suspect that it was not by
chance that the ball was placed just inside the far post, just beyond the reach
of the diving George Kamurasi.
So
Salisbury went into the half-time break with a two-goal lead that was a pretty
fair reflection of the difference between the two sides in that first half, and
Ashford were faced with having to repeat their feat of the previous round in
pegging back a two-goal deficit.
Whereas
Player-Manager Danny Lye’s contribution in midfield up in Gateshead was a key
factor in Ashford’s victory there, his self-selection had not proved to be as
successful here at the Ray Mac – and he appeared to acknowledge this in as much
as he replaced himself with Mikey Dalton for the start of the second period. At
the same time, he replaced 39 year-old Paul Booth with Chris Saunders, with the
obvious objective of sacrificing experience for pace and energy. This ploy
actually seemed to work, as the visitors made a lively start to the second
half, at last discovered their passing game and (annoyingly, almost) they had
their best spell of the game for the next 15 minutes.
Unfortunately,
a sloppy pass at the end of a promising move, as early as the 47th
minute, set Salisbury up for their third goal, which effectively put a seal on
the game. The ball was actually given away to Taurean Roberts – which was a bad
idea ! – who then proceeded to beat Adam Cuthbert, (not once, but twice), before
carrying the ball to the edge of the Ashford area. His cross found Kane O’Keefe,
who neatly guided the ball into the net, at the near post.
It
is to the credit of Danny Lye’s team, however, that they continued to try to
play fast, bright football, even though it now looked to be in a lost cause.
Pat Kingwell tried to lead by example by confidently bringing the ball out of
defence, but he over-did it a little in the 54th minute, when he was
caught in possession, leaving the Ashford back line exposed. This error put Tom
Whelan through on goal, but Luke Cuthbert came across to cover.
Just
as Taurean Roberts clearly appeared to be Salisbury’s outstanding player, Ryan
Palmer, (recently engaged to be married), stood out as Ashford’s star man. In
fact, he was the one man in a green shirt, this afternoon, who looked like a
Salisbury player, showing that he could retain possession of the ball and move
it around the pitch, dribbling past the white-shirted titans if he wanted to. [
Memo to the future Mrs Palms: You may sleep with our hero for the remainder of
the current season, but, on the night before a match, he keeps one foot on the
floor at all times ! ].
Palms
played a major part in setting up Ashford’s best chance in the second half.
This came in the 55th minute, when he combined well with Jon
Pilbeam, down the left flank. He made his way into the Salisbury penalty area,
near to the by-line, and nearly succeeded in forcing the ball into the net from
an acute angle, but was foiled by a combination of goalkeeper Charlie Searle
and centre-half Callum Hart.
Ashford’s
momentum was stifled in the 60th minute, when the game was stopped because
of Adam Cuthbert going down with an injury. Danny Lye replaced him with George
Savage, and Steve Claridge took the opportunity to substitute the injured Dan
Demkiv with Claudio Herbert. After this lull in the play, the game gradually
went to sleep, with the home side looking secure at the back and happy to just
play out the remaining half an hour. The visitors continued to look for a
consolation goal, but, in truth, Charlie Searle had a very easy time of it in
the Salisbury goal. The only thing that the good number of Ashford fans who had
made the trip had to cheer was a yellow card for substitute Herbert, for a
silly tackle from behind on Mickey Phillips.
A
minute later, there was applause from both sets of fans, as Taurean Roberts was
replaced by Sam Roberts, receiving a well-deserved ovation as he walked off the
pitch – although Salisbury’s official Man of the Match was named as Tom Whelan.
So
not the open, attacking game between two evenly-matched sides that Steve Claridge
said that he was anticipating, before the game, but I’m sure that he was
delighted with what was a very comfortable victory for his side, who now march
into the semi-finals of the competition. Elsewhere, Hereford also made it to
the semis, as expected – although many will have been surprised that The Bulls
only squeaked through with a goal in the last minute of extra time, to win 3-2.
It’ll be interesting to see how the bookmakers frame the market for the
competition now, as it appears that it will take a very good side to beat
Salisbury.
No comments:
Post a Comment