AFC Croydon Athletic 1-2 Corinthian - We got away with it, admits Corinthian boss Michael Golding

AFC Croydon Athletic 1 – 2 Corinthian
Location	Mayfield Stadium, off Mayfield Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 6DN
Kickoff	09/12/2015 19:45

AFC CROYDON ATHLETIC 1-2  CORINTHIAN
Southern Counties East Football League
Wednesday 9^th December 2015
Stephen McCartney reports from Mayfield Stadium

CORINTHIAN manager Michael Golding admits his side got away with it after grabbing three points at AFC Croydon Athletic tonight.

The Longfield based club came away from Thornton Heath with the three points in the bag, mainly thanks to an outstanding first half goalkeeping display from Dan Bygrave and a slice of luck.

Corinthian grabbed the lead against the run of play on the half-hour mark through a header from central defender Marcus Evans.

They doubled their lead early in the second half through striker Michael Hagan’s thirteenth goal of the season.

But Bygrave turned from hero to villain when he was red-carded for a handball outside the penalty area with fourteen minutes remaining and up stepped substitute striker Louis Blake to drill in a rebounded free-kick past the substitute goalkeeper.

Corinthian remain in fourth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League on 32 points from 17 games following their ninth league win of the season, 10 points adrift of leaders Hollands & Blair.

AFC Croydon Athletic may have gone into this game sitting in the bottom five with 16 points from 14 games, but their first half performance was impressive and belied their low position in the table.

“Got away with it really,” came Golding’s honest assessment .

“First half, very poor first 20 minutes, under the cosh. All credit to them, they had a game plan, they got it out wide to their seven (Josh Smith), who was quite affective but it’s a sign of this side, we’re maturing. They’re developing into decent young footballers now and on the balance, yes, we got away with it but we’ll take a win.

“Tough conditions tonight. The wind was swerving out there, bobbly pitch. They’re learning from their mistakes from previous games.

“I think we had tonight eight of the starting 11 have come through the youth system here and 13 out of the 16 lads have all come through the youth system.  We haven’t got a budget to pay but we do what we enjoy. We turn up training twice a week because we enjoy it and we work hard for each other and I think that showed tonight.”

Both these clubs operate without a playing budget and AFC Croydon Athletic manager Antony Williams was in a state of disbelief that the best side tonight came away suffering their seventh league defeat of the season, leaving them seven points clear of basement side Holmesdale.

“Cannot believe it, cannot believe it,” was Williams’ first six words of the interview.

“We should’ve been four or five nil up at half-time to be honest with you.  I think they probably had two shots at goal and a set-play and they’ve nicked three points!

“We’ve been robbed tonight. That’s the best performance we’ve had for five or six weeks really.”

The Rams were to be denied an opening goal inside the opening five minutes, Bygrave’s first save of the night.

Brad Wilson delivered a free-kick from the right, which was flicked on at the near post by striker Raheem Sterling-Parker and striker Lee Jansen chested the ball down, hit a volley on the turn, which was superbly pushed away by Bygrave’s right hand, diving to his right.

Williams said: “Every week at the moment we’ve been creating chances but not been putting them away so we’ve asked them to make the keeper work and he’s done that so you can’t ask much more really.”

“I thought Dan was the best player on the pitch in the first half to be completely honest,” said Golding, who has been with the club six years bringing through the current crop through the ranks.

“I said to the boys at half-time, he’s probably saved us. Without Dan and possibly Jordan (Campbell) at left-back, it could’ve been four or five one.

“The luck turned in the second half but in that first half I thought he was outstanding!”

Seconds later, left-back Liam Harwood whipped in a free-kick from the left and Jordan Martin came up from the middle of the park to smack his shot over the bar from six-yards out, putting his head in his hands in despair.

“He had a great opportunity there Jordan. He normally gets in a good eight to ten goals for us really so he’s a threat from those areas but it was always going to be one of those nights,” admitted Williams.

AFC Croydon Athletic’s right-back Sampson Djimah also got in on the act but hitting his speculative first time drive across goal and past the far post from 30-yards.

AFC Croydon Athletic were a threat down the right during the first half as winger Josh Smith gave problems to Corinthian left-back Jordan Campbell and the home side’s attacking football was a joy to watch.

“No disputing that,” added Golding, who added, “They were definitely on top first 20 minutes, first half-an-hour. We struggled to play.

“We played very well on Saturday against Erith & Belvedere, winning convincingly 5-0 and just struggled to come to terms with their tempo tonight but it’s a sign of a good side that we dug in and we’re winning games when we’re not playing particularly well.”

Corinthian, though, weathered the storm and created their first opening after 18 minutes.

Striker Josh Kennedy flicked a pass inside to Oscar Housego, who curled his right-footed shot around the far post from 30-yards.

Corinthian skipper Jack Bath then powered a right-footed drive from 30-yards, which was pushed around the post by goalkeeper Dan Burnett, diving to his right to make sure the shot wasn’t going to creep into the bottom corner.

But AFC Croydon Athletic started to play the game on the front foot, with Bygrave making another fine save after 22 minutes.

Craig Nelson swung in their first corner from the left, the ball was headed back across goal by Martin and Danny Cumber’s header was pushed over the bar by Bygrave, high to his right, from close range.

Williams admitted: “I thought the keeper was their best player in the first half without a doubt. He’s pulled off some good saves. He’s quite commanding on the edge of the box as well coming out for crosses.”

Golding added:  “Another excellent save. I thought there was three in the first half that were world class. You see them on TV and they were very, very good saves, so all credit to Dan, he’s dug us out of a hole tonight.”

Left-winger Nelson then swung in the resulting corner from the right and this time Harwood’s near post header flashed just past the near post.

Williams was left cursing their bad luck when AFC Croydon Athletic struck the angle of right-hand post and crossbar after 26 minutes.

Martin clipped a long ball out of defence which was not cut out by Evans or Sam Lovage and Nelson latched onto the ball and lashed his right-footed shot against the woodwork from 20-yards.

Williams said: “I felt Craig could’ve taken it earlier actually. He was on the right side and he’s hit the outside of the bar but I think he could’ve taken that shot slightly earlier and gone across the keeper but he’s narrowed down the angle a little bit.

“Again, another good opportunity in the final third for us.

“It is déjà vu. Week on week, apart from Saturday when we didn’t create anything (losing 1-0 at home to Canterbury City), we’ve created chances week on week.

“You’ve watched us at Beckenham (in the FA Vase replay) and we do create plenty of chances. Unfortunately we’re not killing the game off and you have to do that at this level so that’s why we’re getting punished. Last season (in the Combined Counties League First Division) we would get away with that but this season you just can’t do it.

“But that’s the main difference between having a bit of money and not having any money so when you haven’t got a budget you pay for that extra bit of quality don’t you in the final third.”

Golding added: “Again, they’ve probably had five or six very good chances. Six weeks ago that goes in. Luck seems to be going our way.”

Despite AFC Croydon Athletic being the better side and creating those chances, it was inevitable that Corinthian would go up the other end and grab the lead with 29:07 on the clock.

Corinthian central midfielder Jack Billings swung over the corner from the right, which sailed over Burnett’s head and Evans powered his free header into the bottom near corner from six-yards.

“Against the run of play,” admitted the honest Corinthian manager.

“But set-pieces is what we work on.  We’re lucky with our facilities that we can work on set-pieces and this is something we take pride on and it’s come off a ball into the back post and a great header from Marcus.”

Williams added: “I think the big lad had a go at Dan from the first corner that he didn’t come and collect it so he’s felt under pressure to come for the second one. He’s got underneath it and I thought Danny Cumbers ran the wrong side of him and it’s a free header at the back stick really so poor defending from our part, not from actually where we gave it away in midfield as well.”

AFC Croydon Athletic definitely didn’t deserve to be losing the game.

Williams said: “Literally you’re a bit deflated because the boys have worked tirelessly and we’ve created plenty of chances and we were much the better side, even footballing side, we played some nice tidy football at times but I always felt we would get another chance. We felt we could get ourselves back in the game.”

It should have been two shortly afterwards when Nelson’s diagonal pass saw Jansen turn inside the box and stroke his shot across the keeper, which Bygrave kept out by diving low to his right to push towards safety.

Corinthian created the last chance of the first half when Housego curled his shot into Burnett’s hands at the near post after going for goal with a free-kick from the left channel.

Both managers were asked their thoughts at the break.

Williams said: “I just said to the boys, you can’t play like you did first half and not get something out of the game.

“You can’t have a bit of a rant at half-time but I do have to a little bit because they don’t take credit too well.  Even though I did give them a little bit of credit in there, I said keep playing a chance will come for us. 

“We came out and we didn’t start too well, they probably had their best spell of the game for 10 minutes.”

Golding added: “Come in as quick as possible, speak to Sam (Groombridge) who is my coach try and regroup.

“Do we go ballistic or do we try and encourage the lads? We’ve got a very young side so screaming and shouting isn’t always the best policy.

“They’re an honest bunch, they openly admitted they wasn’t as good as they were on Saturday. We let Croydon dictate to us. We just told them to be confident, get on the ball and try and pass it moving the ball forward and try to play at a tempo.”

While the first half was an entertaining game played at a high-tempo, the second half was disappointing.

But Corinthian’s second goal was full of class, doubling their lead within 263 seconds.

Corinthian’s impressive right-winger Conor Johnson produced a sublime through ball that split open the home side’s defence and Hagan finished it off brilliantly, stroking a first time shot across Burnett for the ball to nestle inside the bottom far corner of the net from sixteen-yards.

Golding said: “Very good goal.  It started with captain Jack Bath winning the header from a goal-kick. It’s dropped down to Conor and great through ball. Lots of quality on that, a right decision from Conor to make and Michael’s on a bit of a streak at the moment and he’s tucked it into the far corner. A great finish!”

It was Hagan’s thirteenth-goal of the season and Golding is confident the nineteen-year-old striker stays at Gay Dawn Farm.

“Michael’s got his head screwed on. He’s a good kid. He’s one of the lads that’s come through the youth system. He’s enjoying his football here as far as I’m aware. He sees no reason to be moving on. It’s a year or two years too early to be thinking about it. He needs to learn his trade here playing at this level and when the right time comes we’ll move him along. He’s one of the youth boys under 18s last year.”

Williams said: “I think their seven (Johnson) was their main threat to be honest. He’s quite a tidy player, but yes the lad’s done well. He’s hit the target and that’s all you can ask and he’s tucked it away.

“A bit unfortunate again. We lost the ball, we gave it away in midfield and it’s allowed them to break. We didn’t really start the second half.”

AFC Croydon Athletic squandered an excellent chance to pull a goal back after 57 minutes.

Cumber hit a long ball from inside his own half to release Sterling-Parker through on goal and once inside the box he placed his shot across the keeper and past the far post from 15-yards.

Williams knew that was his side’s big chance to get back into the game.

He said: “I don’t know why, he seemed to hesitate a little bit, wanted to almost fight the lad rather than to continue on. Once Raheem gets behind not many people will catch him for pace really.

“I was disappointed he hasn’t made them work a bit better there. A lad of Raheem’s quality, he should be putting that away really.”

Williams, meanwhile, confirmed that his player is “no relation” to Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling.

Golding added: “Again, we got caught out a couple of times tonight with long balls. Marcus and Sam are both 19 at the back and we got caught a little bit flat.  It’s something that we’re going to work on in training tomorrow.

“We let them dictate with the long ball. Another chance for them, similar to Michael Hagan.  You expect him to score from there!”

The AFC Croydon Athletic striker had a slightly more difficult chance when he turned inside the box and swept his shot past the near post from 15-yards after Djimah threw the ball to him from the right.

Corinthian should have killed the game off when a pass from substitute Tom Menditta put Hagan through on goal, but this time he dragged his angled drive across the keeper and past the far post.

Golding said: “You almost expect him, with the reign of form he’s in at the moment, hit the target and you expect the back of the net to bulge, but it just trickled past the post. 

“Young Tom came on, he’s an under 18 and he came on and done well down the left-hand side and dug in when he needed to.”

Williams decided to replace his front two with fresh legs and they both combined in the move that resulted in Bygrave being red-carded.

Louis Blake flicked the ball on and Jovaun Henry’s header appeared to have looped over the advancing Bygrave, who stuck out his right arm to claw the ball away but assistant referee Ashley Barnes flagged and referee James Hurst pulled out the red card from his pocket.

Golding sacrificed Johnson as substitute goalkeeper Chris Cowdray came on for the final 14 minutes.

Williams said: “We changed the front two lads and that gave us a little bit of fresh legs up there and I think Louis won the flick on and Jovaun’s gone in behind a little bit.

“It’s definitely a sending off. He was definitely outside the box. I think he had to (handball it) because we would’ve scored anyway.

“I know we’ve scored from the next free-kick. Actually, I think the (wall for the) first free-kick was about five yards away rather than ten. I really thought when we scored that goal, Louis’ came on and scored and I thought we’d nick a point or even win it!”

When asked about a substitute coming on and scoring, Williams hailed Blake for his fourth goal of the season.

He said: “That’s all you can ask from the boys when they come on, to go out there and give me a problem for Saturday. He gave us some fresh impetus up there.  He’s probably not scored as many as he should have for us at the moment, the last goal for us was at Beckenham, I think.”

Golding said: “Difficult from where we were on the bench to see if he was outside the area.  You’ve got to go with the referee’s decision obviously.  Just disappointed for Dan tonight because I thought he was our best player in the first half. I thought he kept us in the game so he was a big loss when Dan’s playing well and when he’s fit and firing he’s an asset.”

Speaking about the goal, Golding added: “It’s just one of those things isn’t it? They either go screaming into the top corner, hit the wall. Unfortunately it’s come back to him and he’s put it in so that’s not much Chris could do there if I’m honest.”

That was a signal for the home side to throw the kitchen sink at Corinthian for the rest of the game.

Burnett’s big kick bounced into the path of substitute Ferguson Ward, who drilled his shot just past the foot of the near post from the left hand side of the box.

Cowdray then made a comfortable save to deny Ward, before he pulled off a match-winning save inside stoppage time.

Ajimah put in a cross from the right and Henry set up Blake, his shot forcing Cowdray to smother the ball at his near post, low to his left.

Williams said: “We had another chance Louis made the keeper work, you can’t ask for much more.

“That’s our luck really. We take a chance sometimes really we don’t have a sub goalkeeper, they have one on the bench that goes in there, otherwise the last 15 minutes could’ve been looking different.

“I thought for 80 minutes of the game we were fantastic tonight. They certainly didn’t look like a fourth-placed team and us being down in the bottom five.”

“I thought the save from Chris was very good,” added Corinthian boss Golding.

“Coming on quite late he’s probably disappointed with himself that he didn’t get anything on the first one but the second save was a very good save.

“It was a big save at a big moment that was probably their cleanest chance. The others were more half-chances than clear cut ones.”

There was controversy at the end when Blake was seen to pull down Billings in an off-the-ball incident, which was not seen by the referee and he pulled out a yellow card for the offender, who almost added insult to injury when his last-gasp shot flashed just past the foot of the near post after Burnett pumped a free-kick into the box.

Both managers were asked their thoughts on the incident.

Williams said: “I think the lad picked the ball up and Louis tried to run past him and pull him back and give him the ball but I think the lad gone down and made a meal of it.  I don’t think there was much into it.  The linesman has seen Louis pull him but they were doing it for the last 10 minutes, gamesmanship. We do it as well.

“I’m not going to start screaming and shouting at the referee but the last five minutes the ref’s caused a little bit of drama there that’s ended up getting another lad booked as well, so discipline needs to be better.  We’ve had a bad discipline record.”

Golding added: “A bit strange.  I didn’t understand why their no 15 (Blake) grabbed Jamie Billings around the neck and the ref’s looking in the other direction. There’s nothing in that for me, just silly behaviour.”

Corinthian travel to sixth-placed Beckenham Town – who suffered a last-gasp 2-1 home defeat to Cray Valley tonight – on Saturday.

“Looking forward to it,” said Golding, 28.

“We played them last Tuesday I think it was and we were 4-0 up at half-time and they came back and got to goals so we know what to expect from Beckenham.

“Again, we’ll go there full of confidence. We’re enjoying it and the boys are working hard for themselves and they showed a different side to their game tonight when it’s going well we can play and they worked hard tonight.”

AFC Croydon Athletic travel to Sevenoaks Town on Saturday. The Oaks are sitting in 11^th place in the table and their manger Micky Collins watched this game at Mayfield Stadium because his side host Corinthian on 19 December.

Williams said: “I know Micky very well actually, same with Grant Watts, who is a coach down there. I thought Micky would come and do his dual diligence tonight.

“We played with two up front tonight which is unlike us. Maybe he’ll be looking at that.

“They seem to be struggling a little bit as well, hit and miss as well, a little bit like ourselves. Hopefully it will be a good game but we’ll be looking to go there and take three points that’s for sure.”

AFC Croydon Athletic: Dan Burnett, Simpson Djimah, Liam Harwood, Jordan Martin, Jack Higgins, Danny Cumber, Josh Smith, Brad Wilson (Ferguson Ward 68), Lee Jansen (Jovaun Henry 73), Raheem Sterling-Parker (Louis Blake 73), Craig Nelson.
Sub: Callum MacLean

Goal: Louis Blake 79

Booked: Brad Wilson 41, Jordan Martin 90, Louis Blake 90

Corinthian: Dan Bygrave, Adam Cooper, Jordan Campbell, Jack Bath (Ryan Croucher 75), Marcus Evans, Sam Lovage, Conor Johnson (Chris Cowdray 77), Jamie Billings, Josh Kennedy (Tom Menditta 70), Oscar Housego, Michael Hagan.
Subs: Josh James, Sam Groombridge

Goals: Marcus Evans 30, Michael Hagan 50

Booked: Adam Cooper 56, Jack Bath 58, Jamie Billings 84, Oscar Housego 89

Sent Off: Dan Bygrave 76

Attendance: 57
Referee: Mr James Hurst (Camberwell, London SE5)
Assistants:  Mr Michael Begley (Battersea, London SW6) & Mr Ashley Barnes (Bromley)