Slade Green squandered the opportunity
to jump three places in the Kentish Observer League when they conceded an
89th minute leveller in their mid-table clash against East Londoners
Sporting Bengal on Saturday, writes Peter Wiseman.
Neither keeper was troubled during the first half hour,
although, Glenn McTaggart should have finished when clear through on 29
minutes.
Two
minutes later
Bengal
took the lead as Foyzal Hoque cracked the ball through
the advancing Gary Arterton into the centre of the goal.
Then
followed Green’s best spell. First
Penny and then McTaggart headed free-kicks just wide of goal. But then
Green got on target as McTaggart popped up with his stunning finish to
level the score from Tony Weir’s killer through ball on 37 minutes.
Before
half time McTaggart’s on target header from Morgan’s by-line cross
nearly earned him a second goal, while Green were not quite sharp enough
to respond when Sporting’s keeper made his first fumble and dropped a
cross a minute before the break.
Green
should have wrapped it up in their 20 minutes of dominance after the
break, but a volley, and then a header, both via the busy McTaggart, were
well collected by Amponsah.
Green
seemed to have clinched all three points when on 82 minutes they moved
into the lead for the first time in the game when Mark Penny powered his
header home following a probing Robert Browning free-kick.
But
seven minutes later
Bengal
grabbed the equaliser, Ali drilled his shot towards
goal but the ball took a deflection of Mark Penny and Arterton’s valiant
effort to push the ball clear only helped the ball into the far corner of
the goal.
New Slade Green reserve team
manager Wayne Baldacchino and coach Ray Bagnall, began their
reign on Saturday with a hard fought 1-1 draw at Tunbridge
Wells.
All the action seemed condensed to the opening 20 minutes, as The
Green struck the woodwork no fewer than 6 times, scored in the 2nd
minute and had skipper Micky Bradley sent off for the second time this
season.
In fairness it was not all one-way traffic, as The Green could easily
been behind after just 30seconds, when slack passing allowed the Wells
centre forward a free run at goal, thankfully Sam Mills was alert and
pulled off a fine save at the onrushing forwards feet.
From the resulting save, good play saw Jason Elliott release Rob
Taylor, whose shot cannoned off the bar, the rebound fell to Steve
Lee who crashed his shot against the post before finally falling to
Billy Bond, who slammed the ball into the net.
To their credit Wells bounced straight back and within five minutes they
were level, some fine work down the right was rewarded with a deft touch
that left Mills no chance in the Green goal.
Wells continued to press and created a couple of decent chances that, on
another day could have seen them 2 or 3-1 up, but the Green rode
their luck and got themselves back into the game.
Just as the Green began to take control they had skipper Bradley sent
off, for what seemed to be an elbow, there seemed little defence for
Bradley, although he did seem to have been caught himself by an
elbow in the same challenge, unfortunately this went un-noticed and
Bradley was dismissed.
Words by the new management
duo at half time saw the Green reorganise and to their credit they
looked the better side in the second half and the one most capable of
taking the three points, but it was not to be, a 1-1 draw the end
result.
On reflection it was probably a fair result, considering they had
spent 70 minutes playing with ten men.
Baldacchino spoke positively after his first 90 minutes in charge.
"I can't fault the players effort, we worked our socks off when
we were reduced to 10 men, we never got negative and continued to
press and continued to try and win the game, but it was not to be,"
he said.
"We have lots of work to do and the sending off shouldn't hide that
fact, we need to work harder at keeping the ball when in possession
and we need to find the final pass, at the moment we have some great
build up play but no great end product.
"In fairness after being reduced to 10 men it could have been
worse, we will hopefully add a couple of new players to the squad and
look to build on today when we visit Folkestone next weekend."
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