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Thursday 01st September 2005

Green suffer at the hands of Didcot goal machine
Didcot Town 2-0 Slade Green
FA Vase First Qualifying Round
by Robert Smith

Slade Green became the latest side to suffer at the hands of goal machine Ian Concannon as they bowed out of the FA Vase in Oxfordshire going down 2-0 at Didcot Town.

Concannon has now netted an incredible 124 goals from just 107 appearances since arriving at the Hellenic League side in 2001.
 
However, it was Green who had began the brighter of the two sides, Dave Martin created space for Marcos Perona who fired wide while Pedro Knight was unable to keep his effort on target when well placed.

At the other end Darren Upson had to be alert to thwart Andy Parrott before Concannon headed over from Andy Cooper's cross. Concannon made no mistake with the next opening that came his way as he opened the scoring on 26 minutes
capitalising on a rare mistake from Lee Barber who failed to clear Grant Goodhall's pass into the box.

This spurred Green into life and they could have struck three times by the break. Sam Prett and Marcos Perona played out a double 1-2 which culminated in a goalbound shot from Perona being parried by keeper Keith McLoughlin, moments later following good build up play from Pedro Knight and Perona, Dave Martin fired over from Trevor Heselden's centred ball.

However, their clearest chance came 8 minutes before the break. Prett did well to create space down the left before laying the ball into Hesleden's path, he in turn whipped in a fabulous cross towards the far post only to see Martin fail to connect with the loose ball.
 
The second half was just a minute old when the home side doubled their lead, Nigel Emsden's shot deflected off Steve Montague and although Paul Vines did well to turn the ball against the post hit man Concannon was on hand to slot it
home.
 
Green never looked likely to recover from this second goal although they'd did go close on the hour as Perona's pass found Martin who cut in from the left only to see McLoughglin swoop and whip the ball away from the Green teenagers feet.

Slade Green: Vines, Laming, Sabatino (Weir 70), Barber, Upson, Montague, Martin, Knight, Prett, Heselden, Perona. Subs not used: Burton, Ellery, Collier, Corrigan.