Match Report
Ryman League: Division One South Cup
 Horsham YMCA 0 |
 Croydon Athletic 1 Warren 86 |
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Source: Allan Norbury, West Sussex County Times |
MISSED chances will prove costly at any level of football, a harsh reality that dawned on Horsham YMCA in Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Croydon Athletic.
Against a heavily depleted Athletic, who fielded a side almost entirely of youth learners, YM dominated the first period but were unable to find a way through the visitors' rearguard action. And four minutes from time Croydon mugged their hosts with a superbly worked goal.
YM were unable to reproduce their first half dominance, which allowed Athletic to grow in confidence until their winner.
Manager John Suter said: "It's a very disappointing afternoon, but football is like that, it's not a very kind mistress at times.
"That was a game we could have won, should have won possibly and it's a game we came away from empty handed.
"I felt the pressure would bring a goal, but we had to bring them out of their defence a bit.
"I felt we would break them down. At half time I believed we would go on and win it comfortably, but we took our foot off the pedal."
The visitors barely had time to settle before YM missed their first opportunity. Ryan Adams played a loose pass across the box and Richard Greenfield pounced, only for Steve Davies to fire over from his pass. Totally on the front foot, the first five minutes were all Horsham YMCA, and produced four goalscoring opportunities, the best of which was a well controlled left foot volley from Glen Woodburn which was beaten away by Danny Firkins.
It was literally men again boys, the young visitors were chasing shadows at this point, but they did have an outlet in the tricky Jason Mabbs on the counter. He had enough quality to occupy Dean Garden and Matt Duffield - restricting one of YM's most profitable supply lines.
From one of those breaks, Croydon almost snatched the lead. Jacob Erskine hit a speculative half volley from 30 yards which looped over Dean Ruddy and rattled the crossbar.
The pressure from the home side continued to build however - in terms of possession and territory, YM were dominant. But clear cut chances were hard to come by. A deflected Garden free kick clipped the bar before YM's best chance, two of them in fact.
From the resulting corner, Davies won the near post flick and both Greenfield and Jose Goncalves were denied by heroic blocks on the line.
It was desperate stuff, YM needed a goal, and Croydon, defending as one, could sense their anxiety.
The home side didn't have it all plain sailing at the other end either - Jamie Lovegrove's weak tackle led to Erskine dragging a shot wide, and the dubious Croydon tactic of going down clutching their head after 50-50 tackles saw a number of drop balls which the visitors cheekily used to attempt to catch Ruddy out.
Whether YM thought they had this game in the bag or not at half time, concentration levels had appeared to slip and some defensive uncertainty crept into their play.
Moses Ademola made a hash of one chance when Woodburn misjudged the bounce of the ball. One flowing move saw Greenfield just fail to meet the final ball. Woodburn then headed wide, but the incessant pressure had disappeared.
Croydon grew in confidence, and it became evident that although they were young they had been playing together for some time in a youth set up. So much so that 20 seconds after Dan Sackman and Tom White had missed opportunities, the visitors raced up the other end, Adam Wadmore and Mabbs combined to release Frankie Warren who finished with aplomb - they even celebrated like a group of delirious kids.
Suter commented: "I suspected this would happen ten minutes into the second half, for the rest of the half I would have been quite happy to get a point out of it."
Man of the Match: Scott Kirkwood - enthusiastic and always available.
Magic moment: Glen Woodburn's first half volley was technically spot on.
YM (4-4-2): Ruddy; Garden, Hooper, Woodburn, Lovegrove; Duffield (Sackman 68), White, Kirkwood, Goncalves; Davies (Massaro 75), Greenfield.