Match Report
Ryman League: Division One South
 Horsham YMCA 1Gordon 43(Pen) |  Worthing 1 Lansdale 54 Sent Off: Timms 64 |
Match Ball Sponsor: GORDON HEAD | Words by Tom Norris |
A NEW YEAR BRINGS NEW FOUND OPTIMISM AS YM TAKE POSITIVES FROM HOME DRAW
Recently appointed Horsham YMCA manager, John Cumberbatch, was unlucky not to mark his first home game in charge of the club with a win on Monday. His side did everything to score a second goal, but they couldn’t manage to break through the defensive barriers of a well organised, ten-man Worthing.
An enthralling encounter saw both sides control the game in parts, with possession continuously flicking from one end to the other. However, despite a much more promising YM performance, there is no doubting a sense of disappointment that the one man advantage wasn’t capitalised upon and a desperately needed three points taken from the fixture. New boss Cumberbatch commented, ‘I think we should have nicked it but I’m obviously biased. They had some good chances and we had some good chances, but I felt that with the sending off, we should have taken advantage of the extra man. I think tactically they played it well and so it still ended up pretty even.’
More new faces arrived at the club this week, but most noticeably was the inclusion of John’s son, Marc, in the starting line up for Monday’s game. The experienced centre half, who has spent time at Ryman Premier League club Tonbridge Angels looked like a solid force to be reckoned with in the YM defence, and with Glen Woodburn soon to be declared fit and the signing of Dan Duddley at right back, YM’s defensive worries look as though they may have been solved.
Cumberbatch added, ‘There are one or two other players that I will bring in, but on the whole I want to look at what I’ve got and give the lads who are here at the moment a chance because I think it’s still a good enough squad to do that. I want to make sure I can look at everyone and assess them properly. I’m not going to base anything on what I have been told about the players or what results were like before. I will base my decisions on what I see of them in training and in the matches.’
The hosts started the first half much the better of the two sides, new boy Kevin Lott going close to scoring with a shot inside the first two minutes. However, Worthing quickly found their feet and soon began working goalkeeper Mark Fox, who returned in goal at the Mead following the exit of on-loan Charlton youngster, Conor Gough. Worthing troubled the home side with a number of chances, Fox first producing a fine save from a speculative John Lansdale effort, before diving full stretch to keep out a close range header. The Rebels ended the first forty five the stronger of the two sides, but it was YM who took an overall deserved lead right on the stroke of half time. Daryl Plummer was quick to skip past his full back, before clumsily being brought down just inside the box. In-form front man, Gavin Gordon, cooly stepped up to convert the resulting spot kick and YM entered the break with a one goal lead to build on.
The arrival of the second half, however, was what brought the game to life and from the first whistle both sides began to play with a greater flare and a higher tempo. Former YM boss of last season, Chris White, watched on from the Worthing touchline as his side took control of the early exchanges. Then, ten minutes into the second period, The Rebels found their equaliser. Midfielder, Lansdale, this time got the better of ‘keeper Fox, curling a free kick into the far corner from just outside the area.
The goal opened up the play even further, but it wasn’t long before the visitors were on the back foot once more. A huge leap and flick-on from striker Gordon set free Lott, but with just the ‘keeper to beat, his legs were swiped from beneath him by Worthing’s Tony Timms. The referee had no option but to show the visitor’s skipper a straight red as the last defender, and The Rebels were reduced to ten men. YM continued to press forward in numbers, but Worthing were resilient at the back and before long, the game found itself in the final five minutes of normal time. Substitute Damien Ramsay provided a moment of magic down the YM left, but his superb cross couldn’t be met by striker Tony Reid, desperately sliding in at the far post. And then Reid, who had only just come on as a sub, saw two further chances go to waste in as many minutes. He was first put clean through on goal, only for him to slice his shot disastrously wide, before the final minute of the game saw his neat flick from six yards, miraculously kept out on the line by Worthing defender Steve Metcalf.
Cumberbatch said, ‘I felt that for the confidence of the players, I would have liked us to have won the game. Obviously other than the two extra points, that was what was of vital importance. We were on edge because we had drummed it into them how important it is for us to start picking up points.’
Although only two games into his role as manager, Cumberbatch already seems settled and focused on the job at hand. ‘The club has done everything to make me feel welcome and I do so very much. That is another reason why I was a bit disappointed, as I would like to have given the club three points today, purely because it was against Worthing. Despite the fact that I made a thing of it in the programme that this game was no more important than any other, I did know what it meant to the club, and I would have liked my first three points to have been against them.’
YM face a tough task away to Burgess Hill Town on Saturday, a game in which another point will be welcomed with open arms.
YM (4-4-2): Fox, Duddley, S Bowra, Cumberbatch, Adewumi, Sachies (Ramsay 77), B Bowra, Simpson (c) (Reid 77), Plummer, Gordon, Lott.
