Woods v Chessington Report

[Chris Clapham]

Very pleasant evening, good game and a great winning goal!!

Those critics of the Wibbandune pitch would have been surprised too!!

 

Woods made it six matches unbeaten with an excellent win over local rivals Chessington & Hook United.

Woods suffered two late cry offs through Steve Symes and Michael Brady but the confidence throughout Woods small squad saw them through against fellow mid table opposition.

Phil Frodsham looked pretty sharp on the right early on but it was the visitors who opened the scoring after just 8 minutes. Neil Wicks broke down the right wing and his fine cross was met by the lively Phil Page and his looping header eluded Tony Oval in the Woods goal and nestled in the far corner of the net. United keeper, Daniels, looked edgy in dealing with a Longley shot although the visitors dominated the early exchanges. But Woods were handed an equaliser on 19 minutes. A long Oval clearance was poorly dealt with by Daniels and Ali Melloui tapped home into an empty net. Lang headed a Smith effort off the line following a corner kick, Ryan Hughes saw a glancing header fly just wide from a free kick and Paul West looked very sharp in denying a Frodsham break.

Chessington opened brightly in the second half and Oval had to be quick and brave to deny Darren Smith as he bore down on goal. He repeated the feat to deny an offside looking Page and Michael Beard cleared the follow up off the line. Frodsham chested a free kick into the path of Danny Cormack but his shot flew inches wide and Daniels denied Melloui before Woods took a 77th minute lead in grand style. The tireless Melloui chased down an angled pass and fed Steve Lang. He played the ball square to Ryan Hughes who fed substitute Ramzi Bedj Bedj. His clever reverse flick was met by Ryan Hughes who curled the ball into the corner of the net with Daniels rooted to the spot.

Bedj Bedj overran the ball when 1 on 1 with Daniels and Daniels denied Melloui.

Gange fired just wide for United before the final whistle sounded.

This was an entertaining and very close game which deserved to be decided by such a fine goal.

Another good all round team performance with young centre half, Alex Hallett and the industrious Ali Melloui catching the eye. Woods moved up to 6th in the league table with this win!