DORKING WANDERERS 3 HORNCHURCH 3

[Dagger03]

Saturday 15-September-2018

DORKING WANDERERS 3  HORNCHURCH 3

DW - Huk, Sheridan, El-Abd, Dyett, Beckles (O’Sullivan), McManus, Richards, Moore, Prior, Lavery, McShane (Beard 84)

Subs - Boulter, Sole, Gallaghar

 

Hornchurch: Chafer, Hursit, Porter, Smith, Cooper, Clark, Bentley, Spence, Marks (Junior 90+1), Purcell (Fairweather-Johnson 84), Coker (Hogan 84). Unused sub: Livings.

 

Officials - Jack Bonnick with Damian Mirzaden and Joshua Kasper

 

Scorers - Spence 16 (H) - Coker 23 (H) - Cooper 29 (H) - Lavery 49 (D) - Prior 67 (H) - McManus 81 (D)

 

Bookings - El-Abd 56 (D) - Chafer 71 (H) - Coker 81 (D)

Attendance 334

Duration - 48.00 + 49.00

 

DW - red and white stripes / blue / red

H - all yellow

 

DORKING WANDERERS 3  HORNCHURCH 3

 

Hornchurch eased into a three goal half time lead, missed two chances either side of the interval, and then found themselves struggling as Dorking came back strongly.

 

Dorking are another team who now have a 3G surface, and it took some time to get used to the clouds of black rubber that came up whenever the ball bounced, or when a player kicked the ball.

 

Play was held up for some time after only two minutes when Jason Prior needed attention, and when it resumed Tobi Coker signalled what was to come with a hard shot that Slavomir Huk saved well.

 

Dorking  quickly moved upfield and a Niall McManus shot went high over the bar, at the Box Hill end of the ground.

 

Hornchurch had the better of the play, and George Purcell went close when he turned inside a defender, with Huk making a fine save from Purcell’s hard shot.

 

Hornchurch opened the scoring on the quarter-hour mark when a good cross in by George Purcell was finsiehd off at the far post by Lewwis Spence.

 

And it was 2-0 on 23 minutes when Tobi Coker reacted quickest to convert a rebound, when an initial shot rebounded off Dorking keeper Huk.

 

Callum Chafer saved well from Jerome Beckles but play was largely confined to the other end, and Hornchurch went further ahead when Nathan Cooper met a Purcell corner to power his header hard into the net.

 

It was almost four when a Jamie Hursit free kick found Leon Smith at the far post, but Huk got a hand to the ball and it was booted away to safety.

 

On the stroke of half time Purcell moved in from the left, rounded a defender, and his shot beat Huk only to come back off the post.

 

Purcell fired wide after rounding Huk three minutes into the second half and Dorking made him pay less than a minute later as Kieran Lavery pulled the first goal back on 49 minutes, to inspire a remarkable comeback.

 

On 56 minutes Sami El-Abd was fortunate to escape with only a yellow card after a late challenge on Tobi Coker, the referee speaking at length to his linesman before making his decision, with many expecting a straight red, but arguably correct as the incident was more out of frustration than intent.

 

It was a one-goal game midway through the half when Jason Prior netted Dorking’s second and the home side, after hitting the crossbar on 73 minutes, and play switched to the other end where Spence went close.

 

Dorkign were back on terms with nine minutes remaining as Niall McManus beat Callum Chafer.

 

Dorking swarmed all around the Hornchurch goal for the remaining ten minutes, with Chafer making three excellent saves to keep the ball out, and another header going wide of the post, and Hornchurch had to settle for just one point, when they should really have been home and dry by half time.

 

But if a 3G pitch is the way forward, do we really have to put up with clouds of black pellets every few seconds?

[cup of tea]

There seemed to be a far heavier concentration of pellets then I’ve seen at other grounds with artificial pitches - must be a reason for it though

[Riverside Urchin]

I cannot understand how we lost this game. In the first half we were powering forward and not allowing Dorking to be comfortable on the ball. And it was obvious in the the first half they were good. We then came out and held back. It was as if the advice at half time had been we are 3-0 ahead let’s defend and keep the lead. We know this doesn’t work for Hornchurch. The times I have seen us do this and then we either end up drawing or losing. Don’t get me wrong the first half performance was excellent one of the best I’ve seen. Tobi was excellent and although George suffers from teams knowing he leads with his left and they do everything to stop him played a great game. But Sean Marks? I’m not a fan at the moment. I would prefer to see Tobi settled in the first team and playing 90 minutes every week.

[Miss.A.F.C.Hornchurch]

I'm sure every Hornchurch supporter is catching their head as to why we were 3 up and playing the best game of football played so far this season then to throw it away in the second half and only come away with one point. Major 2 points dropped!!

At this level we cannot allow this to happen as we will find ourselves losing games and quiet possible end up at the wrong end of the table, which none of us want!!

Use Tuesday against Basildon to get yesterday's game out of the system and then give all for the all important cup game on Saturday which is a must win.

Heads up, keep going Hornchurch!

[Miss.A.F.C.Hornchurch]

Re,Sean Marks, has scored goals for us this season. We cannot knock that. Not being serviced with ball to create goals is probably frustrating. Plus he did look tired towards the end of second half. Maybe playing on a different type of surface has an effect while Dorking are more customed to their black pellet carpet?!!

[Dagger03]

Before the match there were complaints about the pitch, which was far too soft, and the masses of black pellets made it a lot worse as the match wore on.

 

I doubt very much that a goalkeeper is very happy in getting a face full of rubber pellets each time he goes down for a ball.

 

Dorking are used to playing on that surface - Hornchurch are not, and that may well in part explain what went wrong in the second half.

[Miss.A.F.C.Hornchurch]

Not to forget to mention that the whole Dorking team were wearing GPS vests!

[cup of tea]

I prefer to take the positives out of that game - that first half was the best I've seen from us all season - and we were missing Brad as well so it could have been even better.

Think there's a lot more to come from this team. OK, second half was disappointing but I'm encouraged.

[PONY TAILED URCHIN]

It is a real shame to come away 3-3 and it feels like a defeat especially when every player worked so hard as a team in the first half which was the best half of football i have seen so far this season and indeed for a while as every player contributed to the scoreline with some good movement, passing and finishing and i hope we can see more of the same as we go through this season.

 

The biggest positive from this game has to be that it shows this side can compete at this level with the teams they have to play and even compete with teams higher up the league's should that be the case. 

 

come on you Urchins.