Three Sent Off for Casuals in Defeat at Chalfont
- Cameron Smith
- Oct 30, 2016
- 3 min read
Match report: Cameron Smith. Photos: Stuart Tree
Corinthian-Casuals’ FA Trophy hopes were terminated by both the efficient Chalfont St Peter and controversial refereeing decisions- which saw three Casuals players sent off.
The 4-1 victory at Chatham Town last weekend had increased confidence in the squad after the two previous games lacked the edge. James Bracken, re-assured by the performance at Chatham, only implemented one change to the Starting XI. Electric full-back Warren Morgan, who netted the match-winning strike in the preliminary round, was replaced by Danny Dudley.
As referee Robert Wainwright started the game, Casuals seemed to thrive with wingers Juevan Spencer and Jordan Clarke troubling the full-backs of Chalfont from the start. In the eleventh minute, the white shirts of Casuals spilled forwards, attempting to grab an early lead. Fresh from his three goal feat at Chatham, Shaun Okojie, who defied the offside trap, found himself 1 on 1 with Chalfont keeper Garry Malone. Skilfully rounding the shot-stopper, Okojie didn’t
go to ground when Malone’s gloves made contact with his foot. Showing professionalism and resilience, Okojie powerfully slotted the ball past the two red shirts on the goal-line to give Casuals the lead. Ten minutes later, Okojie had another golden opportunity. The tricky feet of Jordan Clarke unselfishly nabbed the ball to Okojie before the talisman slammed a vicious strike against the crossbar.
Despite going behind early doors, the Saints edged back into the game. On the half-hour mark, Chalfont’s Craige Tomkins, who has found the net five times already this season, converted from close range after superb build-up play.
Casuals’ main aim was to end the half the way it was but that wasn’t the case for Tomkins. In the last few moments of the first half, a free-kick outside the area took a deflection off the Casuals wall and flew into the bottom corner of the net. Two for Tomkins, two for Chalfont.
As the intensity temporarily lowered, the first fifteen minutes of the second half was quiet. However, out of nothing, Chalfont scored a third. Controlling the ball with precision and skill, Tomkins majestically curled a vigorous low shot with a ridiculous amount of swerve.
James Bracken recognised that it was all or nothing now as he introduced the attacking Josh Uzun ahead of right-back Dudley. The change worked; a mass improvement sent a surge of adrenaline to the already-vocal Casuals fans. In the 70th minute, Ben Cheklit prodded a Juevan Spencer lay-off past Malone in the Chalfont net as he quickly grabbed the ball to re-start the match. With the score 3-2, Casuals looked like they could squeeze a result out of the game.
What could go wrong?
Tensions flared in the 79th minute, Jordan Clarke had earned himself two yellow cards in three minutes which meant he was off.
Substitutions and injury breaks wasted time, the referee was under pressure from Casuals players whilst precious minutes were going down the drain. Bizarrely, Wainwright randomly stopped the game and gave a straight red card to Niall Wright for use of a swear word following the defender being on the receiving end of an off-the-ball incident. Confusion rippled around the ground. In a matter of minutes, Mahrez Bettache, who was having a frustrating game, swore at himself after mis-controlling the ball. Ludicrously, the referee ran towards Bettache and issued another straight red card!
Controversial refereeing saw Casuals down to eight. The cherry on the cake was when three blows of a whistle echoed around the Meadow with barely any added time.
After the match, Manager James Bracken gave his thoughts:
“It's shocking. There's not been one bad foul in the game. The referee has made consistent mistakes throughout and turned it into his own show.”
“The most worrying thing for me is before the last red card was issued, the referee ran to our dugout and said to me and everyone on the bench “I'll send off as many of your players as I have to”.
“Have we done enough for the win? No... we lost 3-2. I said to the boys in the changing room after, no matter how bad the officials are, you have to take the game out of their hands. We have to keep clean sheets. We have to score more goals than the opposition so at the end of ninety minutes we can say we've done enough to win.”
“In the first half, by our own standards, we were poor”
“We came into this game on the back of a win and we'll look to get back on it and kick-on. Remember, we've got good players and a good side here. We're not far off from being very good. We just need to be consistent.”