Punjab United (0) 0
Chatham Town (0) 3Bradshaw 49 Bodkin 75 Evans 78
Attendance: 301
Admission: £1
Programme: None
Mileage: 48/3,325
As if Punjab’s task wasn’t going to be hard enough against a highly fancied for the new season Chatham Town, they found themselves down to 10 men after 23 minutes when the referee decided that commonsense was not the order of the day. In a regular season game, the Punjab central defender would have had to walk as he wrestled a Chatham forward to the ground as he got clear. The referee made completely the right decision, but in a friendly tournament, pre or post-season, surely the logical approach would have been to have the player subbed rather than reduce his team to 10 men in pretty hot conditions.
Chatham had already shown their dominance with Jack Evans striking a post after four minutes; Ryan Hayes the bar after six and how they managed not to score after 16 will remain a mystery.
The referee did even up the personnel for 10 minutes when he sin binned Reece Butler after the central defender over emphasised his argument following a foul.
It took 34 minutes for Punjab to test Henry Newcombe with the keeper saving at the feet of William Johnson-Cole.
In the circumstances, the home side did remarkably well to get to the break with the game goalless, but this wasn’t to last too long into the second period.
The ever-impressive Evans had already brought a last ditch block before after 49 minutes, Hayes served up a cross on a silver platter for Bradshaw to head home. Classic wing play to a striker that doesn’t miss from three or four yards.
In fairness, Punjab could easily have wilted at that point but they went toe to toe with the Chats for 25 minutes, hitting a post and wasting another opportunity. But eventually, the man advantage allied to the heat took its toll and two goals in three minutes, both set up from the right wing settled the contest. Matt Bodkin received a cross and had time to turn and shoot into the bottom corner after 75 minutes and Evans was afforded a tap in to make it 3-0.
The referee’s intervention earlier would doubtless have made no difference to the result but it still grates that commonsense didn’t prevail.
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