Rusthall (0) 1 Smith 80
Cray Valley PM (0) 2 Lisbie 65 Gayle 72
Attendance: 97
Entrance: £4 Senior
Programme: None issued
Mileage: 38/7,005
Rusthall didn’t reap any reward for a great effort in getting this match played but, looking at the state of the pitch at the final whistle, they might have given themselves a whole load of work to get it playable for the next time out which is thankfully 10 days away.
Cray Valley boasted Kevin Lisbie, ex of Charlton Athletic, Gillingham and a multitude of other clubs in their ranks. The Jamaican striker might now be approaching his 40th birthday but he still has an eye for goal that brought him over a 100 Football League goals.
Lisbie saw an early effort go narrowly wide but the game took on an uneventful first period. Cray Valley largely dominated but Rusthall responded with Ryan Waterman bringing a good save out of Andy Walker and a comfortable one from Stephen Smith.
Callum Christie, in the Rustics goal, made the first of many good saves after 36 minutes saving at his near post to deny Denzil Gayle and, just before the break, a touch onto the bar when Lisbie had been sent clear was top drawer.
If Rusthall had scraped an honourable draw at the end of the first half, the second half was very much Cray Valley’s. It became a story of Christie’s hits and CV’s misses.
Christie made a fine, plunging save at the feet of Enoch Adjei, injuring himself in the process. Next it was the turn of Gayle to twice be denied before the visitors finally achieved the breakthrough in the 65th minute with Lisbie springing the Rusthall offside trap to go one-on-one with Christie and this time winning the duel.
Two minutes later Gayle had a glorious chance to double the advantage when a nod down saw him with the ball at his feet from six yards but only managing to screw his shot wide.
However, it was Gayle that scored the second, after 72 minutes, when the ball was lost in midfield, Junior James sent him clear and he converted off the right hand post. Cue much banter with the Valley’s small but vocal support regarding his previous misses. As one player said: “He tried his hardest to miss”!
Rusthall rallied to find a goal that might have given them a sniff of a comeback when Smith scored with a far post header from a right wing cross and it might have been more than a consolation when, in time added, Waterman shot narrowly wide.
It seemed out-of-step with the game that Cray Valley found themselves hanging on for the final whistle, but hang on they did.
No comments:
Post a Comment