Match 94/24/2332 - Friday, 18th April 2025 - National League South
Tonbridge Angels (0) 0
Hornchurch (1) 1 McQueen 16
Attendance: 1,084
Admission: Season Ticket
Mileage: 38/6,592
Hornchurch took the honours in this mid-table encounter and moved themselves into a top 10 position in National League South.
Good Friday and warm sunshine brought an attendance in excess of four figures and, following the difficult team selection of Tuesday evening, Scott Wagstaff was able to recall Jamie Fielding, Ronny Nelson, Taylor Maloney and Sean Shields and have a usable full bench.
After early half-chances fell the way of the hosts with Fielding heading over after two minutes and Shields seeing a shot blocked, Hornchurch took the lead on 16 minutes when a through ball from Charlie Pegrum saw Darren McQueen break clear, with vain appeals for offside, to round goalkeeper Matt Rowley before despatching his shot past a retreating defender.
The Angels response was limited to efforts from distance from Christie Ward, Jack Wood and Shields with a tight offside decision going against Wood as he found the net on 41 minutes that saw the Essex side reached the break with their lead intact.
Tonbridge dominated the second half, but the visitors continually found a last ditch challenge or good saves from Mason Terry, who denied Jack Wood on 53 minutes following a wicked deflection.
In turn, on 65 minutes, Pegrum brought a good save from Rowley and a stabbed shot from the resultant corner was cleared from the line by Ronny Nelson.
The introduction of Liam Vincent, Harry Ottaway and Mikey Berry injected new life into the home side with Shields seeing successive efforts deflected wide or saved by Terry. On the break, Hornchurch had chances through Makai Welch and Pegrum but, at the conclusion, it was the resilience of the Hornchurch defence that won the day.
Scott Wagstaff summed up, post-match: “It summed up our season. We’ve dominated the game in the first half, switched off for one moment and they score on the counter attack for which we knew they were dangerous. It was frustrating because we started the game really well, but gave ourselves a mountain to climb. But, the boys were excellent, the effort they put in, didn’t stop to the end. It summed up our season to a tee, we have just lacked that little something that has stopped us getting over the line and we can’t put all the pressure on the strikers, there has been a lot of chopping and changing which hasn’t helped.”
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment