Daylight Robbery! writes Guillem Balague
La Chiesa 0 v Gidea Park 1
On Sunday September 7th, La Chiesa returned to the Mill Field, scene
of the hideous crimes which they commited in the game against Norfolk & Chance last month. Their
mission? To erase the painful memories of the beating they took that day.Their performance went a long way to achieving this, without them being able to say 'Mission Accomplished!'.
Right from the off, Chiesa, sporting their new blue away kit for the first time, dominated
their opponents with the kind of football that they had been working on in training this summer, the kind that they were unable
to produce against Norfolk. No matter whether it was the pace of Danny Sales, the trickery of Matt
Gillham, the pass & move of the Midfield, or the vision of Colin Williams, Gidea Park were bamboozled. Throw
in the calm security of LCDC's defence, patrolled by John Riley & Terry Soteriou, and it seemed the very worst
the fans could hope for would be victory by a slim margin.
Half chances for M.Gillham, & Sales, came and went, they combined particuarly well
from a clever short corner, and a whole host of final balls were intercepted with last ditch tackles by Gidea's
centre back pair, who were their teams men of the match by some way, before Sam Knowles had two opportunities to give
his team a half time lead. The first came from a clever through ball from Sales, Knowles beat the oncoming defender
to the ball, but Gidea keeper Price was quick off his line to smother the shot. It was the second opportunity, however,
that everybody was talking about at half time. Again it was the the speedy Sales flying down the left, this
time he cut the ball back, and when Matt Gillham missed his kick, it left Knowles with the chance he must have
been dreaming of against the club that treated him so shabbily last season. Unfortunately for him, and La Chiesa,
he sidefooted over the bar from eight yards when it seemed easier to score, and at half time the score remained
0-0, with LCDC keeper Danny Hardwick a virtual spectator.
The second half started in the same manner, with Matt Gillham turning his marker
inside out at will, Danny Trew having an inspired game on the left of Midfield, and Darren Hodsall breaking
up any attack that Gidea could muster before the Defence needed to get involved, but try as they might Chiesa couldn't provide
the finishing touch that their approach play deserved.Benny Gillham produced the pass of the match to release Cy Taylor,
but again he was denied by some superb defending. As in the first half, the Gidea Park Centre backs were making
some fantastic tackles at dangerous moments, and Price was making some decent saves from any shots from around the
18 yard box.
Gidea had to come into the game at some point, and, with around
20 minutes remaining, their first chance arrived. A mix up on the right side of the La Chiesa midfield left Gidea striker
Peck with a one on one with Hardwick, but the keeper got a hand to his shot and Riley won the race to the rebound
to clear. This wake up call was ignored by LCDC though, and with 10 minutes left, after three attempts to clear the ball from
a Gidea corner, Hardwick had a rush of blood, and took both Osborne and the ball to concede a penalty, when it seemed
the best Gidea could have hoped for was another corner. It was duly despatched, although Hardwick got a strong hand to it,
he could not prevent the ball going into the top corner.
La Chiesa, dumbfounded at trailing in a match thay should have had sewn up, were sparked back
into life but it was the same old story of blocked passes, last gasp tackles and general frustration, until the chance came
for Knowles to grab a share of the spoils. Receiving the ball just outside the Gidea area, he shimmied past two defenders
to leave just Price to beat from 12 yards. The shot that followed beat the keeper but again cleared the crossbar. Knowles
held his head in his hands, Gideas luck held out, and La Chiesa del Corno were defeated.
A disappointing result but, La Chiesa fans left the stadium knowing that if performances
like that can be repeated, next season should be a lot of fun.
LCDC; (4-4-2) D Hardwick; Harris (Lamont), Riley, Soteriou, Williams; B
Gillham, Knowles, Hodsall, Taylor (Trew); M Gillham, Sales
