Near Miss For Raiders At Wanderers Finishing School !
Rotherfield Raiders Gold (2) – Woodley Wanderers (4)
Perhaps the most compelling and competitive game of the summer league for Raiders Gold. Raiders had a great start with Chapman going close inside the 1st minute. Young looked composed returning from injury and Back was solid in defence. Then Lady Luck intervened with a cruel blow as Back’s clearance struck the centre forward’s boot to ricochet past Docherty to open the scoring.
Silky touches and from Street and accurate distribution from Estcourt lead to Chapman striking just over the bar and Peirson-Hagger went close. But Woodley dominated the midfield and a breakaway led to the 2nd goal with a cool finish.
Undeterred Raiders competed well and Gay’s pass found Peirson-Hagger to slam into the top corner with Raider’s comeback goal at 2-1.
Half-time oranges did the trick as Raiders as started the 2nd half brightly with tight defence and two great saves from Dockree including a great punched clearance. Moments later Back shot just past the post after another pinpoint pass from Street. But the bubble burst when Raiders failed to clear a corner making it 3-1.
Again Raiders showed grit and determination as Peirson-Hagger spread it wide to Estcourt who characteristically thundered the ball into the top corner to pull it back to 3-2.
With 10 minutes to go Raiders had their best spell of the game ; Chapman’s cutout stopped a certain goal and Gay showed great skills at the back with Booker looking strong. The Raiders were on fire – Peirson-Hagger twice went close and the keeper somehow plucked the ball out of mid-air to deny Chapman a goal.
As Raiders pushed forward Wanderers converted a “2 on 1” in the dying seconds to give a 4-2 scoreline that didn’t reflect a fabulous match but rather some clinical finishing .
The effort award went to Peirson-Hagger for starting the comeback goal and work rate.
Silky touches and from Street and accurate distribution from Estcourt lead to Chapman striking just over the bar and Peirson-Hagger went close. But Woodley dominated the midfield and a breakaway led to the 2nd goal with a cool finish.
Undeterred Raiders competed well and Gay’s pass found Peirson-Hagger to slam into the top corner with Raider’s comeback goal at 2-1.
Half-time oranges did the trick as Raiders as started the 2nd half brightly with tight defence and two great saves from Dockree including a great punched clearance. Moments later Back shot just past the post after another pinpoint pass from Street. But the bubble burst when Raiders failed to clear a corner making it 3-1.
Again Raiders showed grit and determination as Peirson-Hagger spread it wide to Estcourt who characteristically thundered the ball into the top corner to pull it back to 3-2.
With 10 minutes to go Raiders had their best spell of the game ; Chapman’s cutout stopped a certain goal and Gay showed great skills at the back with Booker looking strong. The Raiders were on fire – Peirson-Hagger twice went close and the keeper somehow plucked the ball out of mid-air to deny Chapman a goal.
As Raiders pushed forward Wanderers converted a “2 on 1” in the dying seconds to give a 4-2 scoreline that didn’t reflect a fabulous match but rather some clinical finishing .
The effort award went to Peirson-Hagger for starting the comeback goal and work rate.
Team: Danny Dockree, James Back, Will Young, Josh Gay, Sam Booker, Charlie Estcourt, Ben Peirson-Hagger, Mathew Chapman.
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