TUDOR TALK

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Saturday 29th September
F.A. Cup 2nd Qualifying Round
Hemel Town 0 Chelmsford City 2

The Tudors were unceremoniously dumped out of the cup by a rampant first half performance from Chelmsford.
It took the visitors just eight minutes to open the scoring, when pacey winger Ricky Holmes (not for the first time) skinned past Chris Herron on the Hemel left with some ease, before pulling a low cross to the middle where Stuart Ainsley was waiting to crack the ball home at the second attempt.
By then in a fast start to the game, Hemel keeper Ian Brown had already saved a well hit volley by Bertie Brayley with his legs, and at the other end Ollie Burgess saw his volley from eighteen yards smash off the base of visiting keeper Danny Gay’s left hands post.
But on thirteen minutes Chelmsford basically put the tie safe with their second goal. Once more Herron allowed Holmes far too much room on the Hemel left, and again the winger raced to the by-line before slipping a low cross along the six yard line, and Kezie Ibe slipped in front of Yiadom Yeboah to smacked it home from close range.
At this point Hemel’s defence were all at sea as City threatened to open up an embarrassing lead. Further chances in quick succession for Jeff Minton (twice) and Ibe again kept a busy Brown on his toes, and Ainsley should have scored another when Holmes’ shot was initially blocked on the half hour - but the midfielder slid his follow up wide of the far post from twelve yards.
At the other end Hemel also were still creating chances, as first Paul Edgeworth headed Jamie Kearns’s free-kick just wide and then Burgess nodded over from Herron’s cross. But the home side’s best chance fell to Garry Sippetts as on twenty five minutes he latched onto Dean Cracknell’s through ball before rounding keeper Gay. Unfortunately the striker had driven himself too wide and his snatched shot across Gay’s open goal from the angle slipped wide of the far post by a foot or so.
The half ended however with City still well on top - Holmes racing into the home area again before shooting across Brown's far post, and Brayley also going close when he was tackled at the last moment by Yeboah, after Brown had only managed to parry a shot from Minton.
Hemel manager Steve Bateman decided to change things around after the break, swapping his starting 4-4-2 formation for an adventurous 3-4-3, but although Hemel now increased their possession significantly from the first half, actual ideas as to how to get past the visiting defence were in very short supply and the Tudors basically floundered in midfield as the Chelmsford rearguard held firm.
The situation wasn’t helped when half time substitute Josh Sozzo was injured again and taken off after just twenty minutes on the pitch, but in all honesty it made very little difference as Hemel squandered what possession they had in silly little passing moves on the edge of the area, instead of making positive moves into the box.
At the other end Chelmsford were happy to hit on the break and looked more likely to add to their tally as the match wore on and the home defence began to tire. On sixty seven minutes the largely ineffectual Drew Roberts needlessly gave the ball away again to Brayley on the wing, and the City number ten then set up Ibe for a one on one with Brown that the keeper did well to block once more with his legs. Further half chances for Ibe again, Minton and substitute Jamie England should have given the visitors a higher score line, but they too wasted their openings.
The rest of the second half largely passed very slowly for the home faithful among the 521 souls that paid to watch - the highest crowd of the season at Vauxhall Road so far - as their side failed to create much more than a single shot on target, although Roberts did eventually see his shot deflected wide by Lee Protheroe with twenty minutes left, and Nathan Bowden-Haase looped his header tamely onto the top of Gay’s net shortly after, but that was about it entertainment wise for the home fans and City ran out comfortable winners in the end.
This was the second match in a row where the statuesque Hemel forwards have floundered against a large back four, and manager Bateman must now be hoping that Sozzo’s injury heals quickly if his side is to find the goals needed to maintain their good start to the season.

Hemel Town:
Ian Brown, Simon Sweeney, Chris Herron (Josh Sozzo/Fabio Valenti), Jamie Kearns (Robbie Kean), Nathan Bowden-Haase, Yiadomv Yeboah, Ollie Burgess, Dean Cracknell, Garry Sippetts, Drew Roberts, Paul Edgeworth. Subs (Not Used): Adam Martin & Luke O’Connell.

Chelmsford City:
Danny Gay, Lee Protheroe, Chris Duffy, Andy Duncan, Steve Ward, Ben Sedgemore, Stuart Ainsley, Jeff Minton, Kezie Ibe, Bertie Brayley (Jamie England), Ricky Holmes. Subs (Not Used): Ben Chenery, Aidan Collins, Dean Palmer & Ashley Harrison.

[steve]

The Chelmsford match report

http://www.chelmsfordcityfc.com/news-update.asp?val=42

Should be interesting reading our official report,it's gonna take some doing making that sound positive.