TUDOR TALK

[tapper]

Saturday 27th October
Southern League Premier Division
Hemel Town 0 Clevedon Town 1

This was a dreadful game of football, in which neither side seemed capable of stringing two passes together for vast periods.
Visiting keeper Danny Greaves saved a low shot from Drew Roberts a minute in, and that just about did it for a Hemel attack that for the last four matches has consistently ran out of ideas early on.
Clevedon for the most part did nothing either, but at least they enjoyed the better share of possession, as Hemel (showing an awful lack of ball control) seemed determined to give the ball away to them all over the pitch.
Michael Page saw his headed goal on twenty one minutes rightly ruled out for a foul on home keeper Ian Brown, but he was on hand again on thirty six minutes to score the only goal of the match.
Ollie Burgess once more needlessly handed the ball to his marker Danny Haines just outside the visitor’s area, and Haines promptly lumped the ball towards the home ‘D’.
Keeper Brown left his area to kick the ball up field again, but hesitated and all but stopped as he caught site of Page coming at him out the corner of his eye - Page promptly beating him to the ball, before slipping past him and poking home into the empty net from eighteen yards.
The comedy of it just about summed up the game as far as Hemel’s frustrated fans were concerned, and it got no better in the second half.
Hemel started the half brightly for the first ten minutes or so, yet again failed to force a single stop from Greaves - aside from a routine clear-up near his post.
Tudor management then changed the midfield, bringing on Steve Sinclair and Matt Gearing for Robbie Kean and Dean Cracknell respectively, but despite now having four wingers on the pitch with Chris Herron and Burgess, the Tudors still failed to make any impression down the flanks, whilst lobbed up balls toward the ineffective duo of Chris Dillon and Roberts met a predictable end at the hands of the taller Clevedon back line.
With no genuine pace in the side either, the Tudors couldn’t even break through on the ground - not that the front two received any through passes from their colleagues in midfield to encourage them to run anyway.
At the other end Haines cracked a long range effort just over Brown’s bar, and with ten minutes left substitute Geraint Bater did the same. But Hemel’s fans weren’t even treated to a long range shot by their side, as once more the home players refused to pull the trigger when given the opportunity, aside from skipper Paul Edgeworth whose effort from thirty five yards with a quarter of an hour left, seriously endangered the corner flag more than Greaves' goal.
There was a general roar of relieved approval from the bored crowd when Josh Sozzo finally entered the fray in place of Dillon, but with just four minutes left on the clock their was little he could do, with everyone on the terraces wondering why it took so long to make the change.
Never-the-less, Sozzo was the source of the one decent cross of the match with two minutes left - but unfortunately fellow substitute Gearing couldn’t jump high enough, and his header at the far post sailed over the bar by a foot.
Finally defender Nathan Bowden-Haase managed to get himself a straight red card on ninety minutes - for a petulant kick at Kevin Davies - and that was effectively that.
Definitely one to forget in a hurry!
This was the Tudors second home defeat in a row against so called “Lesser opposition“ in the division, and given two poor performances against Dunstable in the last week as well, home fans will be hoping that their side can somehow pull themselves together and re-discover the form that saw the side start the season so effectively, before the vital league trip to fellow promotion rivals Team Bath on Tuesday, and the re-match against Clevedon in the Trophy next week at Vauxhall Road.

Hemel Town:
Ian Brown, Simon Sweeney, Mark Coulson, Chris Herron, Nathan Bowden-Haase, Robbie Kean (Steve Sinclair), Ollie Burgess, Dean Cracknell (Matt Gearing), Chris Dillon (Josh Sozzo), Drew Roberts, Paul Edgeworth. Subs (Not Used): Adam Martin & Luke O’Connell.

Clevedon Town:
Danny Greaves, Josh Brigham, Danny Haines, Christian Sylvester, Scott Hendy, Kevin Davies, Daine O’Connor, Mike Green, Michael Page, Mike Symons (Steve Cook), Tyron Toppar (Geraint Bater). Sub (Not Used): Mike Trought.