County Cups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE FansFocus.Com SENIOR CUP
 
 

BARKINGSIDE   1 - 3   CONCORD RGS
 
By Adam Dennehey

Barkingside slipped to an unusual home defeat against recent rivals Concord Rangers, who took advantage of the Side's uncertain midfield to advance into the next round of the FansFocus.Com Essex Senior Cup.

The visitors started the game Concord-like in the fact that they flew into an early lead. Stacey Bowtell, back in goal for Side, would have felt that his early save from a Danny Heale shot would have made his defence wake-up. But he was wrong!

From the resulting corner, Side's defence couldn't clear the ball and former striker Michael Begg was on hand to whip the ball into the net to give the visitors a dream start.

Side were daydreaming minutes later when Danny Hayzelden cut-in from the wing and found Heale in the box. The striker cut past Corey Ellis but was left punching the air in anger when his shot clipped the top of the bar and away to safety.

In truth, the hosts didn't create too may opportunities in the first half. Dominic Harkins was left with too much to do and Callum Foley was being completely out-muscled by his opposite number Dan Trenkel. Trenkel dominated the game for Concord and time and time again his balls pierced the home defence into all sorts of problems.

Matters were not helped for Barkingside when Barry Simmons - only just back from injury - was forced off with a nasty-looking knee injury. After Steve Barlex threatened Concord's goal in the first half, the home eam almost equalised right at the start of the second half. Matt Frew leapt from a corner only to see his intelligent header cleared of the line by a Concord defender.

As is most often the case in football, if you miss with your own shots, the other team score and that's exactly what Concord did. Concord's star player in the first half, Trenkel, combined with Hayzelden whose cross found left-back Gary Ogilvie and he tucked the ball home nicely to seemingly wrap the game up there and then.

However, to the surprise of many, Side hit back only five minutes later. A corner found its way to Frew again, only this time the defender headed it across goal where young Barlex was on-hand to nod the ball home.

Although the hosts' Management Team of Tony Fenn and Kris Taylor did switch to a more attacking formation, they were simply not able to get on the ball for long enough to put any pressure on Concord. Matters were made worse fourteen minutes from time when Corey Ellis was adjudged to have brought down Begg inside the penalty area. Heale then sent 'keeper Bowtell the wrong way and got the goal his performance had deserved.

Barkingside: Stacy Bowtell, John Langton (Sam Bonham), Barry Simmons (Paul Kavanagh), Cory Ellis, Matt Frew, Steve Barlex, Dominic Harkins, Callum Foley, Brad Foley, Mark Steadman (Mark Doyle), Lance McDowell. Unused Substitutes: Greg Thompson, Jamie Langton.

Concord Rangers: Phillip Skelton, Earl Sterling, Gary Ogilvie, John Turnbull, Kevin Mully, Dan Scopes, Ashley Hawkins, Dan Trenkel, Michael Begg (Jimmy Webb), Danny Heale, Danny Hayzelden. Unused Substitutes: None.

Bookings: None.

Referee: Adrian Oldershaw (Brentwood).

Assistant Referees: Jeff Stanley (Basildon) and Kyle Simmons (Basildon).