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| Saturday 21 October 2006 East Court 2 Roffey 2 East Court battled back from two goals down in the last ten minutes to snatch a well-deserved point but it could have been better as Billy Denyer had an injury-time goal disallowed for offside. The point takes East Court to the top of the division 3 table on goal difference. The home side made two changes to the side that beat West Hoathly the week before with Stuart Moseley coming in to make his first start for the club and Richard Hayes returning to the centre of midfield against his old team. The match kicked off late as both teams waited in the pouring rain for the referee to turn up. Eventually the game got underway and East Court were straight on the attack on a rain-soaked pitch. Ross Kelly almost gave the home side the perfect start when he was freed inside the first couple of minutes. He ran onto a through ball and took his shot early but it flew across the face of the goal and wide of the far stick. Court had the better of the possession in the first half but despite getting into promising positions were unable to produce a good final ball. Roffey took the lead from the penalty spot after Andy Wright was harshly adjudged to have pushed an opposition player over in the box. The visitors had chances to extend their lead as the East Court defence struggled with the pitch conditions. A slip by Wright allowed the Roffey right winger to run onto a long ball, keeper Dan Lamprell rushed out to the ball but was beaten to it. As he scrambled back into the centre the ball was played in and East Court had Nizam's man of the match Simon Nickols to thank as he raced back to head the ball clear. Wright was next to save the home side as he headed the ball off the line after a Roffey corner. Another Roffey attack led to a Roffey centre-forward wriggling free inside the box but as he went to pull the trigger right back Dan Medcalf slid in to take the ball off his foot. It wasn't all one way traffic though, Denyer had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside and in the dying moments of the half he almost set up Kelly but a sliding defender intercepted his low cross. Things were to go from bad to worse at the start of the second half as Roffey extended their lead. Nickols headed a long ball back to Lamprell but the ball bounced awkwardly in front of the keeper and squirmed away from him. The striker had continued chasing the long ball and got to the loose ball before Lamprell and tucked it away from a narrow angle. From this point forward East Court spent the majority of the half on the front foot but were unable to fashion any real openings. Half-chances came and went and the Roffey keeper made two excellent saves low down to his left to push the ball wide but eventually the pressure told. Within a minute of Adam Shillibeer's introduction in place of Wright he was on the scoresheet. Medcalf picked up the ball in the centre of the pitch and released Denyer down the right wing. His cross deflected off a defender and looped over the keeper. As it dropped in the six yard box Shillibeer was on hand to bundle the ball home. By this time East Court had changed to three at the back as they pushed on in search of goals and the extra numbers finally told in the last minute of the ninety. Carl Zimmatore released Ben Sunderland down the right and his cross was met by the head of Denyer to level the score. As the match moved into injury time Denyer was released again but after calmly slotting the ball past the keeper he turned round to see the flag raised for offside. Team: D.Lamprell, D.Medcalf, A.Wright (A.Shillibeer), R.Hayes, M.Champion, S.Nickols, S.Moseley (C.Buckler), C.Zimmatore, R.Kelly, B.Denyer, B.Sunderland Unused Subs: P.Bishop, N.Palmer |