Stotfold 2 vs AFC Dunstable 1 (2-0 Half Time)
Southern League Central Division 1
New Roker Park - Saturday 5th April 2025
Attendance - not declared
Match report by Richard Church
A match played in very difficult conditions - an incredibly dry bobbly pitch and a strong wind all afternoon were not conducive to decent football - not much anyone could do about it and the same for both teams, but frustrating none the less.
The start of the match was pretty evenly contested as both sides struggled to get any real rhythm going due to the conditions. It was the ODs who had the first clear opportunity with 9 minutes on the clock - some impressive work in midfield concluded with a shot from Joel but it was straight at the keeper for a relatively easy save.
The home side took the lead on 19 minutes. Hesitation in the visitors defence lead to an impressive turn in the box by Robbie Buchanan who fired the ball inside the far post giving Sam no chance. AFC had a couple of half chances as they endeavoured to get back in to the game - Sim got on to a through ball on 25, but his shot was just wide and on 37, following some nice build up play on the left wing Abel played the ball in to Joel but he could not get the ball under control to get a clear opportunity to shoot - the ball eventually bundled away to safety.
Going in to half time at 1-0 down would not have been disastrous but unfortunately Stotfold doubled their lead 5 minutes before the break. A poor ball out of defence went straight to Mitchell Gooch who fired the ball in to the bottom left corner from outside the box - again nothing Sam in goal could do - to be fair, both goals were superbly placed out of his reach.
The final chance of the half fell to AFC. Some great play from Charlie and Khyan out on the left ended with a curling shot from Khyan that went narrowly wide.
The second half started with the ODs playing with the wind at their backs. With just 3 minutes of the half gone, Sam made a superb save from a close in shot - the ball was quickly cleared upfield to Sim who had an opportunity to shoot but he was flagged offside.
A flurry of substitutions by the visitors saw us definitely become the better team and we very much took control as we took the game to Stotfold. As Joel chased a through ball with 64 gone, the defender just about got there first and could only manage to hurriedly smack the ball high over his own bar. The pressure was starting to tell and AFC got back in to the game when Joel hit a superb free kick in to top bins - an excellent goal with 72 on the clock. Game on!
Charlie had an opportunity five minutes later with a decent shot but the keeper managed to grab the ball at full stretch. With seven minutes to go we thought we had equalised but the linesman’s flag cut short the celebrations. From a free kick, the ball was played in - Tali headed the ball down to Harry who rifled the ball home. If it was offside, it must have been marginal - not sure which player was deemed to be off but it was mighty close. That proved to be the final opportunity of the game and we left the field disappointed to have lost a closely contested match.
Man of the match (as decided by the AFC committee) was Joel Anker.
Team line up (subs in brackets); Sam Carman, George Joyce, Khyan Fraser-Williams, Simone Troso, Ben Lynch (Russell Berkeley 63), Stan Georgiou (Harry Riley 63), Abel Damoah Kyeremeh (Tali Jallow 69), Charlie Davis, Joel Anker, Ollie Spicer (Bruce Obviye-Nsang 65), Kyle Brooks.
