Aveley Today

[holmes]

1 - 0 up at HT apparently

[Dave L]

Full time 1-0 win according to Twitter/text

Own goal after 6 minutes, sliced in at the near post from a Billy Hawes cross.

[pault]

Won 1 nil accordingt o the Non league Vidi printer - They scored an own goal in the 41st min - Attendance was 240

[SpiderBee]

Reserves hammered Leatherhead 5-0 at GGL today! ;D

[neil]

Just got back from the game. Certainly don't think we were firing on all cylinders today but main thing is we bagged the 3 points. I think Aveley are going to struggle this season based on what I saw today. Did not realise 1972 was the last time U's played at Aveley.

[oohaah]

Had a perfectly good goal ruled out for 'off side' in the second half after Sonny Cobb had beaten at least two men to score with a terrific shot. It seems that the lino may have thought that Sonny had played a one-two with someone on the way through, but guess what? He hadn't. Still a well deserved three points in a horrible swirling wind.

[Andy K]

Don't think 1-0 reflected the possession and chances - we had a lot of chances in the first half, but didn't make much of them - we seemed to slip into the passing around the six yard box rather than take a punt. Aveley are a big side, but not really physical - the ref didn't blow his whistle once in the first 18 minutes. Gargan got a booking near the end for no reason at all, and the disallowed goal was one of the worst lino decisions i'd ever seen, but apart from that the officials have not a bad game.

The result is what counts and really on the balance of play, even though we were not really playing at full pelt, was never in doubt. Aveley subbed their leading scorer, Tuoehy, mid way through the first half, and were not very good at set pieces. If we played like that against a form team like Tooting or Wealdstone, we'd probably have got a hiding. Pouton and Payne came on for Hawes (J) and Phillips - Pouton certainly isn't match fit yet, but after injuries these things take time. The plus points should be the players won't be knackered for next Saturday, and seemed like no new injury worries.

As for Aveley's 'tinpot' ground - that it may be, but as I suspected, it had character, the fans and staff were pleasant enough, and it was a nice day - overall they are a nice club, and hope they achieve their aim of consolidating their place in step 3. If they can knock Bobbins out of the trophy in a similar manner to when they played them a couple weeks ago, I can see them endearing themselves to us even more!

[Millsy]

"off side" was apparently due to a sutton player blocking a defender - most bizarre!

[Millsy]

Andy, Gargan's booking was deserved from my angle, petulant / retaliatory challenge from behind but perhaps in frustration as he should've been awarded a free-kick in the first instance.

[os]

Aveley I think only tested Kevin once during the whole match and otherwise created very little with any sniffs they had coming from us giving the ball away. 1-0 does not reflect the game we dominated the first half and played some neat stuff on what was not a very good pitch (sorry Georges dad) and in difficult conditions. It may go down as an own goal but the cross was that good that the defender had no chance of clearing it. We defended really well and I much prefer us when we press higher up the pitch we are quick enough to get the ball back in midfield rather then sit back.

There was nothing wrong with Sonny's goal as I was dead inline he was well onside, the ball was not played to anyone and did not anything on the way through until the back of the net. One player in a offside position when the move started knew what was going on and did everything right. As said above one of the worst decisions you will see anywhere?

My MOTM was JG I thought he was superb at the back, but cannot understand why SP did not start as I am sure we would of been 2 or 3 up by HT?

As for the ground, I have been to worse but it lacks atmosphere and why hide 80% of the car park and cause chaos at the entrance?

3 well won and deserved points today!

[bh]

Couldn't get to see the win at Aveley today, so watched the reserves, and tried to get updates from the 1st team match.

Anyway, the res lined up
1. Paul Smith
2. Michael Hunt
3. Billy Chattaway
4. Chris Read
5. John Cartledge
6. Elliot Mitchell
7. Harry Ottaway
8 Dwain Williams
9. Billy Dunn
10. Daniel Harding
11. Stephan Cox

12 Stuart Young
14. Tommy Kavanagh
15. Jerson Don Santos
16. Joe Hart
17. Stephen Joeseph

First of all thanks to Mark F for producing the Team sheet in Lyalls' absence, very good mate.

Us kicked off with a gusting stiff wind at their backs toward the Collingwood Road end. It only took three minutes (before your corespondent got to the ground) before U's hit a long ball in from the left ran through to find Daniel Harding in space, who rounded the 'keeper before firing in at a tight angle. A covering defender on the line tried to clear, but his block was behind the line, as spotted by the assistant. 1-0.

U's had better of the game and it was no surprise when on 22 Min's Billy Chatterway smashed a unstoppable wind assisted shot (which I again missed, trying to find the first team score!) in off the keepers left hand post!! 2-0

Four minutes later it was 3-0. A great run from Steffan Cox down the left led to a chipped cross over the keeper for Harding to volley in from point blank range!!

On 42 Min's the game was over as a contest, Harding wriggled through the defense on the left channel before deceiving the keeper and knocking the ball across for Harry Ottawa send a stooping diving header against a covering defender, but once again the ball was over the line. 4-0

H-T a deserved 4-0 lead.

Nothing heard from Aveley until I reached the bar and saw Sky Sports who had the first team 1-0 up. This was confirmed by the reserve team secretary who also advised that we'd profited from an own goal!!!

The second half started with U's kicking into the wind, which appeared to have slightly abated.

On 52 U's were awarded a free kick 25 yards out. Billy Dunn took the kick and hit it through the defensive wall passed a perhaps unsighted keeper for 5-0

Shortly after Billy was replaced by Jerson De Santos, who showed some good touches , but didn't add to the scoring, as U's took their foot off the gas.

There was time for Paul Smith to pull off a couple of good saves, before the ref brought an end to proceedings with U's 5-0 winners against a team who were second in the table before today match.

I then made my way to the bar to try to find out the first team result. Nothing on Sky Sports. This lead me to ring Taz, no reply, obviously busy!! Then Sal was phoned... Still 1-0, nails being bitten!! Again Taz was rang a little later, still playing!!

Five minutes later Taz was again rang, 1-0 was a result, hooray! A great day for both teams fielded by U's today

MoM Stephan Cox

[frakey]

Duno how the linesman could see that and what relevance it had to what was a fine individual goal by Sonny?

Comfortable 1-0 win - if there is such a thing - they never looked like scoring. Sam Gargan worked hard up front on his own all match but had only a booking to show for it!

Solid at the back and in midfield. On windsept days like these the game is often poor but U's played some good stuff in the first half and always looked in control.

The ground was a bit spartan but I bet the view from the stand was good. All in all a good afternoon out.

Well done U's.

[Del]

Comfortable win,friendly club but the ground is definetly Ryman division one standard and no higher, no matter what george's dad says!

[Amber Aleman]

One of those games where you take the three points without worrying too much about the performance. We won thanks to an own goal, but had it not been for Billy Hawes's penetrating run into the box the home defender wouldn't have been pressured into the error - nice recompense for Billy's own goal against Dartford. And, as others have pointed out, we had what looked a perfectly good second goal disallowed. So I agree that overall we deserved the win.

Aveley defended fairly solidly but didn't offer a great deal up front, even allowing for the early departure of their leading scorer. Carshalton must have played shockingly to have lost there 4-0. ;D

We've now got 15 points from 10 matches - exactly as we had a year ago.

[medibot]

Agree with what has been said already regards the result but too many beers and an aftershock later i still feel really sorry for Sonny Cobbs who scored and absolute blinder of a goal and had it stolen from him via incompetence.

As far as i'm concerned he scored today