City held at home by Oakwood

karthoarse · City held at home by Oakwood

City were made to work hard today by a side who belied their bottom three league position and battled were for a deserved draw. On a slightly stodgy pitch, which made controlling the ball and indeed staying upright difficult for both sides, City created plenty of chances but their finishing wasn't accurate enough to finish Oakwood off, and they paid the penalty when their opponents grabbed a late equlaiser.

Playing down the slope in the first half, unusually, City were the greater attacking force, an early chance went begging for Royston Gough, who shot over, and Oakwood nearly took the lead when Tony Jackson rescued his side with a probable goal saving defensive header over his own bar. From then on City had the majority of efforts on goal. A Scott Lawford cross was just cleared one handed by the Oakwood keeper from an arriving City forward, Dan Bonnywell set up Gough, but his shot was well saved. Further chances went awry for Luke Jackson, Bonnywell and Sam Baker before Oakwood broke and shot wide. They were defending well however and Gough almost rounded the keeper, and Gough and Jackson then had chances during a goalmouth scramble in which both will probably wonder how the ball didn't go in. A Lawford free kick went well over, from what looked like Callum McGeehan territory, before City finally broke the dead-lock. Another goal mouth scramble and this time Oakwood weren't so lucky as Gough, seemingly surrounded by about 5 or 6 defenders managed to stab the ball home. Oakwood were not put off by going behind, they forced a free kick in a dangerous position, but blasted over. Then they equalised, out of nothing a deep cross from the left was headed in at the far post, with Danny Wrench well beaten. Right on half-time, Bonnywell created himself a chance but his powerful shot was well beaten out by the keeper and as McGeehan hit the rebound wide, the referee blew for half time.

The second half took a while to get going , as most of the action occured in the middle of the pitch. Wrench made an early save, and Bonnywell shot wide after being set up by Luke Jackson. City then made a couple of substitutions, bringing on new man Alex Hossick and Adam Woolcott for Luke Jackson and Bonnywell. This did seem to give them a bit more urgency with the speed of Woolcott starting to cause Oakwood problems. It was Gough, however that regained the lead for City when appearing to run through from an offside position, he just beat the keeper to the ball to fire home for 2-1. Soon after, Woolcott nearly extended the lead, when a superb move involving McGeehan and Gough set him up, but unfortunately his shot just clipped the top of the bar with the keeper beaten. Oakwood refused to give up, and City were indebted to Lawford for clearing the ball off the line when the defence was again beaten in the air, this time from a corner. Lawford then created a chance for Woolcott, but as the end of the game approached, a needless free kick given away near the City corner flag, lead to the equaliser. Again City failed to deal with the ball in the air from a set piece and an Oakwood player headed in for 2-2.

Over the game as a whole, City by far had the majority of the attacking play but could not turn enough of the chances created in to goals. Oakwood for their part, battled well in midfield, defended well, and could have scored more than a couple themselves. So all in all a draw was probably a fair result if not the one we wanted.

socksy

I don't know what to say about Saturday. It wasn't the best for sure, but Oakwood defended well and got away with it on the few occasions where they lapsed. We've ridden our luck a few times this season and won games after not playing well, but things are getting serious now. The Uni have a ridiculous amount of games in hand over the rest of the league and I doubt if those who up their games against us will be so bothered against that lot. We can't afford any more slip ups and must beat Sheppey away and the Uni at home.

Maybe I'm being a tad over negative. After all, we're still top of the league and unbeaten, but their last minute equaliser was a real kick in the knackers. Utterly depressing. I thought the free kick that led to their equaliser was a bit weak too. I can't remember any of their players appealing for a foul.

I could go on and moan about the pitch cos the ball got stuck in the mud a couple of times when goal scoring chances were on the cards, but that as they say is football. Maybe it didn't go our way because we just didn't do enough to deserve it. Whatever the case, we need to up our game and stop relying on winning when we play badly.

cityaddick

Cripes socksy old chap ! you are nagative ! worry not, the good men and true of Canterbury our own fair city ( well yours anyway, as previously stated I do actually come from the posh part of Kent ) will win through in the end .... its written in the stars ...( well really it was a bloke in the stars wot told me that ! ) ... but I must admit my stalwart fellow that two far post headed goals in the one game was a tad hard to swallow, marking dear chap ... marking and discipline thats the biscuit.

socksy

What you call a posh part of Kent is actually past J4 of the M20 and is therefore LONDON. Aint London got a team or isn't their Bovril or Canadian branch of their supporters club up to scratch!?!

As for the rest of your somewhat flowery observations, yes I'm a tad pessimistic, but you'd expect that from a 22 year old. I'm on family duty this weekend, but will see you lot the week after.

Come on City!

cityaddick

Flowery ! Flowery ! your a damb brigand sir ! if wasnt for my good character I would lose the hounds on you. Now when I was a mere lad everyone spoke the queens english ( like wot I do ) other than possibly the " beneath stairs staff "and we even had our milk delivered in a Brougham, now thats posh.Add to this that in my rather quaint little village primary school the large bars of carbolic soap had KCC stamped right across the top, thats KENT County Council that is ! and my address was 48 Lovibonds Avenue, Farnborough, Kent ( no post codes in those days ) and my phone number was Farnborough 56325 ! I would hazard a guess that I was in Kent ?.... and then ofcourse when I was about 10 some little political jobs worth with nothing better to do invented the GLC and Kents border was moved to Badgers Mount 4 miles down the road. Now you can take the man out of Kent but you cant ! .... Oh well you know the rest.....
As a little aside both Blackheath and the once small village of Charlton where once in Kent... TTFN old chap

md093834

Past Junction 4 of the M20 is outside of Kent? Blimey, that's a bit like saying anything that isn't South of Watford is up north.... err I'm not making a strong arguement here am I?

Anyway hopefully Gillingham today won't be deemed to be venturing outside of this wonderful county and we'll see Socksy there.

Incidentally, cityaddick will be the one wearing the monocle, dressed by Greenfields and probably now carrying a hunting gun.

md093834

Looks like we have an almost immediate opportunity to show this was a one off - Oakwoods win at Otford today means City host them in the semi final next Saturday. Let's just hope the pitch is better than at H&B and that City get a better slice of fortune than they got this afternoo.

socksy

Yeah and that Little Lord Addick gets the Bovrils in this week!