Report
An inability to take chances, the fragility in defence that we have already seen and the lack of a commanding presence at the back conspired to send the Lilywhites to their third defeat in a row. Again, a five minute spell where the defence forgot how to mark allowed an ordinary opposition to take command of a match which the Lilywhites should have easily taken a point from.
The Lilywhites started well and soon took control of the game with Chick, Clark and Mitchell causing all sorts of problems for the right side of the Chertsey defence: they managed to play classic “triangle” passing to elude their defenders every time. The only problem was that either the final cross was not good enough or there was nobody in a challenging position at the right time to receive the ball.
Although the Lilywhites had more of the game, it was Chertsey who were able to capitalise when the play the visitors’ attacks broke down. On 10mins and 17 mins Chertsey could have taken the lead after attacks had broken down. Luckily a lack of skill in front meant that both Cooper and Stuart respectively, missed golden close range chances to score. A minute later, Lilywhites’ Ian Barnes, their very influential midfielder, had to go off injured. This seemed to make the Lilywhites sit further back in defence.
The best chance for the Lilywhites fell to Williams on 28 minutes when Chick popped up on the right and took the ball to the edge of the six yard box. He cut the ball back for Williams but he was unable to get a clean shot in and the chance went begging. Chertsey set up the next attack and kept the Lilywhites penned in their own half of the field. Within three minutes Chertsey seemed to have taken the lead when Cooper picked up on a free kick which Knox was unable to hold. Cooper put the loose ball into the net but was adjudged to be offside.
The Lilywhites came out to attack but still could not create a respectable chance. A break down I attack on 35 minutes gave Chertsey their first goal against the run of play. The ball was played into the Lilywhites’ defence and a poor clearance found Cooper who made no mistake with his first time shot. Four minutes later Stuart made it two when he latched onto a simple cross from Marshall, who’d been given too much freedom on the left, and scored a simple tap in.
The final nail in the coffin came on 45 minutes when Cooper, again, exploited an opening in the centre of the Lilywhites’ defence to gain another simple goal.
The second half became a rather turgid affair with the Lilywhites retaining the majority of the play up to the final third of the field where the Chertsey defence, who were no great shakes, managed to deal with almost everything that came to them. Craig Knox was called on to make an excellent save on 83 minutes when Cooper let go a flyer from 20 yards. Knox had to fling himself high to the right to keep that final goal from arriving.