Report
The pivotal moment of this match was 10 minutes into the second half when Liam Baptiste was late with his tackle to block Mark Royal’s shot, and he caught the home forward just below the knee. The impact resulted in a break just above the shin and play was suspended for half an hour until paramedics could remove him to hospital. Liam was sent off and Waltham Forest had to shuffle their pack to keep out the home side and return with a well-earned point.
For most of the first half Forest looked most likely to score and they set their stall out after only 3 minutes when Joe Nartey and Dewayne Clarke linked to find Arif Yozcu. The winger’s deep cross was claimed by O’Dea in the Uxbridge goal. Soon after, a foul on Warren Ryan saw Chris Cashman’s free kick headed out for a corner, which was swung in deep to Nartey who knocked it back into the path of Wayne Brown who fired over the bar.
Yozcu did well to clear a free kick from Walters and soon after Baptiste headed out Cleary’s cross. King dealt well with a couple of crosses and Royal shot wide.
Yozcu again fired in a blistering shot from 25 yards that went just the wrong side of the post, and Ian Barnes and Nartey linked to provide Ryan with a shooting chance that went wide.
Uxbridge had a spell of domination but the visitor’s defence, in which the back 4 of Barnes, Brown, Baptiste and Simon Tickner were dominant, held firm and King was mainly called upon to deal with long range efforts.
Midway through the half steady rain meant that the ball ran more slickly off the surface and was less easy to control. Jones, Cleary and Rundell all had efforts blocked, and on the counter attack Clarke and Ryan both went close.
The half ended with a Cashman free kick knocked back by Baptiste to Ryan, but his cross shot just missed its target.
The second half started with a long clearance to Nartey but his goal bound pass was blocked. Walters countered by driving an Uxbridge free kick over the bar. Brown argued his way into the referee’s notebook, and then came the injury to Royal.
On the resumption both sides played with more caution and, while Stuart Elliott came on in place of Nartey and King replaced Royal, the home side failed to make their extra number count.
Cashman sustained a knock midway through the half and with 20 minutes left was replaced by Mark Stein.
Clarke flicked the ball through to Stein, but the Forest man was judged to have failed to beat the offside trap.
Uxbridge had most of the possession but could not deliver a telling ball into the box, and the game ended with Forest on the attack through a thrusting move involving Yozcu and Clarke which was turned aside for a throw in.
Teams:-
Uxbridge: O’Dea, Jones, O’Leary, Swift, Weedon, Bamford, Cleary, Walters, Royal (King 55), Swaysland and Rundell. Subs not used: Gill and Tunnell.
Waltham Forest: King, Barnes, Cashman (Stein 70), Tickner, Brown, Baptiste, Yozcu, Field, Clarke, Nartey (Elliott 55), Ryan. Subs not used: Johnson, Yhdego and Guei.