Walthamstow 0-1 Stanway Rovers

Walthamstow fell to defeat on Friday evening after a 1-0 loss at home to Stanway Rovers.

It was a disappointing performance from Stow, lacking creativity and threat to their attacks and not being able to get a shot on target.

Stanway were looking dangerous on the attack when Jamie Bennett played a through ball to Nat Mardell. His shot was deflected into the path of Orlando Bethmann who fired over the bar.

Stanway kept pushing for the opener when a corner was cleared only as far as Bethmann, but his volley was pushed away by David Hughes and out for a corner,

From the resulting corner, Stanway opened the scoring. An in-swinging delivery was met by Zack Littlejohn who headed past Hughes and into the net.

Despite Stow not getting a shot on target, there were chances which came close. Rasheed Salau’s cross was deflected into the path of Brian Garzon who took a touch away from his man and fired wide.

The second half began with Stanway coming close to doubling their lead when Jamie Bennett found himself through on goal, but his shot was directly at David Hughes.

Stow came close when Umaru Kabia’s corner was flicked on by Stanway defender Ricky Tarbard onto the crossbar and away for another corner.

The visitors kept pushing for a second when a poor Stow corner turned into a quick counter attack. Tom Maycock picked the ball up and played it out wide to Nat Mardell whose shot was saved by Hughes. The ball came out to Maycock and he found Bethmann out wide who put a cross into Mardell and he headed down for Bennett who fired just over the bar.

Walthamstow travel to Waltham Abbey on Saturday, looking to begin their new era with a positive start.