Ramblers blown away by the Regent

Regent faced Burnham Ramblers in their latest defence of the Tolleshunt D’Arcy Cup as storm Brendan tracked its way over the ground with a strong south westerly gale affecting play.

Some of Saturday’s starting line up were on the bench and there were chances for new players to impress in a starting eleven of Turner; Gelashvili, Forrest, Cripps, Gould; O’Reilly, Brice-Wiffen, Kamanzi, Dunne; and Byrne-Hewitt and Bugg in attack. Pip Boyland, JT, Jordan Barnett and Jack Mahon were substitutes.

Burnham started the match with a solid formation and adapted well to the difficult conditions by playing the ball around on the ground but without presenting any real threat up front.

Regent over-relied on releasing their pacy front players with long balls forward, but were unable to make anything when chances appeared.

All too often their hopeful punts forward were simply collected and re-cycled by Burnham’s big central defenders.

The deadlock was broken after 19 minutes in a re-run of Saturday’s opening goal at Enfield when Matt Cripps drove through the Burnham centre and this time put the ball in the back of the net himself.

From then on Regent dominated but were unable to find a way through a well organised Rambler’s defence.

Chances that did occur were put wide until Burnham conceded a free kick just outside the penalty area. After an intense debate Mo Gelashvili stepped up, got the ball up and over the wall only to see the Burnham keeper deny Jerry Kamanzi.

Second half
The wind meant that the second half was largely a matter of one-way traffic towards the Burnham goal and Regent went close on several occasions with George Forrest missing an inviting cross and Lewis Byrne-Hewitt unable to convert a number of good situations.

It looked like Regent would hold on to their narrow lead until Jerry Kamanzi, who had an impressive home debut, was replaced by Jack Mahon with four minutes to go and shortly after coming on Mahon created an opportunity, passing the ball out to the lively Finn O’Reilly,and turning in the return pass to seal the win.

Match Verdict
Regent created, but could not convert, a hatful of chances against a well organised and resolute Ramblers defence.

In the end Matt Cripps’ dynamism and Jack Mahon’s quick thinking got them through against opponents who played far better than their league status would suggest.

By Paul Ketchley