Hoping for a bounce back from Tuesday’s defeat to Bowers and Pitsea, a sparse crowd of 150 saw Regent fail to create enough chances to overcome an eminently beatable Merstham side at the Taydal stadium on Saturday.

Manager Tom Rothery rang the changes with Ricky Griggs returning in the back four and Romario Dunne promoted to the starting line-up after an impressive performance on Tuesday night.

They started with Charlie Turner; Pip Boyland, Matt Cripps, Josh Gould, Ricky Griggs; Jordan Barnett, Jake Turner, Amir Berkane, Lamell Howell; Romario Dunne and Billy Hunt. Charlie Lindoe, Adam Hampson Ace Howell and Rigers Kabashi were joined on the bench by Jake Gould.
Merstham have evidently had a big turnaround of personnel over the summer but featured former Woking and Lincoln City player Delano Sam-Yorke in attack and one time £2.7million Bristol Rovers and Fulham striker Barry Hayles on the bench.

Barry Hayles, now 47 years old, also doubles as Merstham’s Assistant Manager but unfortunately didn’t get to play. Nobody could say who is the most expensive player to get onto the Regent pitch.

An indication of Merstham’s fragility came at the kick off where they played the ball unconvincingly backwards and forced their goalkeeper into an early clearance.

In the first 20 minutes they continued to create problems for themselves but first a Lamell Howell lob was disallowed for a foul and then what appeared to be an own goal created by Romario Dunne was disallowed by the officials for what was presumably judged as off-side.

After half an hour Jordan Barnett, who had taken a knock earlier, was replaced by Charlie Lindoe but there was no further significant action apart from a Billy Hunt free-kick which was blocked and Ricky Griggs being booked for what appeared to be an innocuous challenge in the right-hand corner of the pitch.

A bag of mintoes was passed around the Main Stand as spectators reflected on the referee’s decision.

The half ended 0-0 with no significant chances being created for either side. Regent supporters were impressed by the front-line pairing of Romario Dunne with Billy Hunt but were frustrated by the over-reliance on high balls played forward from the back which were meat and drink to the opposition’s central defenders.

Second half
Neither side made any further changes at half time.

Amir Berkane kicked off the second half for Regent and they neatly worked the ball forward but to no end result.

After this Regent reverted back to a reliance on hopeful punts to the front and saw a penalty claim by Merstham waved away by the referee. Merstham’s tall centre backs were entirely comfortable in defending this approach.

After 64 minutes Regent swopped the Howell brothers and Ace Howell came on to inject more pace into the attack, but after an initial break and burst of speed made little impact on the game.

With 20 minutes to go Josh Gould was cautioned for bringing down Merstham’s centre forward and shortly afterwards the referee appeared to show a yellow card towards the Regent bench, presumably for comments made about the officiating?

Charlie Lindoe created a half chance towards the end but wasn’t able to get a shot away and then a huge clearance from Charlie Turner in the Regent goal threated to bounce over the opposition goalkeeper.

Turner’s huge kicks and punches were one of the impressive features of the afternoon.
In return Merstham could manage no more than a shot from substitute Yannick Monge-Edwa which cleared the goal, the netting behind the goal and the roof of the neighbouring bungalow.

As the game drew to a close Merstham were awarded a corner and showed no desire to take it quickly and that they preferred to run out time for a point.

In the closing minutes Matt Cripps was booked, presumably for dissent over Merstham’s time wasting approach.

Match Verdict
Perhaps to everyone’s surprise Merstham turned out to look a very beatable team who offered very little going forward. So, it is disappointing that Regent weren’t able to take the opportunity to get a valuable three points to kick start their season.

For Regent, the defence looked solid and the new attack looked dangerous but the lack of creativity in midfield meant that they were unable to take advantage of the opportunities which were available to them. Haringey Borough will present a sterner test next Saturday.

Paul Ketchley