Match Report

Hendon
0
Chesham United
0
Date:
Monday 28 July 2014
Competition:
Dave Stanley Memorial Shield
Attendance:
Unknown
Venue:
TBA

Match Report

Hendon and Chesham United will share the Dave Stanley Memorial Shield after the two teams played out a highly competitive contest at Earlsmead on Monday night.

The overnight storms which caused flash-flooding on major roads not far from the ground caused the Generals a few problems and they had to make three changes to their starting line-up because they could not get through the traffic in time.

It meant that Hendon's Elliott Brathwaite played against his brother Daniel - who spent a month last season dual-registered with Hendon, but was never used - while Hendon, of course, had the Maclaren brothers in the starting line-up.

The Dave Stanley Memorial Shield was set up by Chesham to honour their former Secretary, who died in June 2010. Dave began as Secretary at Hendon, and then worked for Chesham, as well as spending time in the role at Hemel Hempstead Town, Merthyr Tydfil, Berkhamsted Town and Barnet.

This was a very competitive game between two teams both playing a division below Conference South.

Unfortunately, when it comes to describing major incidents there was very little to say, because, James Fisher, Casey Maclaren and Elliott Brathwaite, assisted by Kevin Maclaren in front of them and Chris Seeby and Ollie Sprague outside, did a superb job of protecting George Legg and muzzling the Chesham strike force.

At the other end, Alex Brown and veteran Darren Purse, with their full-backs outside them, were almost as good in keeping the Hendon strike force away from Haydn Dodge.

In the 20th minute, Sprague showed great anticipation in racing across goal and he did well to clear a goalbound effort from Mark Bell, after the Hendon defence had failed to deal with a ball and Inih Effiong had set up Bell.

For Hendon, Richard Worrell really should have scored, or at least made Dodge work when he rose to meet a superbly weighted and flighted cross from Kevin Maclaren. The ball, however, went a foot over the crossbar.

Daniel Brathwaite made three really good interventions to stop Sam Murphy once and Kezie Ibe twice, while Elliott Brathwaite matched his brother with stops of Effiong and Stephan Hamilton.

Worrell had two more good opportunities, this time with shots. The first of these came after some excellent control and then a turn to take him clear of his marker. Dodge knew he had no chance of saving the shot and was mightily relieved to see the ball flash outside the far post. The second effort was probably from a better starting position, but went further wide of the other upright.

Another lovely cross, this time from Sprague gave the late arriving Chris Seeby the chance to score with a far post header. He was a little unlucky in that the wind knocked the ball down a little and by the team he got his head to it, it was too low for him to be able to direct on target and with power. As Andy Ballard was stretching for the ball with his feet, Seeby can be forgiven for not diving to head the ball.

In the second half, Chesham got more into the game, but still found Fisher, Casey Maclaren and Elliott Brathwaite in imposing form. There was one shot from the Generals that might have been on target, but a green-shirted defender threw himself in front of the ball before it could get within a dozen yards of the target.

Legg was not forced to make a save. Indeed the only times the goalkeeper had to go to ground in the whole match were to come off his line smother balls before a striker could reach them. Dodge, likewise, barely had anything to do, though there was one Lee O'Leary shot from the edge of the penalty area that was on target, but without much power.

The closest Hendon came to a second-half goal was a chance that fell to Michael Murray. His effort beat Dodge, but went the wrong side of the post from his perspective.

Report by David Ballheimer

Hendon

1
George Legg
2
James Fisher
3
Oliver Sprague
4
Casey Maclaren
5
Elliott Brathwaite
6
Kevin Maclaren
7
Chris Seeby
8
Lee O'Leary
9
Kezie Ibe
10
Sam Murphy
11
Richard Worrell
12
Leon Smith
13
Aaron Morgan
14
Michael Murray
15
Andre Da Costa
16
Daniel McNicholas
17
Max McCann

Match Events

46''
Leon Smith replaced Richard Worrell
46''
Andre Da Costa replaced Oliver Sprague
70''
Aaron Morgan replaced Chris Seeby
70''
Michael Murray replaced Kezie Ibe

Chesham United

1
Haydn Dodge
2
Ryan Towner
3
Daniel Brathwaite
4
Andy Ballard
5
Darren Purse
6
Alex Brown
7
John Hastings
8
Stephan Hamilton
9
Inih Effiong
10
Simon Thomas
11
Mark Bell
12
Eman Rowe
13
Shane Gore
14
David Lynn
15
Mark Nwokeji
17
Ashley Smith
18
Ryan Blake
19
Richard Graham