Blues bow out of the Trophy
Merstham 4 Arlesey Town 1 The Blues exited the FA Trophy in the preliminary round stage down in Surrey. The hosts, in their inaugural season at level four, have made a favourable impression in the Ryman League Division One South and were looking to make p
Merstham 4 Arlesey Town 1
The Blues exited the FA Trophy in the preliminary round stage down in Surrey.
The hosts, in their inaugural season at level four, have made a favourable impression in the Ryman League Division One South and were looking to make progress in this competition for the first time.
Arlesey were expecting a difficult encounter and so it proved, going down by the same scoreline as the previous Saturday.
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In what only could be described as a disappointing and comprehensive defeat, the Arlesey management were left with much food for thought.
Trailing by a single goal at the break, they failed to make any impression on the contest until the final 10 minutes by which time they were a well-beaten side.
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The home side started the match in dominant fashion intent on not letting their visitors settle.
It came as no surprise when they took the lead in the 16th minute as a move down the right flank saw Lock put in a fine cross that was headed past Martin Peat by Agyei.
Peat was in constant action but fortunately his safe handling from the numerous balls played into the box thwarted many of the home attacks.
The visitors somehow reached the sanctuary of the changing rooms with much alarm but without conceding any further goals.
Three minutes into the second half, Arlesey were stunned by a fine individual goal from Morgan.
The Blues just could not put together any serious attacks and seemed to be accepting their defeat as inevitable.
With Merstham now in cruise control, things got even worse with the dismissal of Shane Brown for two yellow card offences. This led to a further opening of the floodgates with two goals in three minutes.
Agyei added his second from a Simmonds free-kick in the 75th minute and then Morgan made it four with a fierce close-range volley.
With the tie long over as a contest, the Blues won a penalty in the 82nd minute when keeper Chatfield brought down Ryan Francis, Lee Allen converting the spot-kick.
Blues: Peat, Beaumont, Brown, Moran, Dillnutt, Allen, Beale, Clark, Francis, Osborne, Gutzmore.
Subs: Bloss, Kimani, Case, Junja, Houghton.
