On Saturday 9th March we visited the home of Redhill Football Club (The Lobsters) for what looked on paper a tough match with our hosts vying for a play off position. Redhill had a very good recent record with only one defeat in their previous eight matches. We were coming into the game after our very impressive victory over mid-table Sandhurst Town the previous weekend.
As for our team, we welcomed back Faebian Witter in goal and on the bench we saw the returning Jerry Antwi after completing the required concussion protocols after an incident against Alton FC 14 days before. As for Redhill, they included various former Epsom players in their line up so there was bound to be a bit of familiarity between the two sides. This showed as our hosts were very aware of the attacking threat that Jaevon Dyer has and were keen to starve him of possession.
Redhill had bolstered their crowd by inviting several local schools to the game which should be applauded as they try to increase support from their local community. This is very similar to our own club who invite along various ‘community partners’ to our games whenever they are available.
We started the game in confident style and were certainly the better team in the opening exchanges. This included a shot that went just wide and a header that just went over the top of the cross bar. What is true is that in the first half chances were very few and far between for both sides and neither goalkeeper had a lot to do. The half ended 0-0.
As the second half began our hosts had come out with much more of an attacking intent and forced us back on several occasions, although we were not without carrying a threat to our higher placed opponents as a Carl Obiltey header rattled their crossbar. At our end, Redhill forced four consecutive corners and from the last one of those a Redhill player was unmarked and slotted the ball into the net from around 8 yards – 1-0 to Redhill on 57 minutes. Our hosts were certainly on top in the next period of play and our goalkeeper kept us in the game with a very good low save.
We made a coupe of substitutions and one of those in Sirak Negassi had a good chance to level the scores but his shot went tamely wide. Then after a needless foul in the 85th minute by a Redhill player on the left wing, Adam Green put the resulting free kick into the box, it was headed on by Reece Tierney to an unmarked Thompson Adjemi who again headed the ball across the box to an another unmarked Epsom player in Zack Ingram-Wright who was on hand to head the ball into an empty net for his first goal for the club. We have had a propensity this season to concede various late goals so the Epsom supporters amongst the crowd were probably in for a nail biting finish. When in fact the opposite was the case where we had a glorious chance to wrap up the three points after Negassi, Luke Miller and Carl Obiltey missed the chance to score our second goal and Redhill were able to clear the ball. That was the last chance of the game so it ended 1-1.
All in all a good point for us and we move onto to our next game against Balham FC next Saturday at the ground they share with AFC Croydon. Let’s hope we can continue our good form and get something out of that game as well.
