Colliers Wood United 0-2 Beckenham Town - If you work hard against teams your ability beats them in the end, says Beckenham Town assistant manager Billy Walton

Colliers Wood United 0 – 2 Beckenham Town
Location	Wibbandune Stadium, Robin Hood Way, West Wimbledon, London SW20 0AA
Kickoff	14/08/2018 19:45

COLLIERS WOOD UNITED  0-2  BECKENHAM TOWN
(after extra time)
The Emirates FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay
Tuesday 14 August 2018
Stephen McCartney reports from Wibbandune Stadium

BECKENHAM TOWN assistant manager Billy Walton praised the character from his players after they knocked Colliers Wood United out of The FA Cup after scoring two goals in extra-time.

 

Beckenham Town will now host Combined Counties League Division One side Epsom & Ewell in the Preliminary Round at Eden Park Avenue on 25 August, after Stefan Cox and Eku Dean both came off the bench to seal the win.

Ryan Locke’s side went into the game in fifteenth-place in the Combined Counties League Premier Division table after losing 4-0 at Spelthorne Sports before beating Horley Town 4-3 here seven days ago.  They held Beckenham to a 1-1 draw at Eden Park Avenue on Saturday.

Beckenham Town, meanwhile, are in ninth-place in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division after winning 3-2 at Bearsted in their only league outing but they banked £2,250 in prize money with tonight’s win, while Colliers Wood United walk away with £750.

“Hard-fought game, give credit to them, I thought they worked extremely hard, not a bad outfit. People said to me they weren’t that good but I thought over the two games they more than matched us.  I was pleased to come here and keep a clean sheet,” said Walton, who explained why he ditched carpet football for a more direct approach.

“People that know me, they think I want to play carpet football and stuff and I just want to mix it up a bit for us this year. We might surprise a few people that we aren’t going to be playing tippy-tappy football.  We can go a bit more direct so people don’t know what we’re going to do. The pitch ain’t great so it worked for us tonight really.”

Beckenham Town played a much more direct approach at Wibbandune Stadium, creating their first opening after only 59 seconds.

Dean Carpenter launched a long ball down the left-channel for striker Jesse Darko,  who teed up Shameek Farrell, but the winger produced a weak shot which was gathered by Sean Fallon.

“A bit of a powder-puff shot really. I’d like to think he can score goals like that,” added Walton.

An even match followed, but Beckenham Town should have broken the stalemate in the 25^th minute, through another long ball.

Carpenter clipped the ball over the top again, this time finding striker Jamie Humphris in space down the left-channel. He chipped the ball over the advancing keeper’s head but the ball hung in the air before dropping down at the far post before the home side cleared their lines.

“I don’t think he had full control of the chip,” admitted Walton.  “He was stretching a bit and it was a bit unfortunate it went wide but I think on another time if you can get there a little bit quicker and get the ball under control a bit more, he would’ve chipped him a bit better, I think.”

Striker Daniel Campion impressed for Colliers Wood United and he cut in from the left and from 15-yards, his angled drive brought a comfortable save from Michael McEntegart in the 27^th minute.

“No real threat really.  Over the two games, I couldn’t really see them scoring unless we made a drastic error so I was pleased with our defensive display.  I’m pleased with the way we kept them out to long shots,” said Walton.

Beckenham Town midfielder Carpenter clipped a left-footed free-kick from 30-yards, which brought a comfortable catch from Fallon, who was the busier of the two goalkeepers.

Beckenham Town wasted a glorious chance to take the lead in the 39^th minute when the ball fell to the wrong person inside the box.

Darko skipped past right-back Aaron Stephens before rolling the ball out to right-wing-back Nathan Paul, who overhit his cross and Farrell retrieved the ball before cutting the ball back to left-wing-back Joe Hope, who took a touch before rolling his weak right-footed shot from 10-yards on the angle into Fallon’s hands.

“There again, love the lad to bits, he works his socks off for the team, he’s a steady Eddie, seven out of 10 every week, week-in-week-out,” said Walton.

“I asked him to do a totally different role tonight but he’s one of those players who you don’t want to be in the box for a good chance to fall to unfortunately, bless his heart.”

Reflecting his thoughts at the break, Walton said: “I was pleased with the whole performance really.  We changed our shape from Saturday and listen, when you’re asking people at this level to change shape and change ideas and just go out and do it without practising it, full credit to them.

“We played two people in different positions tonight and they worked hard at it. Shameek Farrell tucked inside and we asked Jack Hope to do that job so they both worked hard at it and pulled it off.

“I just felt like always do the things we’re good at, i.e. passing the ball and controlling the game, pass the ball quicker. We just thought if we could change the shape and go from side-to-side and across the field quicker that we could create an overlap on the outside, which we tried to do.”

Beckenham Town kept banging on the door and lady luck deserted them inside the opening four minutes of the second half.

Carpenter whipped a left-footed free-kick from 30-yards out, which left Fallon rooted to the spot, but the ball kissed the top of the crossbar and dropped behind for a goal-kick.

“I was up! I thought it was in,” added Walton.

“Great strike, that’s what you want from free-kicks, make the goalkeeper work.  In all fairness the goalkeeper didn’t move so two inches lower, it’s a goal!”

Colliers Wood left-back and captain Carlos Talbot started finding possession in the final third and he played a ball inside to Mohammed Mohammed, who turned Stefan Wright and space opened up for him to drill a low right-footed drive towards the bottom corner.  McEntegart got down fast and low to his right and used a strong right-hand to push the ball away towards safety.

Beckenham cleared their lines and 31 seconds later Farrell cut onto his right-foot and forced Fallon to dive low to his right to push behind for a corner.

Walton said: “It’s great, that’s why we’ve brought Macca into the club. He hasn’t had nothing to do and he pulls off a save like that to keep it at nil-nil, so fair play to him. It was a great save and he kept it at nil-nil at the time, pleased with that.”

Beckenham replaced Humphris and Darko and Cox’s pace caused Colliers Wood problems and fellow sub-striker Richard Atkins was winning balls in the air.

Carpenter floated a free-kick into the box and Atkins rose to loop his header over the crossbar on the hour-mark.

Colliers Wood went close through winger Ryan Doherty, who was left in acres of space on the right to flash his angled drive across McEntegart and just past the foot of the far post.

Fallon kept his side in the game by making a smart save with 20 minutes of normal time remaining.

Farrell played a short corner to Cox, who cut the ball back for Carpenter to crack a left-footed drive towards the roof of the net from 20-yards, forcing the keeper to palm the ball over his crossbar.

Walton said: “We worked that from the corner, it was a little corner routine that we worked on and he’s hit a good shot there, unfortunately he’s hit a great shot but straight down the goalkeeper’s throat.  I thought either side and it’s in, it’s just a shame.”

Locke brought on Youel Emmanuel and his pace and urgency upped the home side’s performance but they lacked quality in the final third to trouble Beckenham. Campion shone up front with his tireless running and centre-half Albie Sheehan-Cozens was excellent.

Jamal McNamee was a long way out when he steered his header into McEntegart’s gloves after meeting a deep free-kick from the right from centre-half Sebastian Morally.

Colliers Wood should have grabbed the lead when McNamee cut the ball back for  Doherty, who swept his first time left-footed shot just over the crossbar from 12-yards, after the home side linked up well down the left.

Beckenham Town kept pressing and missed a decent chance when Robinson launched a big kick into the Colliers Wood penalty area, Atkins rose to nod the ball up in the air and Carpenter stooped to place his header bouncing just past the foot of the far post from 12-yards.

“Another good effort. It’s a matter of inches, isn’t it, either side of the post.  This time it went the wrong side of the post, so a good move from us,” added Walton.

Mohammed played a short free-kick square into the feet of substitute Charlie Emery (who wore a shirt without a number 18 on his back) and he turned to drill his left-footed shot across goal and harmlessly past the far post from 25-yards but neither side could find the breakthrough inside 90 minutes.

Walton said: “You just don’t want extra-time, it’s late at night, you think don’t go to extra-time! It goes to extra-time and it shows the hard work that we put in during the summer paid off for us.  I thought we were the fitter side and basically dominated the whole of the extra-time.”

Beckenham Town were the dominant force during extra-time.

Nathan Paul threw the ball to Cox, who played the ball inside to Carpenter, who lacked the firepower to beat Fallon from 25-yards, the ball trickling into the keeper’s hands.

Campion collected the ball on the half-way line and broke straight down the heart of the pitch and after skipping past Danny Fitzsimons, his run was ended by a well-timed penalty box tackle from Ike Robinson, who was excellent.

Beckenham Town were gifted the lead, when it arrived with seven minutes and 31 seconds on the clock.

The Colliers Wood midfield allowed Cox to collect the ball in space and he cracked a left-footed shot from 35-yards, which Fallon dived to his left and let the ball slip through his fingers and could only watch as the ball bounced into the bottom far corner.

Walton said:  “There again, we’ve got a few games coming up, a few games that we’ve had last week, we thought we put Stef through the middle with his pace and put Richie through the middle with his pace.

“Stef’s a handful, 35-yards out and he’s got one player to beat, nine times out of 10 you know he’s going to go past you and he’s hit a really good shot. Yes, the keeper should’ve saved it.  If it was Macca, I would’ve been going absolute bonkers!

“Yes, he should’ve saved it but that’s the way it is, it’s cup football.  I’m ecstatic really because I thought to myself the way it was going and the way he was playing and the game was unfolding, I was thinking about penalties.  I was sitting there talking to Ricky Bennett thinking who would want to take the penalties and that’s what I was thinking at the time.”

Wright drove at the Colliers Wood defenders but with a couple of men in front of him, his low right-footed shot was easily gathered by Fallon.

The second period was all about game management for Beckenham Town. 

Substitute winger Dean ran down the channel but his right-footed angled drive was meat and drink for Fallon.

Sheehan-Cozens skipped past a challenge on the half-way line and drove forward before drilling his right-footed shot harmlessly wide from 35-yards.

Colliers Wood United had one final chance and they should have buried it following a long throw into the box.

Morally launched the ball in from the left and the ball fell to Cathrew at the far post and the substitute right-back turned and clipped his shot towards the top right-hand corner, only for McEntegart to pluck the ball out of the air.

The keeper then launched a big kick forward and Dean latched onto the ball down the left wing and with Fallon still up for the final set-piece, Dean kept his composure to swept a 40-yarder, which bounced once and dropped in underneath the crossbar of an empty goal to seal the victory at the death, timed at one minute and 57 seconds into time added on.

Walton said: “That’s a great finish!  The save was a great save and we cleared our lines and that’s a good thing about us. Last year long throws into our box would’ve caused us problems.  This year we’ve got solid guys in there and a good keeper who just deals with that.  He’s just dealt with it and cleared the ball, played the ball out.  Eku ran into their half and knocked it in from 40-yards, that’s a great goal!”

Walton was asked what he learnt from his side tonight.

“I did learn a bit of character in the side because there were a few people in there that threw themselves in the way of things and dug in when they had to dig in and put in extra runs and quite a few of the midfield players put in a shift and got through a lot of work.

“That’s what I got our tonight, how hard they worked. If you work hard against teams your ability beats them in the end and that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to work hard and hopefully we’ll continue the hard work against Sheppey on Saturday.”

Looking ahead to Epsom & Ewell’s FA Cup visit to Eden Park Avenue, Walton said: “We’ll have to have a look at them and see what they’re like and find out about them. It’s another game that we can win if we play well and earn a bit more money and get into the next round.

“The prize money is massive for all the club’s at our level. To play a game of football and someone will say to you you’re going to get £2,250 if you win, great, that’s fantastic, what a great thing.  Hopefully they’ll give me a bit of petrol money for coming here tonight out of it!

“It will be a good chance for us but I don’t disrespect anyone. I’ll give them my full attention when it comes to that game. All our focus will be on that and I will be giving them my utmost respect because anyone can come and beat you.”

Beckenham Town return to League action on Saturday when they host Sheppey United before travelling to Glebe next Tuesday.

“We picked the game tonight with the Sheppey game in mind, which is a big game for us,” said Walton.

“We had three great games against them last year, proper football matches, so it's a big game for us and what we want to achieve. It’s not going to be easy but it ain’t going to be easy for them either so I’m looking forward to it.

“Then we’ve got a local derby against Glebe, which is another tough game but I love them, that’s what you’re in football for, to play those games, I love playing in them.”

Colliers Wood United:  Sean Fallon, Aaron Stephens (Michael Cathrew 109), Carlos Talbot, Tyrone Newton (Charlie Emery 87), Albie Sheehan-Cozens, Sebastian Morally, Ryan Doherty, Adam Snook, Daniel Campion, Mohammed Mohammed (Youel Emmanuel 72), Jamal McNamee (Michael Fahm 96).
Subs: Chris Ogunlana, Jake Mongston, Baker Kimera

Booked:  Albie Sheehan-Cozens 23

Beckenham Town: Michael McEntegart, Nathan Paul, Jack Hope, Danny Fitzsimons, Calum McGeehan, Ike Robinson, Stefan Wright, Dean Carpenter, Jesse Darko (Stefan Cox 62), Jamie Humphris (Richard Atkins 56), Shameek Farrell (Eku Dean 106).
Subs: Adam Wadmore, Jason Mensah

Goals:  Stefan Cox 98, Eku Dean 120

Booked: Shameek Farrell 25, Richard Atkins 119

Attendance: 86
Referee: Mr Fernando Costache (Uxbridge, Middlesex)
Assistants: Mr Derrick Laing (Lightwater, Surrey) & Mr Connor Fanelli (Guildford, Surrey)