Slough Town 1-2 Chesham United

[Simon N]

Chesham:

1. Richard Hayward
2. John Kyriacou
3. Michael Bardle
4. Ollie Adedeji (booked 57 mins)
5. Lewis Laws
6. Mark Lambert
7. Dave Fotheringham
8. Steve Wales (goal 9 mins)
9. Leon Archer (goal 53 mins)
10. Chris Bangura
11. Dom Marsala

Subs:
12. Adam Parker
14. Danny Burnell (for Bangura 75 mins)
15. Jack Pattison (for Laws 82 mins)
16. Sam Ledger
17. Danny Talbot (for Marsala 69 mins)


Chesham advanced to the second round of the Red Insure league cup. As usual in this competition, this was a fairly low-key encounter in which Chesham established a two-goal lead early in the second half, which was enough to see them through as Slough came into the game late on.

There were three changes to the starting line-up, with Danny Gudgeon injured and Danny Talbot and Danny Burnell rested, and they were replaced by John Kyriacou, Leon Archer, and Dom Marsala who made his first start of the season. With Steve Sinclair and Garry Sippetts injured, the ex-Chesham contingent in the Slough side was down to four – Jamie Jackson, Simon Sweeney, Nathan Bowden-Haase and Chris Herron, although Herron only lasted 25 minutes because of injury. The first serious action came when Chesham took the lead in the ninth minute, Steve Wales picking up the ball in the centre circle and advancing to the edge of the area to fire a shot into the top corner. Shortly afterwards a good move down the left ended with Michael Bardle crossing just in front of Leon Archer, but the game soon became a typical league cup game with little goalmouth action. Midway through the half a free kick into the area by Slough’s Ryan Fenton was headed down to Elliott Buchanan who hooked the ball over the bar. There were a couple of other attacks by the home side which resulted in hurried clearances, but otherwise Chesham were fairly comfortable. In stoppage time Dave Fotheringham won the ball on the edge of the area and Dom Marsala’s shot forced Jackson to dive to his left to save.

In the seventh minute after the restart Richard Hayward came out to collect a high free kick but lost the ball under pressure from Bowden-Haase whose resulting shot was kicked away by Mark Lambert. However in the next minute Chesham made it 2-0 when Leon Archer beat Slough’s offside trap and ran clear from just inside the opposition half to round Jackson and score. Four minutes later Ollie Adedeji conceded a free kick on the edge of the area which earned him a booking, and sub Dan Murphy’s free kick was parried by Hayward at the near post and kicked away as the home forwards closed in. Midway through the half a throw on the home right came to Simon Martin, who turned and shot across Hayward into the far corner to reduce the arrears. The home side had plenty of the ball but Hayward was not called into serious action again. In the 78th minute Leon Archer broke away and found Danny Burnell in space, Burnell played the ball back to Archer but Jackson saved the resulting shot. Bowden-Haase picked up a booking late on for a wild challenge on Adedeji, then in the fourth minute of stoppage time Slough were awarded a free kick 30 yards out but Murphy’s shot sailed comfortably over the bar.