Saturday, July 23, 2011

United slumped to an embarrassing defeat away to County League Division Two neighbours Westfield this afternoon, the only goal of a dour encounter coming just four minutes from time.

On a pretty awful playing surface, the U's dominated the game as far as possession was concerned, but were sadly lacking in front of goal. Kenny Porgue did have one good effort saved by home keeper Matt Crutwell, and Lee Carey had a goal disallowed having clearly converted from an offside position.

United controlled the first half, with the home side guilty of some clumsy challenges at times. James Gatcum was perhaps fortunate to escape censure for two rather crude first half challenges, which would almost certainly have earned him a red card in a competitive match. He escaped without even a yellow however, but the referee was eventually forced to take action, as reckless tackles became increasingly more frequent.

Westfield grew into the game after the break, when the U's introduced a number of substitutes, but the winning goal still came out of the blue, former United Youth Team player Gatcum beating Yani Camara from just inside the area.

The visitors were without injured striker Wes Tate, and the unavailable Rhys Whyborne at the back. They gave a debut to sixteen year old ex-Brighton keeper Joe Winchester, as Josh Willis' brief spell at the Club seems to be over already, due to work commitments.

United starting line-up: 1 Joe Winchester, 2 Jack Dixon, 3 Ross Sutton, 4 Sam Henham, 5 Sean Ray (c), 6 Josh Jirbandey, 7 Jonno Melia, 8 Lee Carey, 9 Kenny Pogue, 10 Fred Foreman, 11 George Jones. Subs: Scott Manning, Sam White, Mark West, Jamie Crellin, Dan Bolwell, Ben Billings, Yani Camara.

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