Denied all three points right at the death..

CROYDON 2-2 MERIDIAN VP
Saturday 12th October 2019
SCEFL Division One
by Sean Boothe

Meridian VP were denied the three points in dramatic fashion right at the death as their search for that elusive win continues. Meridian VP in large were the slightly better team on the day even though they would have taken an away point at the start of the day.

Meridian VP started the game with a good tempo and with Alfie Collins and Adrian Spence had two willing runners up top. The away team were pressing Croydon all around the park and after 5 minutes the pressure told. A misplaced clearance from the Croydon keeper was quickly pounced upon by Abbas Oduncu and was quickly fed forward. After some nice inter play from Spence and Collins, The Former Croydon frontman Spence finished against his old club in the 5th minute.

After a short spell of dominance, Croydon equalised direct from a corner in the 16th minute. Both sides created opportunities, with the best one falling to Trey Small who was sent through one on one by Adrian Spence, with the wide man’s shot well saved by the Goalkeeper.

The second half saw Meridian VP again take control of the game with Croydon using strong arm tactics to stay in the game. Goalscorer Spence was fouled from behind by the Croydon Skipper who also continued the rough treatment dished out to Trey Small in the first half, which landed him in the referees book.

Toyeeb Babatunde came on in the 60th minute to replace the tiring Alfie Collins, then Scott Taylor replaced Jerome Richards who played well in his first start this season. The last substitution saw Trey Small come off for Douane West in the 75th minute.

Meridian thought they’d done enough to win it when in the 83rd minute Tomi Alade picked up the ball wide on the left, advanced a few yards then whipped in a cross come shot that sailed in over the stranded keeper.

Croydon salvaged a point from a disappointing display when a free header in the midfield looped over the defence for Sub Leo Medrado to race through and squeeze his shot passed Ben Ashton.

Although disappointed with dropping two points, Meridian followed up Tuesday evening’s second half come back with another solid performance to build on.

MoTM: Abbas Oduncu

MERIDIAN VP: 1. Ben Ashton, 2. Abbas Oduncu, 3. Tomi Alade, 4. Amadi Ugochukwu, 5. Dan Akintimetin (c) , 6. Jacob Skelly, 7. Micah Banton, 8. Trey Small, 9. Adrian Spence, 10. Alfie Collins, 11. Jerome Richards. Subs: 12. Scott Taylor, 14. Toyeeb Babatunde, 15. Douane West.