Basford United v St Ives Town-Match Report
Pitching-In Northern Premier League Midlands Division-26-09-202
Written by Nigel Howlett
Both sides came into this game in the bottom four and with recently appointed managers on board. New Ambers manager Gary Setchell was the man leaving the Greenwich Avenue with a smile on his face whist the man at the helm for Ives Tommy Cooney had plenty to think about on the long drive home.
A much changed Ives side gifted their visitors a lead after only four minutes as Charlie Gill was given space to run at Ives defence before feeding in Cain Noble in space inside the visitor’s box. The young left winger struck his shot well but it was straight at keeper George Bucknor but he spilled it into the path of Tristran Thompson-Matthews who gleefully grabbed the chance firing home from close range.
Bucknor’s opposite number Matt Yates had similar problems hanging on to debutant Trey Charles’s curling effort from the right corner of the box only six minutes later. But unlike the hosts no one in purple and pink had gambled and Brad Wilson was allowed to scramble the loose ball away. His attempted clearance fell to Alfie Shepherd on the opposite corner of the box but the young Ives winger could only curl his effort wide of the post.
Those efforts from Charles and Shepherd were rare sparkles in an otherwise dour day for the visitors who found themselves overrun in midfield with the under pressure defence struggling to cope with the pace and power of the Amber’s attack. Wing back Bodi Thistleton galloped down the left in 12th minute and delivered a driven cross that Ollie Brookes did brilliantly to head away from the lurking Jack Goodman.
Shepherd found himself the meat in the sandwich between two much more powerful Amber’s players and made a dazed exit in 26th minute to be replaced by another debutant in ex Bishop’s Stortford midfielder Zach Howell. But the one way traffic continued with Nat Peters thumping a 25 yarder just over the top at the end of patient Amber’s build up in 28th minute. Only moments later Goodman found the space to turn inside Ives box but scooped his effort just over the top. Anther lung busting run from Thistleton saw him test Bucknor with a rasping drive from just inside the box that the well positioned young keeper palmed away at his near post.
Ryan Towner had come in to try and fill the massive boots of recently departed Ives skipper Dan Lawlor. But the ex Cambridge City and Histon midfielder was struggling to get a foothold in the game and a tactical switch saw him replaced by Ben Kaninda just after the half hour. Kaninda dropped into a back three with skipper Matty Miles moving into midfield to try and stem the Amber tide.
Ives best chance of a first period otherwise dominated by their hosts came in 33rd minute in true route one fashion. Debutant centre forward Gregg Smith got a flick onto Bucknor’s long punt down the centre Charles ran onto the flick but he was under heavy pressure from a defender and his attempt to prod the ball past Yates was well saved low to his right by the agile keeper.
Having conceded early Ives then went and shot themselves in the foot again only seconds before the break. Thistleton was given both time and space to pick out his man with an in-swinging cross from the left and he did just that picking out Goodman who timed his run to perfection to get between defenders and flick home the cross past the outstretched hands of the diving Bucknor.
Going in at the break two down the visitors had a steep incline to get over if they were going to get back in it. That incline became a mountain only seconds after the re-start as more kamikaze defending gifted the Ambers a third. Kaninda got on the wrong side of Goodman as a long ball came down the middle and foolishly pulled back the hosts centre forward. Referee Daniel McDonald probably couldn’t believe such a blatant tug of the shirt was happening deep inside the box right in front of his eyes and it took a few seconds before he pointed to the spot. Those a little late back from their half time refreshment didn’t spot the offence and had to look at the impressive electronic scoreboard to tell them that Goodman had thumped the resulting spot kick past the diving Bucknor to make it 3-0.
The tide kept heading towards Ives goal as the hosts gained in confidence and the struggling visitors lost what little they had gleaned from Monday night’s win against fellow strugglers Corby. Mistakes continued to dog the visitors, four minutes after Goodman had scored his second he was put through again. Jedidiah Brown-Johnson was robbed by Peters who fed in Goodman but this time the speedy number nine failed to hit the target from a good position.
Goodman went close to completing his hat trick again in 56th minute when he capitalised on a sliced attempt at a clearance from Alex Munroe. But this time the Ambers striker fired straight at Bucknor who held on well. It was only a matter of time before Goodman did claim the match ball and his third came from another Ives error in 66th minute. Howell’s poorly directed inside pass was cut out by Tyrese Palmer who fed in Goodman through the left channel and this time he made no mistake firing home past the exposed Bucknor.
Goodman got the ball in the net for a fourth time seven minutes later when he was allowed the freedom of the park to get on the end of a long free kick and head past Bucknor from close range but on this occasion Ives were saved by the upraised flag of an assistant. But the hosts fifth goal did arrive two minutes later when Thompson-Matthews skipped clear of a static Ives back line to fire past the exposed Bucknor. A number of substitutions followed for both sides with the Ambers giving debuts to three of the promising 16 year old scholars in their academy.
Ives did grab a consolation goal three minutes from time as substitute Andy Ankrah got onto a clever flick into the box from Brookes and fired home low past the right hand of Yates to the keeper’s clean sheet bonus. The busy Aidan Edwards finished the game by unleashing a 25 yard effort that whizzed just over the top of Yates crossbar deep in added time.
Gary Stechell will come away from this game thinking that his side may have turned the corner but Tommy Cooney still has much hard work to do the get Ives out of trouble and a home game against Nuneaton Town on Monday night looks like a tough challenge at this stage in Ives rebuilding process.
Final Score: Basford United 5 St Ives Town 1 Half Time 2 – 0
Goals:
BASFORD: Thompson-Matthews 4, 84, Goodman 45+1, 47 (pen), 66
ST IVES: Ankrah 87
Team Line Ups:
BASFORD: Yates (capt), Wilson (Dean 78), Thistleton, Peters, Stewart (Kebe 72), Gascoigne, Thompson-Matthews, Gill (Brookes 83), Goodman (Burton 85), Palmer (Mignot 80), Noble, Unused subs: none,
ST IVES: Bucknor, Miles (capt), Olowojoba, Towner (Kaninda 32), Brookes, Munroe, Charles, Brown-Johnson (Edwards 70), G. Smith, Wright (Ankrah 70), Shepherd (Howell 26), Unused subs: Gordon
Referee: Daniel McDonald
Cards: Yellow: BASFORD: Peters (70) ST IVES: Wright (34)
IVES SUPPORTERS MAN OF THE MATCH: Matty Miles
Attendance: 279
