Match Report
Barwell v St Ives Town
Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central 22-03-2025
For the second week in a row Ives failed to gain any return from a vital game against one of their relegation rivals and once again it was a failure to convert their chances which proved their undoing. The statistics outline the nature of the game with Ives having sixteen shots and the Canaries only five, equally Ives won seven corners to their hosts three. But as always in football it is goals that win games and the hosts were clinical in finishing three from their five efforts for a sixty percent conversion rate whilst Ives only hit the net twice for a 12.5 percent success rate.
As to the story of the game Ives started on top with Alex Collard heading a third minute Jernade Meade corner wide under heavy pressure. A 25 yarder that flew well wide two minutes later from Olly Brown-Hill proved to be the Canaries only effort before they went ahead in 27th minute.
Ives chances continued to arrive. A thirteenth minute corner was knocked down to Amir Hadi inside the D. He took down the ball well but fired his effort wide of the post. The visitors should really have got their noses in front ninety seconds later. Josh Allen got down the left and drilled his low cross across the face of goal. Ethan Creary arriving at the back of the box had time to take a touch before firing in a low shot that keeper Will Highland spilled at the feet of George Munday who looked like he must score but somehow the youngster managed to scoop the ball over the empty net.
The visitors kept coming and in 22nd minute Benji Mensah threaded a ball through the left channel to put Munday in and it took a smart save at his near post from keeper Highland to deny the powerful striker.
Having gone so close on so many occasions Ives then found themselves behind against the run of play in 27th minute. Kane Richards cleverly turned Aaron Smith wide on the right and ran on into the area. The Ives full back recovered well to make a tackle but the ball ricocheted back to Richards who picked out the head of his centre forward six yards out and Ash Chambers showed the Ives strikers how to finish planting his header into the bottom corner of the net giving Dan Wilks no chance.
To their great credit Ives heads did not go down and they levelled things up only eight minutes later. Smith’s long throw from the right glanced off the head of defender Lathaniel Rowe-Turner and looped to the back post where keeper Highland and two of his defenders got in a tangle allowing the ball to drop to Munday who unselfishly laid it inside for Will Glennon to sweep it home.
Now with their tails up the visitors went in search of the lead and two minutes before the break Hadi gave them that advantage with a fantastic strike from the corner of the box that beat Highland all ends up. There looked to be little danger when the number nine picked up the ball wide left but he cut inside and beat a man before finishing in style for the goal of the game.
But having got their noses in front Ives committed the cardinal sin of not seeing the game out to the break. They were a little fortunate to escape unscathed when Brown-Hill’s cross from the left arrived at the feet of the usually deadly Canaries skipper Brady Hickey but, on this occasion, he missed his kick from the edge of the box allowing Wilks to gather the loose ball. Sadly they did not learn from that let off as two minutes into added time Hickey’s perfectly judged in-swinging free kick from the right was powered home from close range by Chambers to take the sides into the break locked at 2-2.
The hosts only took three minutes from the restart to restore their lead, again in clinical fashion. Hickey and Richards combined well down the right the move ending with the former’s flick putting the latter clear into the box. The wing back thrashed his shot past Wilks from a narrow angle to make it 3-2.
Once more Ives came straight back at their hosts and it took a flying save from Highland to keep out Jordan Williams on target flick to Smith’s long throw only sixty seconds later. The hosts thought that they should have had a penalty in 53rd minute when Richards outpaced Creary to get to the bye line down the left. The wing back going down under challenge from the recovering Ives defender who was pleased to see referee Keiran Forrest wave away the claims from the very vocal supporters behind the goal.
After that it was one way traffic as Ives piled on the pressure in a desperate search for an equaliser. An excellent 67th minute flowing break down the right involving Mensah and Meade ended with Mensah picking out Glennon on the six yard line with his pull back and Brown-Hill did brilliantly to fling himself across the line of the shot to keep it out of the net.
Another Smith long throw created a half chance in 73rd minute as the arcing ball was knocked back to Meade just outside the box but like his colleagues before him the silky midfielder failed to hit the target with his first time effort. Glennon came close to a repeat of his goal against Kettering two weeks ago as he ghosted into the box to get on the end of Meade’s 79th minute clip to the near post but unlike against the league leaders he did not get enough on the header and the ball drifted wide.
Ives were getting closer and one minute later it took an excellent stop to deny Glennon a deserved equaliser as another flowing move down the right ended with Allen picking out the big number eight arriving at pace. His attempt to sweep the ball home from ten yards was kept out by the legs of the well positioned keeper.
The pressure was relentless and Munday came within inches of scoring in 83rd minute. Another perfectly weighted clip over the top from Meade picked out the run of Hadi who stretched out to deliver the ball across the face of goal from the left. Munday arriving at the back post threw himself at it but once again the contact was not clean and although the striker ended up in the net the ball flew wide of the post.
The Canaries goal was living a charmed life, none more so than in 85th minute when Mensah again got down the right and delivered a low cross that initially fell to Collard, his shot was bravely blocked at point blank range by the body of a flying defender as was the follow up effort from Smith. The ball eventually being scrambled out for a corner that was unfortunately overhit and came to nothing.
The Barwell players had been going down with regularity throughout the second half in a desperate effort to break up the play and it was no surprise when the board went up for an added eight minutes. Ives kept pouring forward, two minutes in the immaculate Meade delivered another excellent ball into the box to pick out the run of Allen. He cleverly spun on it and fired in a low shot that keeper Highland smothered low to his right.
In the fourth added minute, with everyone thrown forward for Ives, the evergreen Leroy Lita had chance to finish things off for the hosts, fed in by Richards the Canaries substitute showed a touch of class to spin on it and fire a first time effort past Wilks and inches wide of the far post.
Substitutions and more injuries, to break up the play, meant there was even more time to add and 98th minute substitute Ed Hottor spurned a golden chance to become Ives hero with his first touch. Yet another Smith missile was hurled into the Canaries box and arced over all at the near post to land on the head of the somehow unmarked Hottor six yards out. Unfortunately like so many of his colleagues before him he failed to hit the target with his free header and the chance to get a just reward from the game was gone.
The result leaves the Canaries only one point behind Ives with six games to go. The two sides being five and six points clear of the drop zone respectively but with two of the clubs behind them both having games in hand they each have more work to do.
A massive game for Ives next Saturday sees them host third bottom AFC Sudbury but ahead of that they have an opportunity to rediscover their touch in front of goal in the Hunts FA Senior Cup Final at St Neots on Tuesday evening.
Final Score: Barwell 3 St Ives Town 2 Half Time 2 – 2
Goals:
BARWELL: Chambers 27, 45+1, Richards 48
ST IVES: Glennon 35, Hadi 43
Team Line Ups:
BARWELL: Highland, Richards, Brown-Hill, Nirennold, Mancinelli, Chambers, Hickey (capt), Hill, Waite, Hayes, Rowe-Turner, Unused subs: Osbourne
ST IVES: Wilks, Williams, Smith, Meade (Watkins 90+7), Creary (Gyamfi 71), Collard (capt), Mensah (Makanjoula 90+1), Glennon, Hadi (Hottor 90+8), Allen, Munday (Pereira 90), Unused subs: none
Referee: Kieran Forrest
Cards: Yellow: BARWELL: none ST IVES: Munday (42)
IVES SUPPORTERS MAN OF THE MATCH: Jernade Meade
Attendance: 402