Match Report
St Ives Town v Bishop’s Stortford
Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central 19-04-2025
This relegation six pointer drew a bumper Easter weekend crowd but unfortunately the last five minutes were played out with little more than one hundred in attendance thanks to a 55 minute delay caused by a serious injury to the Blues Stevenage loanee Zack Howell who was unfortunate enough to be in the way when his own team mate Presley Evans lunged in on Amir Hadi. The Ives player quick enough to get out of the way but Howell not quite so swift to react picked up an injury that required him to be stretchered from the pitch by paramedics.
A lot had gone on before that unfortunate incident as for the second home game in a row Ives found themselves held to a draw by ten man opponents. The man to receive a straight red card in this game was Fabio Virciglio who gave referee Christopher Poole a very simple decision to make as he scythed Josh Allen as the Ives striker ran on Hadi’s 56th minute through ball with only keeper Elliot Krasniqi to beat.
For only the third time this season Ives named an unchanged starting eleven retaining the side which had beaten play-off chasing Harborough in such exciting fashion last Saturday. Their opponents who came into the game off the back of two close defeats against promotion chasing sides made one change from their previous game with Cole Dasilva coming in for Mark Haines.
The Blues started the game like a train and thought that they had got in front inside the first fifty seconds Rashawn Scott got around Ethan Creary down the left to get in one on one with Dan Wilks. His deft flick got past the big keeper and hit the inside of the post before being hooked away acrobatically by Aaron Smith. Claims that the ball had crossed the line were waved away by referee Poole and his well positioned assistant.
The early onslaught from the visitors continued and in sixth minute Howell was brought down by Hadi wide right to give the Blues chance to deliver a dangerous ball into the box. But Dasilva overhit his free kick which sailed beyond all at the far post.
Ives first foray into Blues territory came in tenth minute when Hadi picked out George Munday on the edge of the box. His smart turn ended in a shot that was destined for the bottom corner but did not have sufficient pace allowing Krasniqi to dive to his right and make the save.
Hadi was involved in a lot of good things for Ives during this period of the game and in 13th minute he was bundled over by Howell to concede a free kick just outside the left corner of the box. Will Glennon curled the resulting kick around the visitor’s wall forcing Krasniqi to dive low to his left to deflect the ball around the post.
Ives best opportunity before the break fell to Glennon in 18th minute. Jernade Meade’s corner from the right bounced around the Blues box. Munday had a shot blocked and the ball dropped to Ives leading scorer eight yards out but he snatched at the chance and ended up scooping the ball over the crossbar as he tried to find a route through the crowd on the goal line.
The hosts continued to probe for the opener and went close again in 25th minute. A swift break saw Peter Abimbola strike a fierce low drive from the edge of the box. Krasniqi got down smartly to block it but the ball popped up for Allen who was brilliantly denied by Jaden Ogwuazor who came across to block.
Having survived that twenty minute period of Ives pressure the Blues then looked to cause of few problems of their own as half time approached. Meade picked up the game’s first yellow card in 32nd minute for chopping down the tricky Scott inches outside the box. Dasilva tried to get the resulting free kick up and down over the hosts five man wall. He got the up bit right but the ball was still rising as it went over Wilks’s crossbar with the keeper looking on.
The visitors then got themselves in front four minutes before the break with a simple goal that left Ives defenders all looking at each other. Bradley Russell was somehow allowed to ghost through unattended past defenders to get on the end of a delicate clip over the top and he made no mistake finishing clinically past the exposed keeper.
Ives had one more half chance to get back on terms before the interval by Munday fired his volley well over the top after Jake Thompson’s header from Smith’s long throw had dropped to him on the edge of the box.
The hosts came out well fired up at the start of the second period and a series of Smith long throws caused problems in the Blues box. Hadi headed over from ten yards and Allen had a close range shot blocked in 51st minute. A swift Ives break then lead to the dismissal of Virciglio in 56th minute. Hadi lead the charge from his own half before feeding a perfectly weighted ball into the run of Allen through the centre. Virciglio’s cynical tackle from behind right on the edge of the box ensured an early bath for the Blues number twelve. But he ended up smiling as Meade blazed the resulting free kick well over the top.
Now up against ten Ives continued to pour forward in search of what was proving an elusive equaliser. Meade set up Munday for a shooting opportunity on the hour but the youngster blazed well over the top from just inside the box. It was full back Creary’s turn to go close four minutes later as a patient Ives move ended with Allen feeding a ball into the full back’s galloping run but his fierce effort fizzed across the face of goal and past the far post.
Hadi was first to hit the target for Ives in the second half with twenty minutes to go but his powerful drive from 20 yards was straight a Krasniqi. Only ninety seconds later Hadi got on the end of Abimbola’s ball to the near post but his flick was blocked into the side netting by a covering defender. The hosts thought they had equalised from the resulting corner. Meade’s in-swinger from the right appeared to cross the line before it was hacked away by Ogwuazor but for the second time in the game a well positioned assistant decided that it had not gone in. The onslaught from Ives continued and keeper Krasniqi had to thank Ogwuazor for saving his blushes two minutes later. The agile keeper had decided to try and punch away another Smith long throw but had got it all wrong and only succeeded in propelling the ball goalwards off his fist. Fortunately for Krasniqi Ogwuazor repeated his feat of moments earlier by again hacking the ball away off the goal line.
The long awaited equaliser finally arrived twelve minutes from time. Creary fed in Habib Makanjuola. It looked like the ball had gone a little to far towards the byeline but the Ives substitute swung his boot through it and fired in a rasping drive that struck Krasniqi by his near post and flew into the net off the unfortunate keeper.
Ives continued in search of a winner and Smith continued to hurl throws into the Blues box that were usually met by the clearing head of Thompson or Ogwuazor but an 80th minute one did fall to Allen ten yards out. Not for the first time in the game though the body of a brave defender blocked the shot at point blank range.
The ten man Blues did have one half chance to snatch it in 86th minute when a slip from skipper Alex Collard let in Dasilva but the tiring wing back ran out of steam and sliced his effort well wide from the edge of the box.
Meade picked up a poor defensive header 25 yards out in the last of the ninety minutes but fired wide from just outside the D. But just as Ives were starting to build for a grandstand finish in the added six minutes came the injury to Howell that took the sting completely out of the game. When things did eventually restart after the lengthy delay only one half chance emerged in that period but again Allen saw a shot blocked away by one of the gallant Blues defenders.
With two games to go both of these sides sit just two points above the drop zone with everything to play for in those crucial remaining fixtures. A win for either, on Easter Monday, could see them safe but it looks likely that things will go down to the wire. Finally we must end this report by wishing the unfortunate Howell a speedy recovery from all involved in the game.
Final Score: St Ives Town 1 Bishop’s Stortford 1 Half Time 0 – 1
Goals:
ST IVES: Makanjuola 78
BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Russell 41
Line Ups:
ST IVES: Wilks, Creary, Smith, Meade, Abimbola, Collard (capt), Allen, Glennon, Hadi, Dias (Makanjuola 66), Munday (Gyamfi 90+2), Unused subs: Williams, Pereira, Hottor,
BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Kransniqi, Dasilva, Thompson (capt), Melvin-Lambert (Haines 63), Russell, Scott (Evans 66), Virciglio, Chalwell, Charles (Forde 86), Ogwuazor, Howell (Akinbulumo 90+55), Unused subs: Cook
Referee: Christopher Poole
Cards: Red: BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Virciglio (56)
Yellow: ST IVES: Meade (32) BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Krasniqi (82)
IVES SUPPORTERS MAN OF THE MATCH: Josh Allen
Attendance: 457