St Ives Town v Bishop’s Stortford-Match Report
Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central 27-09-2025
Michael Richens’ penalty four minutes before the break looked to be enough for Ives to claim back to back home league wins, but a 92nd minute effort from Bishop’s Stortford’s Fabio Virciglio provided a late sucker punch to the home side as the match ended all square in Cambridgeshire.
Richens’ first half spot kick, which saw the Ives skipper become his side’s outright top scorer for the campaign, was cancelled out late on through substitute Virciglio, who managed to capitalise on Ives failing to fully clear their lines, as Stortford’s number 12 picked up the ball on the edge of the area and curled his shot into Ollie Taylor’s top left corner.
This result does see manager Ricky Marheineke’s side move up to 10th place in the Southern League Premier Central table, which is admittedly helped by the fact many other teams in the division were in FA Cup action this weekend.
Speaking after the game, Marheineke gave his overall thoughts on the match and says that despite feeling like its two points dropped, his side will be trying to take the positives from the performance into their upcoming fixtures.
“It’s two points dropped but I thought the performance was really good, so we’re trying to look at the positives from it. Some of our attacking play certainly in the first half I thought was exceptional.” Marheineke said.
“Probably should’ve been further ahead, which in that scenario when you’re so dominant you need to make it pay and one goal probably wasn’t a reflection what we did.”
“Second half I thought it was a much more even game and especially the last 10 minutes the momentum was with Bishop’s Stortford and we were having to do some more defending and unfortunately we couldn’t see the game out which was disappointing for the lads because they put in a real good shift.”
Prior to kick, both sets of players, coaching staff and fans observed a minute’s silence to mark the passing of Billy Vigar, who tragically lost his life playing for Chichester City last Saturday. The silence was impeccably observed by all 292 spectators in attendance.
As the Ives manager mentioned in his post-match remarks, the home side started the more dominant and looked to be on the front foot in the opening exchanges. Aaron Smith was heavily involved in the opening 10 minutes of the half as supporters got another glimpse at his lethal long throwing ability. With only five minutes gone, Smith produced a testing ball into the box from the side-lines which eventually found the feet of Liam Cross, who could only manage to flash his shot wide of Adam Hayton’s post.
Another big theme of Ives’ performance on the day was their hunger when looking to win the ball back after losing it, which was on full display in the 8th minute as Gibou Njie won the ball back in midfield and played it inside to Richens, who drove approximately 30 yards before unleashing a strike that was saved fairly comfortably by the Blues shot-stopper.
Despite the home side starting the brighter, it took a superb reflex save from Taylor in the 16th minute to prevent Ives from going behind against the run of play as Saleem Akanbi found Jake Thompson no more than six yards out from goal, but his volleyed effort was expertly palmed away by Tuesday night’s man of the match.
A minute later saw Ives go up the other end of the field and go close to breaching Stortford’s defences as Amir Hadi looked to bend one into the far corner from outside the area, with the Ives number 7 being denied by the fingertips of Hayton. Building on his late equaliser against Leiston, Hadi caused problems for the visitors throughout proceedings and was no doubt one of the standout players on Saturday afternoon.
Then, five minutes before the break, referee Jamie Stevenson pointed to the spot following a challenge on the aforementioned Hadi. The Ives forward went down under a challenge just inside the Blues’ penalty area as Marheineke’s side had a chance to go into the break with some reward for their first half performance. Richens stepped up and blasted the ball past Hayton hard and low into his bottom right-hand corner to put his side one up.
Ives started the second half in a similar fashion to how they began the first as they looked to get the all-important second goal. In the 51st minute, Cross produced a fantastic solo effort which saw the forward move past a couple of Stortford defenders before making his way into the box, where a strong piece of defending prevented his cross from finding Jamal Adams.
Six minutes later, Cross went close to scoring himself as some incisive build up from the hosts saw Jernade Meade find the number 10 bearing down on goal, but his strike was well-saved by Hayton.
With Ives still remaining in control, Blues boss Steve Castle had to do something to wrestle back the momentum. His first move was to bring the introduction of recent signing and former professional Scott Kashket, who replaced Luka Chalwell on 59 minutes. The former football league player nearly made an immediate impact as he forced Taylor into a good save at his near post with one of his first touches of the ball.
Despite the visitors being in the ascendancy, the home side may feel they should’ve doubled their advantage with just under 20 minutes to go as a cross to the back post found Jordan Williams, who saw his goal bound header cleared off the line from close range.
The last 15 minutes of proceedings saw Castle’s men throw everything at the Ives backline, with Blues looking the more likely to get the next goal. However, the home side were managing to limit Stortford to half chances and shots outside the penalty area. Kashket’s effort in 75th minute which sailed over Taylor’s crossbar summed this up pretty well.
However, as referee Stevenson confirmed there would be four added minutes at the end of the second half, the host’s resistance was finally broken. The ball was played into the area and was initially half cleared by the Ives backline before the ball found the feet of substitute Virciglio. Who took a touch before bending his effort into the top corner, past the outstretched hand of Taylor in the Ives goal.
Despite the late goal taking the wind out of the sails of Ives players and supporters alike, the game didn’t finish without incident as the home side had a late appeal for a penalty waved away by the referee, with Ives players and management all going up in unison as a strong challenge went in on Richens in the area. However, it wasn’t to be for Ives who had to settle for a point in this rescheduled fixture. Their attention will now turn to the FA Trophy which sees Marheineke’s men have a home tie against Kettering Town. Bishop’s Stortford are also in Trophy action as they host Cray Wanderers.
Final Score: St Ives Town 1 Bishop’s Stortford 1 Half Time 1 – 0
Goals:
ST IVES: Richens 41
BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Virciglio 92
Team Line Ups:
ST IVES: Taylor, Smith (Creary 85), Richens, Williams, Idehen, Hadi, Adams (Alexandrou 64), Cross (Shepherd 87), Miles, Njie (McKoy 73), Meade
Unused Subs: None
BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Hayton, Davies, Thompson, Haines, Onyeagwara, Phillips (Virciglio 64), Greene (Evans 81), Smith, Field (Akinbulumo 96), Akanbi, Chalwell (Kashket 59)
Unused Subs: Lethbridge
Referee: Jamie Stevenson
Cards: Yellow: ST IVES: Miles (6), Hadi (37)
Yellow: BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Virciglio (72)
MATCH SPONSORS MAN OF THE MATCH: Jordan Williams
Attendance: 292
