Chasetown Reserves climbed to top spot of the Midland Combination Reserve Division One after a hard fought victory against Rugby Town.
It was a young Rugby side that took to the field at the Scholars Ground. All players are part of the recently formed Gordon Strachan Football Foundation. But before this encounter they had made a positive start to the season having only lost once.
Chasetown started the more positive and opened the scoring after ten minutes. Starting in the left-back position, it saw Daniel Rock pass to Jonathan Gould who careered forward into opposition territory before cutting inside Rugby’s Melanius Mullarkey. He skipped Jeff Woodward’s challenge and slid the ball in the path of Drew Aiton who powered the ball high into the roof of the net leaving keeper Jim Thwattes no chance.
Theo Robinson was next to dummy a Rugby defender, producing a low drive from an acute angle that Thwattes reacted quickly to smother.
Aiton went unbelievably close again as he collected a through ball from Karl Edwards, beat his marker and hammered the ball goalwards, but it somehow bounced down off the underside of the bar and back into play.
Rugby replied with their own method of attractive play and started to edge their way back into the reckoning. On 23 minutes Dominik Alleyne picked up the ball in the centre of the park and found Ryan Coyle with a precise pass. Lee surged forward to fire the visitors back into the game, despite the Mark Wiggins’ valiant attempt to push the ball away.
Alleyne was becoming a nuisance, linking up well with co-forward Coyle. Visiting wingers Jean Dakouri and Adam McGinley were equally contributing to the fightback.
The Scholars were also creating impressive distribution and off the ball movement. The energetic Andy Westwood fired just over with a pot-shot half-volley as he charged down a defence clearance.
Another fluent passing move came from Chasetown which led to a corner on the right after Liam Browne had cleared at the feet of Karl Edwards. David Bridgwater played the corner short to Chad Degville-Cross who collected 30 yards out and calmly chipped the keeper from the angle.
Just when Rugby were settling to exit the half a goal down, Jack Hulin ran the ball out of the Scholars defence and delivered an exquisite pass to Edwards who slipped the ball between two flummoxed defenders, slotting a low finish calmly beyond the keeper to claim Chasetown’s third.
The visitors’ sprang into action after a revitalising half-time team talk. They were being successfully pinned back in the last third until a penalty was awarded against the hosts in the 51st minute for handball. Nic Whittam converted reducing the deficit to one goal.
Chasetown responded with gusto as the end to end entertainment continued. On 55 minutes Bridgwater floated a dead ball over the defence and Edwards helped himself to his second goal of the afternoon with a chipped volley beyond Thwattes’ reach.
This seemed to take the wind out of Rugby as they found themselves defending wave after wave of attacks. A Bridgewater 35 yard blast was guided wide by Thwattes. Degville-Cross then went agonisingly close with a low drive following good play between Westwood and Edwards.
The Scholars offensive continued as they searched for a fifth. Bridgwater was only inches away with another long range effort and then he foiled the Rugby rear guard with a cheeky back heel for Jonathan Gould to rattle the bar, as the hosts eased their way towards the final whistle.
The fifth did arrive in the shape of hat-trick for Edwards on 88 minutes. The Scholars striker robbed Andy Anderton and sprinted into the danger area, rounding things off for Chasetown with an unstoppable drive.
The Reserves travel to Banbury for the Challenge Trophy cup tie on Saturday (October 15), their second outing to Oxfordshire this season.
Chasetown: Wiggins, Degville-Cross, Gould, J Aiton, Hulin, Rock (Sowe), D Aiton (Wood), Bridgwater, Edwards, Robinson (Marina), A Westwood. Subs not used: Brown, Deakin.
