Two teams who were the beaten County Cup Semi-Finalists met here in the League . Willesden are lower down the table but have the matches in hand.
Without being dynamic, the first half was not bad with both sides having only a few chances and canceling each other out. Willesden had the ball in the back of the Marsh net twice, but both were disallowed. The first was an excellent INDIRECT free kick, clearly signaled by the Referee but taken as a direct kick by Willesden. Marsh, through Bradley Hand had the ball inside the Willesden net but it was ruled out due to a dubious offside flag. [ always dubious in the home report !!!!! ]. 0 – 0 at half time and not really exciting.
Manager Dave Campbell tried to make a few positional changes during the interval, but the players did not really respond. For around 15 second half minutes Marsh were in the match, but then the tide turned and Willesden took over. The first gave Adam Casey, in goal, no chance but the second was clearly ...... repeat clearly scored by a Willesden player coming back from an offside position. In the modern game that would still be off side the moment he touches the ball ..... but not in this match for some reason. Not the Referees fault but surely the linesman must have realised what had happened ? The third was a late clear cut penalty, given away for no reason with a reckless tackle. Marsh picked up another couple of injuries which restricts the thinking of the Manager for future matches. On the positive side Craig Drew, Jonny Wiggins, and longer term injury Miles Wiggins all came through the game well. With a full team squad Marsh Rangers F.C. are a match for anybody, and far better than most, but they are having to play players out of position at the moment, Jack Bigwood & Mat Monhon put in useful performances out of position but the ball was hardly fed to the Marsh forwards to give them a chance .
Reported by Clive Goodman