Curfews and Geordies deliver convincing wins to reach the Final

Chertsey Town will hold home advantage for Sunday’s Pitching In Isthmian South East Play Off Final, after brushing aside the challenge of Basingstoke Town at Alwyns Lane last night- despite playing the last thirty five minutes with ten men- and without a goalkeeper.

The Curfews needed only eight minutes to go ahead, Andrew Crossley firing home from just inside the box, and they made it two five minutes after the restart, Didi Ndombe making it two. And then, disaster, as keeper Nicholas Jupp saw red for handling the ball outside his box, with striker Scott Day ending up between the sticks for the Curfews. Well, we say disaster, but it seemed to make little difference, as a minute before the end Ashley Lodge got a third for the host to make sure. There was still time for two more goals, Magnus Abisogun adding a fourth before Rob Sheridan got a consolation, but it wasn’t much of a consolation as Stoke crashed out.

Not too far away at the end of the Heathrow runway, Bedfont Sports welcomed Hanwell Town. Harry Rush tapped home the opener for the Geordies on just eight minutes after a Sam Saunders corner wasn’t cleared, but the hosts were level fairly quickly, Max Webb with the equaliser on twenty two minutes.

Ten minutes before the break Ogo Obi did what he does best, scoring to make it two-one, and three minutes later Gareth Chendlik, who has missed most of the season with serious injury, made it three- ably assisted by Saunders. Try as they might the hosts couldn’t find a way back, and couldn’t score their customary late goal- but they did have a late red card, Darryl Saunders departing only slightly earlier than the rest of his team mates.

Congratulations to Chertsey and Hanwell- we’ll see you on Sunday afternoon. Commiserations to Sports and Town, who have had superb seasons.