Curfews ten clear after winning a stormy top two tussle

Our big match in Pitching In Isthmian South Central last night came from the Alfred Davis Ground, as second place Marlow welcomed the side seven points ahead of them, leaders Chertsey Town. Marlow had been in superb form- ten unbeaten matches which include nine wins- whilst the visitors had exactly the same ten match record, and made the trip after winning nine in a row, and remaining unbeaten for FIVE months. We expected a tight match- and we got just that, but it may have been tighter still had the hosts not played much of it with ten men- and then a fair chunk of it with nine!

One of the most significant moments of the match arrived on sixteen minutes when Benjamin Mulley saw red for the hosts, leaving them a man short for seventy four minutes. Actually, it turned out to be rather longer than that, as a floodlight failure at the break saw the match held up for half an hour, but the game had only been restarted for six minutes when it got worse for the Marlow, Brandon Curtis following Mulley for an early shower as the referee waved a red card. Marlow perhaps should have been down and out at that point, but the nine men dug in, and it looked like they might take a point until, finally, Gianluca Botti found a way past Aaron Watkins with only four minutes to go- his twenty first goal of the campaign perhaps the most important he’ll score all year.

That turned out to be that, and the Curfews extended their lead at the top to ten points- and that unbeaten run to TWENTY FOUR matches. Marlow remain in second. Image courtesy of the club.

A chief reason that Marlow remained in second place was the fact that third place Southall were held to a draw at Thatcham Town- but at half time it looked as if The All would be lucky to escape with a point, as by then they were two goals down.

The Kingfishers had been in fine form prior to their unexpected capitulation at Northwood on Saturday, and looked to be entirely recovered from that defeat as Jordi Ebanda and Andrew Matthews gave them a two goal lead at the break- but their visitors finally came good in the second half. Ebanda’s goal came after fine work from Kyle Daniel-Spray, whilst Daniel-Spray also assisted the second, his free kick headed home by Matthews to make it two-nil with only two minutes remaining until half time.

Jaden Thompson-Brissett took until only a minute after the restart to give Southall a lifeline from distance, scoring his THIRTIETH goal of the season to pull it back to two-one, and only eleven minutes later The All were level, Ethan Kaiser up from the back to score for the second match in a row and make it two-two. Both sides had chances to win the game, and deep into added time the visitors went down to ten men, Azeez Alabi dismissed for a foul on Harvey Harry, but there was no time for a winner and a point apiece was the final outcome.

Finally, Ashford Town went into last night’s match with Met Police having taken only two points from the previous thirty available to them, and indeed having managed only one win from their previous eighteen matches- but the Tangerines got back to winning ways, and extended the gap between themselves and second bottom Binfield to nine points. The opening goal arrived midway through the first half, and it went to Juwon Akintunde, the number three heading in from close range to give the hosts the lead. Met, who have been in good form, didn’t give up- but they might have had an inkling that it wasn’t to be their night when Mason Galloway was dismissed twelve minutes into the second half- and that was confirmed deep into added time, when Ben Holder walloped home a second for the hosts.

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