Eight goal thriller at Ashford Town

First eleven

• 1 Gary Ross
• 2 Guy Ansah-Palmer
• 3 Louis Collins
• 4 Gagendeep Samra
• 5 Rayan Djouadj
• 6 Matthew Gbio
• 7 Theo Crawford
• 8 Seanen McKillop
• 9 Kyen Nicholas
• 10 Ben Geraghty
• 11 Sam Merson

Substitutes

• 12 Kyron Richards
• 14 Ben Merson
• 15 Sam Mead
• 16 Bruno Robertson-Tingle
• 17 Aston Nunn

How it played out

In a Boxing Day battle that had more entertainment than the average blockbuster Villa triumphed with two last gasp goals to claim the points. Both teams had come into the game with wins at the weekend but in the end this victory moved us into second place in the form league equal on points with Chertsey.

Hanworth Villa | Form Guide | Last 6 Matches | Football Web Pages

The game ebbed and flowed. We took an early lead through Nicholas (10′). Ashford equalised straight away (14′). We took the lead again, once again through Nicholas (34′) who bagged his 13th of the season, overtaking Sam Merson to become the club’s top goal scorer this season.

As happens too often we conceded shortly after the break (53′), the game now 2-2. Within eight minutes we’d retaken the lead again through Samra (61′).

We led until seven minutes from the end (83′) where we again conceded to allow Ashford to draw level.

3-3

As the game headed into the last minute it looked to all that this was going to be a well-earned point away from home. Not ideal but I’d have taken it. However, a real steeliness and togetherness has begun to filter through our team and two goals went our way in ‘Fergie time.’

First, to make it 3-4, was Guy Ansah-Palmer, scoring in back to back games.

And then, to draw level with Nicholas on 13 goals for the season up popped Sam Merson to finish the game 3-5.

Full match report to follow shortly.