Villa leave it late to salvage a point at Badshot Lea

Isthmian League – South Central Division

Tuesday 9 April 2024

Badshot Lea 2

• Joshua Keeya (61′)
• Baback Dehghani (65′)

Hanworth Villa 2

Ben Geraghty (20′)
Guy Ansah-Palmer (90’+4)

Match review

There are matches that live long in the memory and I’ve a feeling this won’t be one of them. With Badshot Lea made to play the game on the 3G pitch at Slough FC the atmosphere was severely lacking with only 78 of us braving the trip on an unexpectedly cold night.

While we’ve rued our luck with postponements this year Badshot Lea were having a week of it with 5 games in seven days.

How we lined up

Kickoff

We began the game well. Making a number of good moves and we were passing well. On the 22nd minute Ben Geraghty found himself in a great position as the ball was passed to him and buried the ball for the opener.

Villa strike first through Geraghty 22′

For the rest of the half it looked as we were going to extend our lead but despite some good opportunities falling to Merson and Mead we went in at the break with just the solitary goal.

Second half

It was a game of two halves (so many games are, bit of a tradition if truth be told). As the second half progressed we stopped doing all the good things we were doing in the first half and there was a period around the hour mark where we looked most likely to concede. We lost Ben Geraghty to injury in the 50th minute and in his place came sixteen year old Quincy Patterson.

And so it was proved to be as in the 61st minute Keeya picked up the ball and raced towards the 18 yard box, his strike taking a wicked deflection, looping over Harvey in the goal.

Badshot Lea equalise, Keeya 61′

Following the goal our young squad seemed a bit rattled and before they could gain their composure were undone again. Following a Villa attack Akinnibi broke free down the line where he fed Ceesay, who did Collins down near the corner flag before passing the ball across the goalmouth to Dehghani who had the easiest finish as our defence seemed to have gone AWOL temporarily.

Badshot Lea take the lead, Dehghan 65′

For the remainder of the half there was little to cheer as we struggled to get our shape and get back to the quality of play that we’d managed in the first half.

On the 75 minute Medcraft was booked for a late tackle on Collins. At this point we didn’t look like we were going to get back in as Badshot Lea were organised and set up to hit us on the break. However on the 89th minute Nicholas turned Medcraft who brought him down. The ref brandished a yellow to cries of derision from the supporters as he seemed to have forgotten he’d already booked the player. After a couple of minutes and a chat with the linesman the ref realised his error and produced the red.

Guy Ansah-Palmer hits an equaliser at the death 94′

Despite about six or so minutes of stoppages the ref indicated only 4 minute of additional time but that was enough for us to get the equaliser we needed. As time was running out we lofted a ball into the box where it was met by the head of Guy Ansah Palmer to make it 2-2

Final score 2-2