Chertsey Town headed over to Guildford Spectrum on Saturday for a close match up on ‘Non-League Day’ that saw two of teams relegated from the Southern League last season go head-to-head. The day was a particularly special occasion as the Mayor of Guildford, Cllr David Elms (as pictured below) attended the unveiling of the new 2014-15 kit for City in partnership with local charity Halow Project.
Guildford City would have fancied their chances of victory before the game as rivals Chertsey had only taken three points from their opening six games, but the opposition made it 0-1 straight from kick off. Striker John Pomroy tapped in after a few seconds when a poor clearance on the line by Ray Guilford fell directly to him in the box. However, Guildford looked unfazed by the early goal as they tried to respond immediately and equalize and their first golden opportunity fell to Anthony Baker when his header was cut out on the line by a Chertsey defender. Guildford now looked the stronger of the two sides. Oriogun and Spencer both had shots from far out that didn’t trouble Michael White, before Baker’s skillful run into the box was met with a strong challenge just as he was going to pull the trigger. Chertsey seemed to have no answer for City’s attacking dominance as they could only muster shots from distance which didn’t trouble Antony Hall’s goal.
Another goal scoring opportunity was missed when Rayner put in a great ball from a free kick, but no one in red and white stripes was there to put it in the back of the net. In the dying minutes of the first half, with Guildford pushing men forward, Chertsey saw an opportunity to counter attack, which led to them winning a corner. It looked like Chertsey had snatched another goal with a thumping header but Hall got down well and stopped it from crossing the line. Hall then quickly released the ball and after some great team passing, it arrived with Spencer who could only volley tamely into the hands of the goalkeeper. There was just time for one more golden opportunity for City to equalize as Ben Rayner found himself through on goal in the box but couldn’t finish as Michael White got down and smothered it to end a frustrating 45 minutes.
HALF-TIME: Guildford City FC 0 – Chertsey Town 1 (Pomroy)
Guildford started the second half as they finished the first and within the first few seconds, Rayner whipped the ball into a dangerous position from a corner kick, but yet again, no Guildford player gambled on it. With City still looking to get on the score sheet and pushing more men forward, Chertsey were looking lively on the counter attack.
However, in the 58th minute, Ben Rayner received a second yellow card which meant Guildford were down to 10 men and facing an even steeper uphill battle to get something out of the game. Nevertheless, the home team still looked unfazed after the setback and they pushed on to try and score an equalizer. Another cross came over, this time from Anthony Baker (who was causing havoc down the right wing) which was met by Taylor who then missed the target by some distance.
With time ticking away, both Oriogun and Penson tried shots from distance which came to nothing and it seemed as if nothing was going to work for Guildford. In the 74th minute, manager Kevin Rayner was sent from the bench for dissent and in the 81st minute the final nail in the coffin came when Chertsey’s Cottee scored on the break to make it 2-0 against the run of play. Another disappointing result for City, but a great community day nonetheless!
Team: Antony Hall, Elvis Defreitas, Tom Penson, Ray Guilford, Liam Harwood, Ben Rayner, Anthony Baker, Jordan Taylor, Sam Spencer, Khari Oriogun (Ryan Wallis 76), Bruce McPhail (Anthony Bridgeman 65). Unused subs: David Unwin, Junior Alade and Tyler Chambers.
Yellow cards: Antony Hall, Tom Penson, Liam Harwood
Red cards: Ben Rayner (2 x Yellow)
Referee: Harrison Read
Attendance: 173
Jack Underwood