A week after their first win of the season against the previously unbeaten Gornal Athletic, Stone Old Alleynians were hoping to put another high flying team, league leaders Haughmond, to the sword on Saturday. But despite having plenty of opportunities throughout the game to score goals, the Old Boys came out of the game on the wrong side of a 4-2 scoreline.
Manager Matt Smith was keen to take the positives from the game. He said: “With big Carl Dibden ending his drought with two great goals and the number of opportunities we created against the league’s top side, I can only see us moving up the table and picking points up.
“We put on a great show in attack but were caught out by their tricky forwards who scored almost every chance that came their way. As we progress through the season, we will learn how to cope better with these teams and we won’t be conceding goals like the ones today.”
The game started off with Haughmond having plenty of possession as the Alleynians got used to the tempo of the match. Dale Taylor was initially being given a tough time by their right winger, Louis Irvine, who got through on to goal but instead of shooting, he tried to pass to an unmarked colleague and the ball was scrambled away. In another attack by the visitors, the steady Adam Heath rescued the hosts as he cleared the ball off the goal line.
Shortly afterwards, Haughmond broke into the left hand side of the penalty area. A crucial 50-50 ball was won by the Haughmond left winger, Kevin Renshaw. He put a low cross into the middle which cruelly deflected off Luke Askey past the despairing dive of Alleynians’ keeper Zirekoglu to put the Old Boys one goal down.
The Alleynians started to match Haughmond for possession. Danny Heard, Callum Moloney and skipper Paul Griffiths, who were working tremendously hard in midfield to close down their opponents, created a number of chances for Dibden and the tireless Thorley. Unfortunately, after about 20 minutes Haughmond took a corner which the Old Boys failed to get to first and the Haughmond centre-back, Craig Farr, looped a header into the net to give them a two goal advantage.
However, just before half-time, Carl Dibden finally found his shooting boots by blasting a 20 yard thunderbolt past the bewildered Haughmond keeper to give the Old Boys some encouragement for the second half.
After the required hairdryer team talk during the break, Old Alleynians came fast out of the blocks and ready for action. Cultured defender Dale Taylor soon went into the referee’s notebook for a tackle on his winger and other players were also showing a much more competitive edge. Classy centre-backs, Luke Askey and Ollie Davies were breaking up attacks by Haughmond and using the ball constructively to set further Alleynians attacks going.
After the Haughmond keeper fumbled a corner, Askey looked certain to score but his under-hit shot was cleared off the line and Haughmond broke away down the right into attack. As the cross came in from the wing, Steve Hole, the Haughmond No.9 burst between two defenders to head powerfully past Zirekoglu, making the score 3-1 to the visitors.
The Old Boys refused to lie down and the hard working Carl Dibden, who had earlier joined his team mate in the book with a reckless challenge, soon put a tremendous header past his opponents’ goalkeeper to reduce the deficit. With the team in full attack mode, Alleynes created plenty of chances. Sub Sam Hodkinson was put through but couldn’t get enough power in his shot and Dibden had a clear chance for his hatrick, but he could only shoot weakly at the relieved visitors’ keeper. The buccaneering Grant Bigham got away on the left but in his effort to power the ball home, he managed only to put it wide.
Haughmond were still dangerous on the break and one of these attacks ended when their powerful No.10, Carl Rogers put a screamer in the top corner to seal the result. Despite this setback, Old Alleynians kept attacking and with little time left on the clock, their luck was typified by a header that hit the angle of the post and crossbar then rolled all the way along the goal line before the Haughmond defence cleared it away.
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]Team: Zirekoglu, Heath, Askey, Davies, Taylor, Griffiths, Moloney, Heard, Bigham, Dibden, Thorley. Subs: Thomas (Moloney), Tomkinson (Thorley), Hodgkinson (Griffiths)[/box]
