National League South
CHELMSFORD CITY 4 BRAINTREE TOWN 1
JOHN CHUBB at The Melbourne Community Stadium
Following a defeat the Saturday before Christmas, it turned out to be a happy festive season for Chelmsford City as they secured local bragging rights over Braintree Town, with what was ultimately an emphatic win in challenging weather conditions.
Chelmsford had on-loan MK Dons goalkeeper Laurie Walker – who made his Clarets bow in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat away to Chippenham Town – making his Melbourne debut whilst ex-Barnet and Maidstone United winger Nana Kyei, who joined the club on Christmas Eve was named among the substitutes.
City manager Rod Stringer made two changes to his starting line-up from the match at Chippenham, with Jonny Giles and Billy Knott coming in for Elliot Omozusi and Shaun Jeffers.
Braintree – with former Chelmsford manager George Borg in charge – had a debutant in Jacob Gardner-Smith who has arrived at Cressing Road on loan from Wycombe Wanderers whilst ex-Chelmsford player Jordan Chiedozie – another recent Iron signing – started on their bench.
The first chance fell to Chelmsford in the fourth minute, when Knott put a cross in from the left for Giles whose shot sailed over the crossbar.
A few minutes later Tom Knowles made a good run into the box, twisting and turning before seeing his shot blocked.
And Knowles had another chance with 10 minutes played after being teed up by Bradley Stevenson, but the Clarets forward couldn’t get enough power behind the ball and his effort rolled wide.
Then moments later, Knowles was brought down in the box and there were shouts for a penalty by the Chelmsford players but nothing was given.
Braintree had their first real chance just after the quarter of an hour mark when Lucas Kirkpatrick had a shot on target, but City keeper Walker managed to push the ball away before Steve Sheehan went close with a header from the resulting corner.
With the opening 45 minutes midway through Chelmsford were forced into a change when Knott, who had been brought down early in the match and was clearly struggling was withdrawn by home boss Stringer and replaced with Chez Isaac.
Giles had a glancing header from an Anthony Church cross with 12 minutes to go until half-time, which sailed just wide of Iron keeper Marcin Brozowski’s goal.
Then with four minutes to go until half-time City finally managed to break the deadlock, with Robbie Simpson heading home form a Knowles corner to put the home side 1-0 in front.
Then with the break fast approaching another header doubled the Clarets’ lead, this time from Chris Whelpdale who nodded home from a Stevenson cross and Stringer’s men went in at the interval two goals to the good.
Whelpdale crashed the ball into the net within a minute of the restart, but the goal was ruled out thanks to a late linesman’s flag.
Then Isaac had a 48th minute run on goal and shot which was well stopped by Brozowski.
But City’s dominance was suddenly interrupted a minute later, when the visitors forced a quick attack and Tyler Christian-Law slotted the ball past Walker to reduce the deficit.
Braintree started to look more of threat at this point, boss Borg clearly sensed his side had a very good chance of coming back into the match and he made tactical changes, reverting to a 4-3-3 formation and substituting defender Christian Frimpong for winger Chiedozie.
But shortly afterwards his opposite number Stringer brought on his leading goalscorer Shaun Jeffers in place of Stevenson, and it didn’t take him long to make an impact.
With 69 minutes played the Chelmsford striker thought he had made it 3-1 when he found the net, but referee Richard Holmes spotted an infringement and disallowed the goal.
Jeffers had another effort blocked before another shot was struck into the arms of Brozowski.
But the Clarets made it 3-1 in the 81st minute when Whelpdale’s left-footed drive was deflected into the right-hand corner of the net.
Then a penalty was awarded six minutes from the end, much to the Iron players’ displeasure but once the protests had been waved away Jeffers stepped up and fired his spot-kick to Brozowski’s left and it was now 4-1.
A couple of minutes later it was nearly worse for Braintree, many of whose supporters had already left after the penalty to begin their journey home when a Chelmsford header was stopped on the line by Brozowski.
So it finished 4-1 and although the match looked as though could have gone either way in the first quarter of the second period, City ultimately proved the stronger side and put themselves in a more promising position with 2019 coming to a close.
Chelmsford City (Manager: Rod Stringer): Laurie Walker, Frazer Shaw, Anthony Church, Michael Chambers, Adrian Cascaval, Jonny Giles, Billy Knott (Chez Isaac 24), Chris Whelpdale, Bradley Stevenson (Shaun Jeffers 65), Tom Knowles, Robbie Simpson (Leroy Lita 80).
Braintree Town (Manager: George Borg): Marcin Brozowski, Brendan Ocran, Cameron Green, Christian Frimpong (Jordan Chiedozie 62), Steve Sheehan, Dan Matsuzaka, Tyler Christian-Law, Lucas Kirkpatrick, Rhys Murrell-Williams, Alfie Cerrulli, Jacob Gardner-Smith.
Attendance: 919
“I felt we definitely deserved to win the game.
“I was very disappointed that we had two goals disallowed, they looked like good goals to me.
“They (Braintree) got the game back to 2-1, then it’s anybody’s game.
“I’ve been around football long enough to know that 2-1 is never a done deal, but we changed our shape, and eventually we ground them down and took the opportunities.
“I felt overall we shaded it and we deserved the points.” – Chelmsford manager Rod Stringer
“At 2-1 we got back in it, had them on the ropes and I decided to open the game up a little bit, and instead of going with three at the back I decided to go to 4-3-3.
“Unfortunately they got the third goal (after) we had a great chance to equalise with a free-kick.
“We’re disappointed to lose and its no fun when you lose 4-1, but…I’m really pleased with my lads, they worked hard, we’ve still got a long way to go, we still need a couple of players.
“We’ll keep going and we’ll improve….we’re not strong enough when we make a mistake, we get caught out of position, that’s where we get penalised and I think that’s my concern.
“(But) hopefully we’ll be fine as we’ve got some really good talented players”. – Braintree manager George Borg
