Bishops Stortford 7 Chelmsford 4

Premier Division

CHELMSFORD made the short trip to Bishops Stortford for their second league game of the season. Chelmsford were in a buoyant mood coming off the back of a solid 4-0 win the week before. A short, low tempo warm-up was in stark contrast to the Stortford preparation and this showed in the opening encounters as a physical Stortford side pushed hard. This was rewarded early on when a ball across the D was unfortunately deflected to a Bishops Stortford striker on the P-spot. The striker made no mistakes and drilled the ball in to the bottom corner.

It wasn’t long before Stortford were on the drive again, this time a mishit shot from a narrow angle was unluckily deflected via David Hunter’s stick and chest into the Chelmsford net. Once again it wasn’t too long before Stortford struck again, this time a short corner drag flick sailing in to the netting with the Chelmsford goal keeper feeling he should have done better

Chelmsford began to settle as the half went on and started to exert some pressure of their own. With little time left in the half a short corner was won and Hunter Senior calmly slapped the ball into the bottom corner (with a little help from a Pike touch). Half time came and Chelmsford were aware that they were still very much in the game, needing only to raise the standard of their basics and to stick to their plans.

Unfortunately the second half started in much the same way as the first, a harsh short corner given for a fairly innocuous tackle from Mills and BS scoring with a very well rehearsed and executed move. Thankfully it wasn’t long before the Chelm replied with a well-worked ball being calmly crossed/shot from the left by Mills with an eager Adam “Emu” Hunter slotting his second unstoppable shot in two weeks from half a yard at the back post.

owever the early goal had once again given BS the impetus to drive and three more goals were scored past a helpless Chelmsford keeper in quick succession after sloppy work at the back gifted the BS front line with easy ball. This left Chelmsford 7-2 down, and though there was a good twenty minutes left to play, the half time hill they had to climb had now turned in to a mountain.

This did not deter the Chelmsford boys and they battled through right to the end, Adam Hunter setting Willy Hales up for a fine reverse stick finish and Hales featuring again in the final goal with a collected pass through to Mills who made no mistake when firing the ball in at the near post.

Chelmsford will take this game as a wake-up call, knowing that though the opposition won’t necessarily the standard of years gone past, they will be strong and eager to get one over the “national league” boys. A number of simple mistakes were made throughout and Chelmsford know they need to cut out these errors and begin to play at the levels they know they can.

Scorers: Marc Pike (David Hunter), Adam Hunter, Geoff Mills, Will Hales

Man of the Match: Geoff Mills