January 7, 2023
After 8 years in the wilderness, Walthamstow are back at step 4 following winning the Essex Senior League last season, and like many sides in the eastern part of London have a complex history. This club have no connection with the legendary Walthamstow Avenue, at one time one of the leading amateur sides in the country, but who were eventually devoured by the hungry monster that ate up famous names such as Ilford and Leytonstone, as well as Avenue to form Redbridge Forest, and then in turn merging with Dagenham to form Dagenham and Redbridge FC.
Instead, Walthamstow FC claim a historical legacy from the Clapton side formed in 1868 and have also gone by the names of Leyton Pennant & Waltham Forest before changing their name to Walthamstow FC in 2018.
At 300, Walthamstow currently had the best average home crowd in the division, at their Wadham Lodge ground, and the club nickname is The Stags. Ambitions were high at the start of the season but after a poor start, including a 0-2 home loss to Thame as well as exiting the FA Cup and FA Trophy at the first hurdles, joint managers John Mackie and Terry Spillane were relieved of their duties and replaced by the experienced Nicky Ironton, who was an England Semi-Professional international in the 1980’s and was previously manager at Welwyn Garden City. A number of players have followed Ironton from Welwyn to Walthamstow, but perhaps the most interesting name in their squad was centre-back Te Wihongi, a New Zealand international with 8 caps and has played in the A-League for Wellington Phoenix.
Making his debut today for Stow was experienced centre-forward Duncan Culley, signed from Hanworth Villa, with Farnborough, Hampton and Richmond and Hayes & Yeading on his CV, whilst their starting XI also included two refugees from the defunct Harlow Town, but neither Fabion Simms or Jared Small appeared in Harlow’s match at Didcot covered by these diaries in November.
After losing 5 of their first 6 league matches, Walthamstow stabilised with victories over Didcot, Aylesbury, Barton Rovers and Highworth Town. Last time out they won 3-2 at Waltham Forest on Boxing Day, and were now 13th in the table, two places higher than Thame.
Thame followed up their 1-1 home draw with Aylesbury United on Boxing Day with an impressive 2-1 victory at AFC Dunstable, which extended their unbeaten run to 5 matches, although the previous 4 had been drawn. The win took Thame 5 points clear of the relegation play-off places.
The journey from Walthamstow is just under 70 miles around the M25 and down the A41, and according AA route planner should take one hour and twenty minutes.
The temperature at the 3 o’clock kick-off was 11 degrees but it was raining and the floodlights were already on. Walthamstow were in an all blue strip, whilst Thame were in their usual red and black, and 20 or so Stow supporters had congregated in the small covered stand behind the goal their team were attacking in the first half.
After a quiet opening 5 minutes, Walthamstow should have taken the lead when Small spun around his marker and shot left footed from 10 yards towards the bottom corner. It looked a certain goal, but Thame keeper Craig Hill, produced a remarkable one-handed diving save. Thame immediately took play to the other end of field, and Hale cut in front the right wing and shot left-footed from just inside the Stow area, but keeper Bradley Robinson beat the ball away with both fists. When the ball was played back into the area, the linesman’s flag was raised for offside against Jefferson Louis, but to this observer the veteran striker looked to have timed his run well.
The next action saw Stow’s ex-Southend United youngster Demaray Anyadike make a surging run from close to half-way and into the penalty box but his shot was straight at the keeper, who also saved Anyadike’s follow-up from the rebound.
As the rain stopped, Thame won two corners, both of which came to nothing, and then the home side were forced into an early substitution as midfielder Jack Tutton limped off to be replaced by Jack Gardner in the 19th minute.
Anyadike then sent a weak, low shot at the Thame goal, but it skidded across the surface and Hill had to make an alert save. Generally though, the two sides appeared to be evenly matched and were cancelling each other out in midfield, although there was a good battle going on between Anyadike and Thame left-back Harry Mepham. For a while there was very little to write about !
In the 36th minute, with his back to the goal, Culley produced a smart back header which went just over the bar, and when Anyadike switched wings, he was able to run to the by-line but his cross was cleared. Anyadike was involved again, with hard ball from the right which was controlled by Culley, who laid off to Jordan Watson, but the Stow captain’s finish from 10 yards was poor and cleared the bar by several feet.
The half ended with a glorious chance for Thame. A counter-attack was initiated by Pearce, who received a pass back from Louis to head into the Stow area. Leaving the covering defender sliding in the opposition direction, Pearce only had the keeper to beat, but Robinson denied him with an outstretched arm above his head as he dived. The resulting corner was half-cleared, and when put back into the 6 yard box, Robinson was able to dive on the loose ball before any attacker could get on the end of it.
The second half began with a good spell for the home side. Hackett beat two Stow players on the left, and crossed to Gardner 10 yards out, and although the substitute should have scored, he could only shoot straight at the Stow keeper who blocked the effort with his legs. Thame keeper Hill played a long ball over the visitors’ back line but Dan West mis-kicked when attempting a first time shot from the bouncing ball. From a free-kick near half-way, an intelligent ball put full-back Thorne in space down the right, and his cross was held up by West with his back to goal, who then laid the ball back to Pearce, but the effort was blocked for a corner.
Stow won their first corner of the match in the 55th minute, and an in-swinging delivery saw towering centre-back Carl Mensah rise the highest to bury a header from inside the 6 yard area. Having taken the lead, Walthamstow made their first substitution, and immediately keeper Robinson indulged in an outrageous piece of time-wasting, doing a Pickford to slump to the floor several seconds after gathering the ball, and then taking an age to get up, walk slowly to the edge of the area before finally kicking the ball down field. Although he would no doubt be praised by the Walthamstow coaches and supporters for his “game management”, it is sad that such behaviour was happening at Step 4 with 35 minutes left to play.
Thame’s reaction was for West to go down in the area in search of a penalty, which the referee rightly ignored. Stow had a good opportunity to double their lead as Anyadike got onto a long ball out of defence to be in the clear, but Mepham was able to get back and shadow the Stow man, who rather than looking to pass to supporting team-mates, opted to go it alone but his attempt was easily saved.
Thame’s Hale then had two half chances, firstly making a great run past a couple of defenders close to the goal-line but his attempted pass was intercepted, and then he steered a left-footed shot from the edge of the area over the bar after being set-up by Louis.
The visitors appealed for a penalty when Louis, back helping out his defence looked to have possibly made contact with the head of Watson whilst clearing the ball, but the referee ignored the claims. At this stage it was the visitors who looked more likely to grab the next goal. Substitute Turner did well to get to the ball before it went over the goal-line to deliver a pass into the danger zone, but somehow Watson managed to avoid making any contact from 3 yards out. Anyadike then ran onto another long ball to be in space but his first time effort on the run from 20 yards was blocked by Hill with a combination of chest and legs.
Thame finally rallied as the visitors start to look to sit on their lead. Pearce missed an opportunity to shoot first time, deciding to try and beat his marker, but when the ball was finally passed to West, he teed up Gardner whose attempt was blocked.
With 15 minutes remaining the referee’s patience with Walthamstow’s attempts to slow down the game ran out, showing a yellow card to Culley after the forward had been caught offside and then kicked the ball away. That was Culley’s last contribution to the match as he was substituted almost immediately.
The rain returned with just over 10 minutes left to play, and goal-scorer Mensah was the next player to see yellow, after wrestling Louis to the ground as the forward looked to have turned his marker. From the free-kick, Robinson made a smart tip over the bar from a close-range header but play was then held up for over 4 minutes to treat the keeper for a foot injury that I didn’t see.
Thame keeper Hill was called in to action again with 4 official minutes remaining, as Turner’s low left-footed shot appeared to be rolling into the corner but the keeper managed to get a hand to it and then bravely blocked Ibe’s attempted follow-up. The resulted corner was headed a couple of feet wide.
As the heavens opened, Stow were content to hoof the ball anywhere but Thame’s desperate attempts to find the equaliser were looking increasingly futile. Stow’s Jack Green went to the ground with a mystery leg injury to eat up more time, but the referee was wise to the antics and added 9 extra minutes play. Daniel Green then committed an awful challenge on Gardner, but the referee kept his card in his pocket, but West’s lunge to win the ball but followed through to connect with Mensah was rightly considered to be reckless and worthy of a yellow card.
At the final whistle, Walthamstow took the three points in a match between two closely matched sides. On balance they probably deserve to win as they created the better chances. They moved up to 12th in the table, whilst Thame remained 15th.
Thame United : Hill – Thorne, Murray ( Alexander ), Carnell, Mepham – Hale ( McEwan ), West, Tutton ( Gardner ), Hackett – Pearce, Louis
Walthamstow FC : Robinson – J. Green, Mensah, Wihongi, Davis – D.Green, Simms ( Platt ), Small ( Turner ) – Anyadike, Culley ( Ibe ), Watson
On-line programme : https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/files.pitchero.com/clubs/13461/uTFAeqRYTTWj9MQiXc9M_Walthamstow%2007%2001%2023.pdf
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5McBOJkQs4
Great match report and a good win for Stow.
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