September 23, 2023
With the usual local suspects either playing away from home or not playing at all, today’s Saturday afternoon entertainment was the annual visit to Risborough Rangers.
Rangers were playing in the Spartan South Midlands Premier League, finishing 3rd last season and 2nd the year before that, with promotion being denied on ground grading criteria. When these diaries visited in October last year, a 1-1 home draw with Colney Heath left them in 14th place in the table, but they improved dramatically thereafter, scoring 100 goals in the league, to still harbour hopes of promotion, until two defeats in their final six matches saw them fall short.
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For this season Rangers have been level transferred to the Cherry Red Records Combined Counties League Premier Division North, which is a bit of a mouthful. Having previously been level transferred from the Hellenic League, Rangers are in their third different league in four seasons but all at the same level !
Like last season Risborough have started slowly and started the day in the 15th position with a 2-2-4 record. Last time out they snatched two late goals to draw 3-3 with Burnham to end a three-game losing run in the league, prior to which they had been embarrassed by a 1-7 home thrashing at the hands of Flackwell Heath in the FA Vase. They also exited the FA Cup at the first hurdle, going down 0-2 at Virginia Water in their first match of the season, but have recorded wins over Egham and Ardley in the league.
Only 5 of the squad that featured in the game against Colney Heath are still with Risborough Rangers, with the most notable departure being striker Asher Yearwood, who has stepped up two divisions to join Southern League Premier side Beaconsfield Town, whilst experienced striker Lewis Toomey signed from Leighton Town, and had notched 5 goals in all competitions so far.
A surprise inclusion in the Rangers line-up was ex-Thame United striker/attacking midfielder Dan West, who was part of the exodus from Thame in the summer and signed for North Leigh, but was making his debut for Risborough on a dual-registration, with North Leigh without a fixture today.
North Greenford United are located in Greenford, in the London Borough of Ealing, a 30 mile journey down the A40/M40 to Princes Risborough which the AA route planner calculates should take around 50 minutes by car.
North Greenford won promotion from the Combined Counties to Southern League Division One Central in 2009/10 and a six year stay at step 4 ended with relegation at the end of 2015/16. They have remained at Step 5 ever since, flitting between the Spartan South Midlands and the Combined Counties Leagues, and finished in 8th place last season in the Combined Counties Premier Division North.
Their home colours all Royal Blue, hence nickname of The Blues.
North Greenford United began the day in fourth place, with 15 points from 9 games. They won 6-1 at Wokingham and Emmbrook in their last game and were unbeaten in their last four matches. Their losses this season had been at Virginia Water and Burham in the league, and at Sussex side Bexhill United in the FA Cup.
Joe Mills and Tomasz Siemienczuk topped their scoring chart with 5 goals each whilst keeper Jacob Ballheimer had been an ever-present.
Entrance for the game was £8 for adults, £5 for over 65s and £2 for under 18s. The match programme is on-line, but there was a team-sheet available from the gate, but unfortunately it was the squad listings, and not the line-ups for the match. North Greenford United put their line-up on their twitter account and whilst Risborough did the same, theirs did not include the players’ numbers, so it took a while to figure out who was who. Perhaps they could add these in future ?
The weather at the 15.00 kick-off time was dry and cloudy, with the temperature around 15 degrees. Naturally, as soon as I put my jacket on the sun came out, so I soon was soon taking it off again.
Since my last visit to Windsors, it is now officially called the Kamtech Stadium. There is now a sandwich van inside the ground, so that the old tea bar is just that, although coffee is also available, both for £1. Fencing has also been installed at the cricket ground end, so it is no longer possible to sneak in for free at that end of the ground !
Another new initiative is a mini-bus running from the central of the town, in an attempt to alleviate parking issues at the ground. I saw the mini-bus arrive 20 minutes before kick-off but didn’t see how many people got off it. I arrived 45 minutes early to ensure I had a parking space inside the ground.
The sides were greeted onto the pitch with a guard of honour from members of the Risborough Rangers girls sides, and they had been given plastic inflatable balloons to knock together and make a racket ! There were probably around a dozen visiting fans in attendance, and one dog !
The home side made a lively start and put North Greenford under a lot of early pressure. With 6 minutes played Toomey ran onto a long ball down the right-hand channel and a smart back-heel just before the ball went out of play found Harry Scott in space, but the ex-Thame and Aylesbury United midfielder’s shot flashed across the face of the goal and narrowly wide.
Rangers’ keeper then made a poor clearance and when the ball was worked to Mills, the low shot from distance was saved by the sprawling keeper. Two minutes later a long goal-kick from the home guardian was completely missed by Mano but keeper Ballheimer was quickly off his line to dive on the ball ahead of West.
Robinson went on a mazy run for Rangers and beat two attempted tackles before being fouled, but his quick free-kick was called back by the referee for not being taken in exactly the right spot. West took the re-take but his effort went wide without troubling the keeper.
Rangers continued to look the better side and after a free-kick into the area was poorly headed by Ewhare, Ilunga forced a corner. The set-piece was aimed beyond the far post but a push by Scott on Baldwin was spotted by the ref and the danger ended.
A cute chip by West towards the penalty was headed off for a corner before it could reach Toomey. The corner was poorly headed by Quadry and in the resulting scramble, two Rangers attackers got in each other’s way, and Ballheimer gratefully grabbed the loose ball.
With 20 minutes played both sides took the opportunity to take a drinks break as the injured Toomey needed treatment.
Dithering by Greenford’s Quadry ( who perhaps could be said to have been in a quandry ) and Mano allowed Scott to nick possession but after being teed-up, West’s shot from the edge of the area was blocked by a recovering defender.
The visitor’s first real chance arrived in the 25th minute. Ilunga’s attempted clearance was charged down by Ryan Ewhare, who was then clear on goal, but keeper Hunt spread himself to block the winger’s shot.
However, the reprieve for the home side lasted less than a minute. There didn’t seem to be much danger as left-winger Hamed cut back inside with Connolly and Sturgess shadowing him, but Hamed tried his luck from outside the area and the ball snuck between the diving keeper and inside his near post to give North Greenford a lead against the run of play. Frankly, it was a poor goal to concede, and it was the type of shot you would expect a keeper to save.
The visitors were a shade unlucky 5 minutes later when Quadry seemed to out-muscle Connolly inside the home area, but the referee thought otherwise and awarded a foul to Risborough as the North Greenford man was about to line up a shot.
The Rangers’ defence was looking shaky as two clearances looked unconvincing and Baldwin was looking increasingly influential for The Blues. Harmes was then too strong in the tackle for Connolly but when the Greenford midfielder looked to play in Hamed inside the Rangers area, Sturgess produced an important tackle to avert the danger.
The first yellow card of the match was produced in the 35th minute. Harmes attempted to cause harm to Ajibola and although his first effort was unsuccessful, he succeeded with his second attempt to foul the Risborough player.
Rangers were looking flat after falling behind and North Greenford were now in the ascendency. A low free-kick was played into the 6-yard area, but Gritt on the stretch just failed to make contact with it, and then with 41 minutes on the clock, Ilunga again failed to clear his lines and was caught in possession by Ewhare, who ran clear to slide the ball past the advancing keeper to double North Greenford’s lead.
Shortly after, Scott’s right-wing cross was headed clear and found it’s way to Siemienczuk, who when challenged received a very slight, accidental hand on his face, and The Blues striker fell to the ground as if shot by the proverbial snipper in the stand. A total over-the-top reaction, but at least he won a free-kick, and the Risborough manager received a yellow card for his protests.
The last action of the first half was for Rangers, but after a good build-up, Toomey with his back to goal laid the ball off to Nnadozie, who shot at least 10 yards wide.
As the sides headed to the dressing rooms for half-time, two defensive errors had led to Risborough being two goals behind, which seems to have been the story of their season.
Rangers made one change at the interval, bringing on Joe Fitzgerald for Ilunga. However, the move back-fired almost immediately as Fitzgerald dwelt in possession on half-way and saw Ewhare steal the ball from him and race towards goal. He rounded the keeper and from a fairly tight-angle was able to finish into the roof of the empty net.
However, as Ewhare ran clear, Siemienczuk cynically blocked Connolly to prevent him from trying to get back to cover. It was a move straight out of American football, and although it was very unlikely that the Risborough defender would have been able to get back to prevent the goal, it was still a foul. The referee could perhaps be excused for missing the incident if following the ball, but both assistant referees ( as they are now called rather than linesmen ) failed to help the referee and both should have seen the incident.
In any case, it was a third appalling mistake by the Rangers defence, and they were now 0-3 behind with a little over 40 minutes remaining. To make matters worse Connolly was sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes, a feature at step 5 and below, for his protests against being rugby tackled by Siemienczuk.
Risborough looked a beaten side, and this was summed up when Harmes won a header near the half-way line and the entire home defence remained static. Mills ran after the ball, kept it in play, but his ball across the area was poor and cleared.
Risborough now looked as if they had decided to play route-one football, and Toomey ran clear after a long ball down the right from Fitzgerald, but his shot from the edge of the box was weak and easily saved. Scott then ran onto another hoof forward but his shot was excellently tipped over the bar by Ballheimer.
Centre-back Urquhart then got his head to a corner to the back post, but it struck Mano and rebounded kindly for the keeper to claim. As the momentum was changing, Harmes again chopped down Ajibola but was fortunate to not see a second yellow. The visitors’ bench wisely decided to immediately take-off Harmes to avoid any future potential red card.
As the home side poured forward, North Greenford countered and had several chances to take a shot, but after trying to walk the ball into the net, the ball fell to Siemienczuk, but perhaps tired of American football and rugby and fancying another sport, smashed the ball onto the cricket field !
Rangers brought on Liam Enver-Marum to further support their direct approach, and in the 73rd minute a goal-kick from keeper Hunt sailed over the square North Greenford back-line, bounced once, and Toomey lobbed over the keeper who had been caught into no-man’s land, and the ball bounced into the roof of the net. 1-3 and game on ? After all, in their last match against Burnham, Risborough had scored twice in added on time to snatch a point.
Fitzgerald then played a decent chip over the defensive line but West was caught a couple of yards off-side. Another strong move down the right saw Enver-Marum flick on for Toomey to chase and the striker was able to win a corner, which was played short. The ball was then swung towards the far post where Enver-Marum rose to slap into the net. Despite some protests from the crowd and perhaps the home bench, the “goal” was rightly chalked off, and Enver-Marum was perhaps fortunate to only be shown a yellow card for his attempted cheating.
Another counter from North Greenford ended with Thompson-Prempeh wildly slicing high and wide after good work by Ewhare, and the miss could have been costly when Rangers pulled another goal back with 5 minutes remaining.
Another long goal-kick from Hunt wasn’t dealt with by the North Greenford defence and West and Enver-Marum were eventually crowded out at the expense of a corner. The set-piece was met at the back post by Urquhart whose header was cleared off the line. The ball was played back into the goal-mouth where Mills stuck out a foot but could only prod the ball past his own keeper.
With their tails-up, Scott skinned full-back Bloom on the left but his low cross was intercepted. A long throw was flicked on by Toomey but headed away at the back post.
As the game headed towards added on time Scott lost possession on half-way and for a short while it looked as if Risborough would give away a fourth goal by an individual error but Das Fernandez’s final pass was poor, and when possession was recycled, Mills chipped narrowly over.
In a breath-taking finish to the game, another swift break by North Greenford was squandered by another finish into the cricket field, this time by Ewhere, and perhaps it was fortunate the cricket season was over otherwise the fielders could have been in danger today.
Rangers again gave away possession just inside the North Greenford half and Ewhare headed for goal, only for Connolly to stretch and bring him down. Perhaps there was a covering defender but the Risborough defender was probably lucky to see only a yellow card.
There was still time on the clock, and Rangers again launched the ball into the mixer. Although Enver-Marum and West had efforts blocked, the ball fell kindly to Toomey but Ballheimer produced an outstanding point-blank save to prevent the equaliser, and when the ball was chipped back to the 6-yard line, West looked about to score with an acrobatic overhead kick, but a defender was able to beat him to it and prod the ball over the bar. There wasn’t time to take the corner as the referee blew the whistle to end the game.
For the neutral, this was a tremendous game to watch, mostly due to the poor defending from both sides. Risborough’s defence looked vulnerable every time North Greenford attacked, and individual errors could have led to more than just the three goals conceded. At the other end, North Greenford seemed to have little idea how to defend against long balls, and the Rangers keeper could have had more than one assist. It all added up to plenty of excitement, but a nightmare for the coaches !
Despite a grandstand finish Risborough were unable to come back from 1-3 for the second week running. With the three points, North Greenford moved up one place to third in the table, whilst Risborough slipped to 16th
Link to on-line programme : https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/files.pitchero.com/clubs/64064/APmz0BVSVO0wegopHm3A_North%20Greenford%20United%20LGE%20Saturday%2023rd%20September%202023.pdf
Risborough Rangers : Hunt – Connolly, Urquhart, Ilunga ( Fitzgerald ) – Scott, Nnadozie ( Peters ), Sturgess, Robinson ( Read ) – Ajibola ( Enver-Marum ), Toomey, West
North Greenford United : Ballheimer – Bloom, Gritt, Mano, Quadry – Ewhare, Mills, Baldwin ( Coen ), Harmes ( Thompson-Prempeh ), Hamed ( Das Fernandez ) – Siemienczuk ( Chitty )
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