We travelled to Arlesey Town a bit bruised after two defeats in a row despite having lots of possession in both games we just did not trouble the opponents goalkeepers enough. After a dominant and very comfortable first twenty minutes we broke the deadlock after a five man passing move saw Ryan Stephenson drive towards the penalty area and shoot from 25 yards the ball struck a defender which left the keeper stranded and the ball flew into the net. 1-0 20 mins.
We continued to retain the ball really well patiently passing the ball around at the back and through midfield looking to create our next opening and it came seven minutes later a couple of one-twos saw a through ball for Ibs Kehinde round the keeper and shoot towards goal but a covering defender got there to clear off the line. Almost immediately Reiss Webber found himself eight yards from goal after another good move saw Josh Asiedu pull the ball back but Reiss did not make great contact with the ball and it trickled wide. We dominated the rest of the half and whilst happy to go in at half tome leading were probably a little disappointed it was not by more. 1-0 half time 45 mins
As expected our hosts came out for the second half fired up and it was clear they are in the top six for a reason and pushed us back and looked much more of a threat firing lots of balls into the box but our back four dealt with everything fairly comfortably with Danny Haigh and Louis Offer relishing the battle as always. We looked dangerous when we went forward but a good knock down for the Arlesey centre forward saw their number 8 volley the ball towards goal only for Carlos Simeon to pull off a wonderful save. What followed was bizarre whilst Carlos was gearing up to strike the ball out of his hands their forward toed the ball into the net, all Wormley fans froze surely this cannot be a goal, for what seemed like minutes the referee walked the his assistant to discuss and ruled the goal out. A flurry of bookings followed for consistent fouls for a couple of Arlesley players and after a booking for Cormac Clarke he was then fouls again by the opponents right back who received a second yellow and was sent off. Literally with three minutes what seemed like Cormac getting his arm up to protect his space was deemed an elbow by the referee and a second yellow for Cormac meant it was ten a side for the remainder of the game. We estimate the referee played twelve minutes added on time and despite firing th e all long and high into our penalty area our hosts did not really look like equalising and the final whistle finally came. 1-0 to The Worms, big three points after a really tough ten days or so. 102 mins
Shout out to the Arlesey committee for their tremendous hospitality on the day.
Tuesday night we are off to Harpenden in the Herts Senior Cup #COYW
