Ascot United 2nd X1 Veterans v Latimer Road Veterans

Report

12 January 2024

Ascot United 2-2 Latimer Road

 

Two first half Ben Standing goals saw Ascot United come from behind to earn a share of the spoils against Latimer Road Vets. The visitors had pace up front and were always a threat, although Ascot will also be ruing chances missed in what was an action-packed affair. Draw fair result? Probably….

 

Latimer Road travelled to Ascot having only lost one game all season; against the Yellas back in October. Beyond that defeat, they’d only dropped points in one other game – a draw with Old Meadonians. Latimer Road were clearly on something of a roll.

Ascot, however, were confident that they could give them a decent run for their money. Good availability through the club meant that the twos could go strong and look to put their high-flying visitors under a bit of pressure.

 

And, that they initially did. Ascot started with an attack-minded 3-5-2, Nigel Gatehouse, Ed du Bois and Ryan Joseph formed a back three and Dan Hough and Steve Dando were in as wing backs. Carl Collins sat in the middle of the park, whilst Paul Woodford and Stuart Birkett looking to bomb on in front of him. That left the two old warhorses, Zak Dimitrovski and Ben Standing, up front and in the hunt for goals.

 

The hosts started brightly, fizzing the ball about and getting it nicely into Standing’s feet. Stu Birkett got up and supported ably, and there was plenty of room for Ascot to be positive. Latimer Road, however, had pace up front and were always dangerous on the counter. It was that pace that saw them take the lead, Dean Lamb finishing nicely passed a helpless Eryk Nawala.

 

Ascot nonetheless responded well. They were at their best when they used Ben Standing, and it was no surprise when Standing twisted and turned his way into space and clinically fired the ball home. 1-1. That soon became 2-1 when the front two combined nicely, allowing Standing to double his goal count for the evening.

 

The Yellas remained on the front foot, but Latimer Road were never too far from launching speedy counter-attacks. Indeed, it was from another such of those that Nicholas Joseph neatly tucked home the equaliser. 2-2 at half time.

 

Much as Ascot had been doing reasonably well, the gaffer still opted to make a couple of changes. Abbas Hussain came on on the left, Leon Palmer-Wilson entered the fray in the middle. That didn’t stop Latimer Road from started the second half brightly, and Eryk Nawala did well to snuffle out a couple of decent opportunities.

 

Soon enough Palmer-Wilson and Woodford did nonetheless manage to get their respective feet on the ball, whilst Stuart Birkett remained a bustling force going forward. It was nonetheless Zak Dimitrovski who thought he’d nudged the Yellas into the lead; he neatly turned a defender before then running on to a through ball, only to see a linesman’s flag raised. It must have been a very close one….

 

Excellent work from Standing on the right then saw Dimitrovski have a chance to join his strike-partner on the scoresheet, only for the visiting keeper to dive at his feet and wrestle the ball away from him.

 

By this point the game was becoming decidedly end-to-end. It wasn’t exactly football from the ‘Netherlands in the 1970s’’ handbook, but there was certainly plenty going on. That included a red card for a Latimer Road player for raising his hands, as well as a whole range of arguments about more or less everything imaginable. Some folks need to calm down and go and get their blood pressures tested, seriously…..

 

Be that as it may, the score ultimately remained level and the points were shared. Not a game for the footballing connoisseur, more one for lovers of old skool up and at ‘emfootball.

 

The twos now have week off before they travel to Old Tiffs on 2 February.

 

Team. Eryk Nawala, Dan Hough, Steve Dando, Nigel Gatehouse, Ryan Joseph, Ed Du Bois, Paul Woodford (c), Carl Collins, Stuart Birkett, Ben Standing, Zak Dimitrovski

Subs. Jez Myhan, Darren Lewis, Abbas Hussain, Leon Palmer-Wilson

Goals. Ben Standing (2)