Ascot United 2nd XI Veterans v Putney Vale Rangers Veterans

Report

1 March 2024

Ascot United 2nds 2-2 Putney Vale Rangers

 

Ascot United 2s and Putney Vale Rangers served up a pulsating encounter at the Racecourse on 1 March. Ascot started like a train, surging into a two goal lead with barely 15 minutes on the clock. The Rangers nonetheless came back and proceeded to dominate the second half. End product? 2-2, spoils shared.

Football can be very weird. For half an hour Ascot United looked a million dollars. The ball fizzed about, they exploited the wide-open spaces of the 3G pitch at the Racecourse and they could quite plausibly have been four goals to the good. Putney Vale hardly knew what had hit them.

 

It took barely two minutes for the Yellas to go in front, the ball dropping nicely in the box for Dan Hough to sweep ithome. That was followed by another free-flowing break down the right which ended with skipper Paul Woodford ultimately curling the ball home from the edge of the box. When the Vale keeper pulled off a truly magnificent save to deny Carl Collins what would have been Ascot’s third it nonetheless looked like that would be nothing more than a speedbump in the road.

 

Things, however, changed. PVR began to get hold of the ball in midfield, and the longer the game went on the more dangerous they became. Liam Vincent was at the centre of that and by the time he broke forward to pull a goal back the winds of change were definitely blowing.

Ascot, to be fair, didn’t help themselves. They became a bit hectic in possession, but the pivotal moment in the game came just after half-time when Adam Fennell’s mis-timed tackle saw referee Justin Staniforth brandish a red card. In truth, there weren’t may on the Ascot side complaining.

 

The Yellas donned their tin hats and went into damage limitation mode. Adam Abusweder came on for Leon Palmer-Wilson in the middle of the park and the hosts shifted to something approaching a 4-4-1. Jez Myhan did all he could to lead the line up front, whilst Carl Collins did his best to support him as and when Ascot broke.

 

The change in formation meant that PVR inevitably had most of the ball. Whilst Ascot generally defended impressively, Eryk Nawala was nonetheless called on to make a couple of excellent saves. Still, the Polish shot-stopper could do little about the equaliser. Ascot had around 20 minutes to hold on.

 

Darren Lewis and Steve Dando worked like trojans on the left, while Abusweder harried and hassled in the middle. It really was all hands to the pump.

 

That having been said, Ascot did have their chances. Nigel Gatehouse popped up in the box at one point, but he could only toe poke his effort at the keeper. Carl Collins blazed a free kick over, and Jez Myhan – battling a battalion of defenders on his own – saw one decent header stopped and dived full length to try and divert a Woodford cross into the net. It slipped agonisingly wide.

 

2-2 it remained. Fair result? PVR will probably feel that their second half performance merited the three points, but that does overlook the barnstorming start to the game that Ascot enjoyed. The two teams meet again in three weeks, let’s see if that one can produce a winner.

 

Team. Eyk Nawala, Dan Hough, Steve Dando, Ryan Joseph, Ed du Bois, Nigel Gatehouse, Leon Palmer-Wilson, Paul Woodford (c), Dwayne Brian, Adam Fennell, Andrew Lunn

Subs. Jez Myhan, Carl Collins, Darren Lewis, Adam Abusweder

Goals. Dan Hough, Paul Woodford