Ascot beat Flackwell Heath 3-1
Ascot United won 3-1 against Flackwell Heath in the Berks and Bucks County Cup 2nd round on Tuesday evening. In a game they should have won more comfortably, the home side eventually advanced after initially being pegged back before half-time.
Another cup game, more new faces
Going into the game, seven of Ascot’s prior sixteen games were cup matches, and this one – their eighth – was their first outing in the County cup, a round of fourteen ties that would see seven teams advance to join bye-holders Reading FC in round three.
Ascot named a strong, attacking side against their struggling Southern South Central opposition, with popular attacking player Andrio Brandao returning in a permanent capacity having previously featured last season when he scored six times in eighteen appearances. New-boy Abdullah Selloum arrived from Hanworth Villa and was named on the bench, whereas defender Quinn Schutter returned from Farnham for another spell at left-back.
With International football on the TV this was never going to be a well-populated affair, but get through a few rounds and you might just get a repeat of 2022 when Ascot welcomed Wycombe in the semi-final in front of over 1200 fans…
Lui back on scoresheet either side of debutants’ goals
Ascot were largely on top in the first half and took a 17th minute lead when Babs Dehghani eventually picked out Fore Deru, whose excellent cross fizzed across for the six yard box to leave Brandao with the easiest of tap-ins at the far post (pictured, shooting-stars.co.uk).
An entertaining half yielded little chances, and perhaps the only criticism of the hosts was a failure to shoot – or shoot early – when in good positions; many were culpable.
The Heathens, meanwhile, seemingly viewed Ascot as a charity with ‘keeper Oliver Burger-Williams in hapless-distribution mode, almost matched by veteran defender and player-manager Mark Nisbet. It really wasn’t great from them.
But the hosts failed to capitalise and were pegged back by Ornildo Shehu’s fine solo effort in the 28th minute, dropping his shoulder and firing low across Kie Plumley from just-off-centre-right.
After the break, Shehu took on the Ascot defence and fired wide, but Flackwell undid themselves again with more haplessness in midfield. Ascot pounced and scored within seconds; Deru fed Lui Edwards, and Edwards tucked a neat left-footed effort into the bottom left.
It was easy when you know how, or at least when you know how not to over-complicate it.
Plumley would make a good late save to keep Ascot ahead, but when substitute Selloum raced down the left in added time he did it with meaning, driving into the box and drilling a low, raking effort across Burger-Williams and in off an upright.
With better decision making it could have been six, but a win is a win and the return of Brandao, plus stand-out performances from Willem Tomlinson and Ricco Bullard-Jeffrey, it was overall a decent night for most of the spartan crowd.
Ascot United: Plumley, Bullard-Jeffrey, Rohart-Brown, Schutter, Tomlinson, Clarke-Salter, Deru, Allsopp, Edwards, Brandao, Dehghani. Subs (all used, rolling): Brobbey, Long, Selloum, Uzor, Coomes
Venue: The Racecourse, Ascot
Attendance: 83
Weather: 18c, partly cloudy
Ascot United MOM: Willem Tomlinson
Entertainment: 3
Away fans estimate: 20
One-word summary: Routine