Chelmsford Sport

Weston-super-Mare 1 Chelmsford City 2

1:46pm Monday 15th March 2010

SPIRITED strugglers Weston-super-Mare frustrated Glenn Pennyfather’s second-placed Chelmsford City side for the majority of the sides’ encounter at the Woodspring Stadium - but Anthony Cook’s well-taken late strike ensured the Clarets returned home with the points.

City’s exciting winger converted a scissor-kick in the dying stages to keep his team in the runners-up spot in the Blue Square South, despite Jermaine Clarke registering a shock lead for the Seagulls just after the half-hour point.

However, a cool finish from Matthew Lock brought the promotion contenders back level in the second half and Pennyfather praised his team for showing the spirit required to rescue the situation.

“We enjoyed a lot of possession and it’s always frustrating to go 1-0 down, which is the main reason I think it took us so long to score ourselves,” he said.

“If you give them something to hold on to it becomes harder to break them down and I think our players spent too long getting worked-up with the referee in the first half – you can’t do that.

"We settled them down at half-time and showed patience to prevail in the end.”

The visitors were the most impressive during the early exchanges as the teams sparred without threatening a great deal except for a handful of Chelmsford corners.

Mid-way through the half City began to impose themselves on the fixture, with Cook almost making the most of a tough chance on the left side of the six-yard box when he adjusted his body to fire narrowly wide.

Weston-super-Mare later called upon one of their defenders to clear off his own line in a separate attack, while Ricky Holmes also sprinted clear one-on-one with goalkeeper Kevin Sawyer without success.

Chelmsford then paid the ultimate price as, much against the run of play, Weston grabbed an opener.

A delivery into the danger zone from the left wrong-footed the visiting defence and Clarke was on hand at the far post to gain the vital last touch.

Clarets goalkeeper Ashley Harrison made an impact on the shot but he was unable to prevent it from crossing the line.

For the remainder of the period the Somerset outfit grew in confidence, though a re-think at the interval breathed new life into the City players and, having seen Cook denied on the line by a combination of goalkeeper and defender, they drew level moments before the hour mark.

Holmes gained possession and showed strength to outmuscle a defender on his way forward and, when the opportunity for his own shot disappeared, he showed the awareness to tee-up Lock who provided a crisp finish from 15 yards.

The trademark work ethic of a resolute Chelmsford unit saw them continue to plug away at making further ground as they continued to dominate the remainder of the game.

Benefitting from a high percentage of possession, City saw a Holmes ball across the goalmouth agonisingly evade Dave Rainford and Cook in close proximity though the latter proved to be the match-winner with playing time running out.

Just a minute of normal time remained when a frantic struggle to bring the ball under control in the Weston area bounced into the path of Cook and he acrobatically struck back over his own head into the net, leaving Sawyer with no chance.

It was no less than the away team deserved and they could have added a third and fourth at the death when Edmans had an effort cleared off the line and a header saved point-blank.

Pennyfather was adamant City fully deserved the points, adding: “You get games like this and if it had have been us that scored first it would have been a different scenario as they’d have had to come at us and we could have picked them off on the counter-attack.

"It was a big ask for the players to make this long journey and you can’t do any more than claim the three points.”

• Email this page