We had to come from behind to register a sixth win on the spin as we beat Walton Casuals 2-1, writes James Barrett-Sterling.
Team news
Goalkeeper Alex Kozakis
made his first appearance of the season and Raheem Sterling-Parker replaced
Ryan Healy. Ex-Robin Youseff Bamba lined up for the visitors.
Kick-off
It was the returning
Bamba that had the first shot in anger as, on two minutes, he cut in from the
right before thrashing an effort way off target from 20 yards.
During a bright opening
by both sides, it was our boys that created two good chances within the space
of two minutes - firstly, after he won a Jordan Cheadle throw on the far side,
Mickel Miller's low cross found Ricky Korboa whom forced Denzel Gerrar into a
smart save.
Then Miller tried himself
- a buccaneering run saw him slalom past three blue shirts into their box but
his angled left-footed drive flew just wide of the far post.
Casuals' top scorer Joe
Kelly went in heavily on Tommy Bradford just before the half hour and both men
remained on the deck for a while. Kelly was subsequently booked for his
reckless challenge while being substituted with his own injury; Bradford
was ok to carry on after treatment.
The game ebb back and
forth but Omar Koroma and Raheem Sterling-Parker weren't getting much joy
against the two Casuals centre backs, while our own backline was holding firm
against the patient attacks by our visitors.
But we suffered a blow
six minutes before the break as Coleman got on a loose ball about 35 yards from
goal before looking up and hit a speculative effort that flew over the
back-pedalling Kozakis and underneath the crossbar.
HALF-TIME: 0 - 1
Both sides continued to
press forward after the break - Korboa thrashed a shot from distance over the
bar early on, while Coleman fired in a 20-yard free kick which was parried away
by Kozakis.
Casuals won three corners
in quick succession around 55 minutes but we held firm, although our two strikers
continued to cut forlorn figures as our mounted attacks were often disrupted by
the Casuals backline.
But that all changed in
the 68th minute - Sterling-Parker made a burst down the left flank and took
down a forward pass. Baldwin halted his initial attempt to cross but his second
found Koroma between two defenders and his header beat Gerrar from 10 yards.
Peter Adeniyi came on for
our goalscorer and, just five minutes later, he made a real impact. He flicked
a neat pass into the overlapping Bobby Price whom streaked away before
pulling a low cross back to the unmarked Korboa whom simply side-footed home
from six yards.
And we came close again
with 10 minutes to go as Tommy Bradford fed a forward pass into Miller whom
spun and unleashed a firm shot which Gerrar parried out. Korboa had kept
running and seemed to have a tap-in awaiting him but a last-ditch tackle.
But we saw out the rest
of the game to register a sixth win on the spin and go seven unbeaten overall.
Next up
We host Cray Wanderers on
Saturday 2nd December before traveling to Molesey on Friday 8th December.
Carshalton
Athletic: Kozakis; Price (c),
Dudley, Morath-Gibbs, Cheadle; Miller, Aziaya, Bradford, Korboa (Healy - 87);
Sterling-Parker, Koroma (Adeniyi - 69)
Unused subs: Cave, Alexiou, Elsom
Goals: Koroma (68), Korboa (72)
Assists: Sterling-Parker, Price
Walton Casuals: Gerrar, Baldwin, Ogun-Forster, A Kelly,
Hicks, Hustwick, Richardson-Brown (McCormack - 10) Coleman (c) (Lafflin - 82),
J Kelly (Battie - 29), Sarpong, Bamba
Unused subs: Taylor, Trigwell
Goal: Coleman (39)
Booked: J Kelly, Coleman
Attendance: 266
Current league
position: 3rd (40 points)