Match report - VCD Athletic (a)

It was a comfortable visit to VCD Athletic as a slick first-half performance cemented the three points, writes James Barrett-Sterling.

Team news
Bobby Price and Paris Hamilton-Downes came back into the side, with the returning Omar Koroma named among the substitutes.

Kick-off
The first actual chance of the game fell to our hosts in six minutes but, after a neat take and spin, Ellis Brown blasted over from 18 yards.

But it didn't take us long to get off the mark as, on eight minutes, a short corner routine had Tommy Bradford seeing an angled shot blocked away. Jordan Cheadle fired an effort back in and Ola Sogbanmu guided the ball beyond Joe Mant for his second of the season. 

Sogbanmu, who played at centre forward for this one, was in the mood and he hassled a hesitant Dan Smith two minutes later before bustling through on goal. Unfortunately however, with only Mant to beat, our man put a low effort wide of the far post.

VCD were wasteful with possession during the opening 45 minutes and so we enjoyed long spells with the ball, eventually doubling our lead on 18 minutes after Cheadle forced Mant into a spectacular save with a 30 yard free kick.

So we had another corner, this time delivered in by Bradford, and it was flicked on at the near post only for Junior Baker to deflect the ball past a statuesque Mant by an opponent.

Our tails up, and with Billy Bishop as a virtual spectator, we kept foraging forward and we thought we had a third after Mickel Miller acrobatically finished a flicked on cross via Kalvin Morath-Gibbs but the linesman gave our top scorer as offside.

But we didn't have to wait too much longer before we did further extend our lead.

Sogbanmu and Ricky Korboa combined on 27 minutes to get Mickel Miller away down the left. He eventually dinked a cross over to the back post and, as he didn't stop running, Sogbanmu planted a simple header int the back of the net.

And our fourth arrived five minutes before the break via an unusually 'route one' method.

Sogbanmu flicked on a Bishop goal kick and Bradford stole in between two defenders to run clear, neatly slot the ball beyond the exposed Mant and send our supporters into raptures.

HALF-TIME: 0 - 4

Levi Phillips was introduced at the start of the second period and he almost grabbed our fifth on 54 minutes.

Sogbanmu played a neat through ball that the young winger pounced on - he watched the bounce and didn't rush but Mant got down and denied Phillips with a strong hand.

But our hosts made it more of a game after the break and almost reduced the arrears on the hour, but Aymun El-Moyhalbel saw his snapshot from 18 yards hit the near post.

VCD kept up the pressure around our box however and, within a throng of players, Danny Dudley's attempted back-pass to Bishop carried too much weight and the ball nestled inside the far post.

But we didn't allow them to get any further back into the game and Sogbanmu was millimetres away from completing a hat-trick as he stretched for a Bradford cross-shot on 70 minutes. 

We lost Bobby Price and Korboa to small knocks by the 75th minute mark, but sub Omar Koroma gave us an injection of pace up top and twice he came close to adding a goal late on.

Match highlights, interviews and photos to come.

Next up: we go to Dorking Wanderers on Tuesday 16th January in the Surrey Senior Cup. We then host East Grinstead Town on Saturday 20th January.

Carshalton Athletic: Bishop; Price (Oshilaja - 65), Morath-Gibbs, Dudley, Cheadle; Miller (L Phillips - 46), Bradford, Aziaya, Hamilton-Downes (c), Korboa (Koroma - 76); Sogbanmu
Unused subs: Healy, Adeniyi
Goals: Sogbamnu (8 and 27), Baker (18 og), Bradford (40)
Assists: Cheadle, Miller, Sogbanmu

VCD Athletic: Mant, Imudia, Awotwi, Baker (c), Smith (Gorbell - 33), Blackwood, Adebayo, Gordon, Brown, Mfula (Darboe - 33), El-Moyhalbel

Unused subs: Kamara, Akanbi, Ajeon

Goal: Dudley (61 og)

Our 'Man of the Match': Ola Sogbanmu

Attendance: 83

Current league position: 4th (58 points - Lewes top with 63)