We are through to the second round of the Ryman League Cup after a 4-1 victory over Molesey on Monday night, writes James Barrett.
Team news: There were first starts of the season
for Kingsley Aikhionbare and Josh Phillips, while Sekou Kaba and Bobby Price
returned from suspension and injury respectively.
We made the worse possible start to a
football match however; Molesey's first ball forward dropped kindly for
returning forward Joe Nwoko and, with barely 20 seconds on the clock, he
crashed a half volley over Alex Kozakis from around 20 yards.
So, aside from having to convince late
arrivals that we weren't starting the game, we had to dust ourselves down
and concentrate on putting some pressure on our visitors; Brendan Murphy-McVey
had a shot blocked in front of keeper Liam Allen, while Aikhionbare was
millimetres away from connecting with a Sean O'Toole cross.
Tommy Bradford and Tom Windsor both ran
at goal at either end but our man blazed over the near top corner, while Ricardo
Panton managed to get back and halt the visiting winger’s progress inside our
box.
Aikhionbare was brought down just
outside the Molesey box on 19 minutes but Bradford’s free kick narrowly flew
the wrong side of the post.
We kept up the pressure and it was
Bradford again on 22 minutes, beating his marker on a ball over the top but
Allen got down well to deny him at the near post.
Dre Grobler then protected his side’s
lead as Price played a neat one-two with O’Toole and drew Allen to his near
post, but the defender hacked away our man’s square ball from in front of the
incoming pack.
But we were given the chance to level
things up from the spot on 28 minutes as Aikhionbare was fouled in the area,
but Allen managed to push out Bradford’s firmly struck shot.
That inspired the visitors into
launching a couple of attacks but both shots ended up off target and we finally
got off the mark on 34 minutes.
O’Toole was set off down the left and
he drove into the Molesey box before laying the ball into the feet of Phillips
whom looked up and bent home his first senior goal from 15 yards.
The visitors tried to respond quickly
but Kozakis was alert to the run of Tunde Aderonmu and our keeper won a 50/50
tackle on the edge of our area.
We defended the throw-in and broke
quickly as Bradford put Phillips in on goal from halfway. The young striker
kept his head and held off a recovering defender as he bore down on goal, but
Allen got a leg on the left-footed shot from 18 yards.
We survived a close call as Aderonmu
burst on a long ball on 42 minutes and was only halted by a raised flag, while
Price finished the half firing in a shot from 10 yards that was bravely blocked
by a flying defender.
HALF-TIME: 1 - 1
The second-half began with O’Toole
flying down the left and his cross was millimetres over the head of the
incoming Aikhionbare whom had charged in from deep.
Then Murphy-McVey and Phillips combined
to get Sekou Kaba running towards goal, but he just couldn’t get the ball out
from under his feet to get a shot off.
As Matt Males and Richard Ismail were
dealing with any attempts by Molesey to forage forward, Phillips had another
angled drive saved by Allen before Bradford ghosted past two opponents and into
the box, but James King slid in to deny Aikhionbare from six yards.
But we turned our dominance into a
second goal just after the hour; Aikhionbare almost turned a firm Price cross
on target with a bicycle kick in the middle but Phillips was alert and kept the
ball in play on the far side. He turned and drove along the byline before teeing
up Aikhionbare whose shot was blocked from close range, only for Price to smash
the loose ball home via a defender as Allen was left stranded.
Kozakis got down to comfortably gather
a Joe Pratley-Jones shot as the visitors looked to rally, while Aikhionbare
wanted another penalty as he tangled with Grobler on a cross and Phillips
looped a header on the bouncing ball over the bar.
Males, Ismail and Kaba weren’t found
wanting when called upon inside our half to do any defending and we introduced
some fresh legs as Mickel Miller and Ricky Korboa came on for the last 20
minutes.
But it was Phillips on centre stage
again on the 80th minute as he won, and confidently dispatched, our
second penalty of the evening and all but seal our progress into the next round.
Kaba then thought he’d grabbed his
first Carshalton goal as Bradford played him in and he finished smartly, but
the linesman’s flag curtailed the celebrations.
But a fourth did arrive four minutes from
time as Korboa skipped in on a one-two with Bradford and he shot low inside the
near post.
Photos from the match can be viewed here.
Next up: We travel to Lewes on Saturday 17th September before Godalming Town arrive at Colston Avenue on Monday 19th September.
Carshalton Athletic: Kozakis; Price, Ismail, Males, Panton; Bradford, Kaba (c), Murphy-McVey (Healy - 81), O'Toole (Korboa - 71); Phillips, Aikhionbare (Miller - 71)
Unused subs: Adeniyi, Hamilton-Downes
Goals: Phillips (34 and 80 pen), Price (62), Korboa (86)
Molesey: Allen, King (Charles - 78), Rodney (Pratley-Jones - 58), Lewington (c), Russell, Grobler, Windsor, Chalke, Palmer, Nwoko, Aderonmu (Fatai-Jomiyiwa - 64)
Unused subs: Motley, David
Goal: Nwoko (1)