Amateur Football Alliance Senior Cup Third Round

Result - Old Bealonians 2 Old Meadonians 4

Old Meadonians made a resounding start to the New Year’s campaign with a text book response to Old Bealonians’ strong defence of their honour at their Barkingside stronghold on Saturday, to get the league leaders through to the fourth round of the A.F.A. Senior Cup.

The hosts quickly belied their middling league record in the division below by holding the visitors for the twenty minute early period of reconnoitre during which front runners Nick Wilson and Craig Jones in tandem with mid-fielder Ryan Bright spearheaded the attack.

At this point it was the peripheral vision of mid-fielder Nick Jones which broke the deadlock. His superb cross field pass over Beals’ right back put Craig Jones clear and he bored in to fire the ball low into the far corner. Three minutes later it looked as if Meads had solved the problem when the hosts failed to deal with a corner and Mike Richards duly converted from ten yards to put clear water between the visitors and pursuit.

That was all reduced to theory and ashes as the hosts bit back to equalise before the halftime whistle through a free-ish header and one of Beals’ former representative players dredging his memory to burst through the middle. What was said during the interval was kept from the press corps but whatever it was had almost immediate effect: Meads took just two minutes to regain the lead when once more the hero was Craig Jones who dived to head in a low cross, sustaining a cut head for his pains. Now the hosts lost the plot; they were still capable of giving their guests a difficult time but in resorting to skulduggery and thuggery and targeting the light-weight Bright, they failed to realise that the game was not out of reach.

However, although Bright, deprived of the protection he should have got from a supine ref, was cautioned for remonstrating against the heavies and had to be subbed, as far as Meads were concerned they weren’t going to let go now. With five minutes to the final whistle Nick Jones freed Wilson on the right and he chose his favourite bee-line to goal, bamboozling the keeper to net inside the near post.

January 14, 2017