An amazing goal by Ryan Healy meant our battling second-half performance against Walton Casuals yielded a point, writes James Barrett.
The match was played in blustery conditions throughout which made this a difficult game to watch at times, as searching passes and lofted crosses invariably finished nowhere near their intended targets.
We were playing into the wind during the first-half and our attackers found it difficult to build any real sustained pressure. If it wasn’t the wind then late challenges like Peter Wedgeworth’s on Mickel Miller also halted our forward flow.
Tommy Bradford collected a stray pass by Cox on 24 minutes and he took the ball forward into Casuals territory before releasing Aikhionbare onto goal. Goalkeeper Brannon Daly rushed out and managed to block our man’s stabbed effort away, and our forward failed to get up in the aftermath.
We played with 10 men for the next five minutes and Casuals took the lead after Odunaike chested a diagonal ball into the path of Scott Day whom beat Colquhoun with a dipping drive from 18 yards.
Aikhionbare was finally substituted and he had to leave the ground on a stretcher – early reports claim he suffered a bad hamstring injury and he was taken to a nearby hospital.
Ten-Grotenhuis was handed his debut and he was one of five players to neatly shift the ball through the Casuals half on 32 minutes, but Jake Downs’ eventual cross flew over everyone in the box.
Aside from Cox thrashing a shot wildly over from 18 yards, the rest of the half saw the players still battling the elements rather than each other and our hosts went in one up at the break.
HALF-TIME: 1 – 0
We came out for the second-half with the wind behind us and a seemingly renewed vigour to get back into the game, with Bradford curling an early 19 yard free kick against Daly’s crossbar and Ten-Grotenhuis volleying the rebound over.
But our task was then made all the more difficult after Downs and Day came together as a long ball went out for a goal kick to us. The linesman adjudged Downs as having ‘a little nibble’ as the pair separated and the referee displayed a red card.
We restored parity on the hour mark however after Bradford won a free kick down the Casuals right. Miller whipped in an inswinging cross and Higgs ghosted in at the back post to firmly volley the ball into the back of the net.
Boss Chris McGinn reacted by bringing Paris Hamilton-Downes on for Ricky Korboa and allowing the left-footed defender license to get forward when he could.
The match then could’ve easily seen it 10-vs-10 as Wedgeworth caught Bradford this time with an awful looking challenge on 63 minutes, but the referee didn’t brandish a second yellow for the fortunate full back.
But it was us now making all the running and we almost took the lead on 70 minutes after Miller broke through onto a Higgs through ball. He rounded Daly and steered the ball on target from 15 yards but Rhys Paul recovered and managed to hack the ball clear of the gaping net.
Perhaps that moment was still fresh in our minds as Casuals re-took the lead four minutes later. Day managed to cut across in front of our area before Cox took the ball, cut inside one player and powered a shot into the bottom left hand corner.
Healy was introduced for Lee Hall as the clock ticked towards the last 10 minutes and we frustratingly hit the woodwork again as a Hamilton-Downes cross caused a mighty melee in which Miller crashed the ball against the bar before Bradford powered a shot into the side-netting.
But our second goal lit up the afternoon after Higgs held up a Miller free kick on the far side of the home box. He managed to knock the ball back towards Healy who came onto it 30 yards out and crashed a first time shot back past Daly and into the top corner for his first senior goal.
That moment spurred us on and we tried to take all three points home but, as a whipped free kick went in via a combination of Adam Thompson and a defender, the referee curtailed our celebrations by blowing for an unobvious infringement somewhere within the throng of players.
Casuals defender Jordan Cheadle was lucky not to see red following a late tackle on Bobby Price. He got booked but, as the referee was sorting out the free kick, the defender kicked the prone Price’s head, much to the consternation of Tony Sinclair and the travelling Robins fans.
We kept pushing for the three points but, in added time, Daly smothered a Bradford pot shot from 20 yards and Higgs flashed a header off target from 12 yards.