Carshalton Athletic registered a fourth consecutive league win by emerging victorious at a damp Sittingbourne on Saturday, writes James Barrett
The playing surface was already greasy as the morning rain showed no sign of abating come kick-off and it took us seven minutes to record the game’s first serious attack.
Dan Summers put Aikhionbare away on the left and he forced his marker back into the home box. His eventual shot took a deflection and Bobby Price, who’d steamed up from right back, couldn’t steer a volley on target.
Sittingbourne v Carshalton Athletic - 14 November 2015 72 photos
Match photos
That settled us down and, although both sides succeeded in putting crosses into their opponent’s box, we were happy to keep possession and try passing our way through their rearguard, with Summers putting a pot shot wide of goal on 12 minutes.
Our top scorer correctly judged the bounce on a Luke Colquhoun goal kick on 22 minutes and he checked inside a recovering defender, only for goalkeeper Adam Molloy to parry his angled shot across goal. The ball then just ran frustratingly in front of the incoming Higgs.
With our tails up, Price took an Aikhionbare pass out wide two minutes later but he saw his low cross, via a Tommy Bradford lay-off, scooped over the bar by Summers.
While our back four kept Sittingbourne from giving Colquhoun anything serious to worry about, Molloy was called into further action as a left-footed shot from Price on 36 minutes almost dipped under his crossbar.
Our last good glimpse of the home goal came on 40 minutes as Jake Downs put in an in-swinging cross from the left. Molloy panicked as Summers tried to get his head on it but Bradford couldn’t force the dropped ball past a lunging defender in front of goal.
HALF-TIME: 0 – 0
Hamilton-Downes came on for Downs at the start of the second-half and we forced four quick corners inside the first five minutes, but Molloy did excellently to keep out fine shots from Aikhionbare and Khan at different points of the action.
The home side started to put us under a bit of sustained pressure as the game headed towards the hour mark but they failed to get anyone on the end of two useful crosses.
We broke the deadlock on 62 minutes as a corner was cleared only for Bradford to eventually get some space to fizz a ball across the Sittingbourne six yard area. Summers got it under control and, although Price was also shaping to shoot on the still ball, he fired in his tenth league goal of the season.
The home side made a couple of changes but Harry Smith, their tall number nine, blazed one chance over our bar, while Colquhoun defied their apparent height difference to put the forward off heading a free kick on goal.
Youssef Bamba was introduced for the injured Khan on 72 minutes and we extended our lead four minutes later as Summers curled home a 20 yard free kick past Molloy.
Despite the home side coming to life in the last 10 minutes, we looked comfortable until the 88th minute when sub Miles Cornwell just managed to force the ball over our line after Colquhoun, Hamilton-Downes and Smith all collided together on a cross from the left.
The game could’ve ended 3-2 in our favour thanks to the chances created in added time, but Colquhoun saved well from Cornwell and Molloy palmed a Summers pass away from sub Ricky Korboa who would’ve had an open goal from six yards.
Next up: We welcome Walton Casuals on Monday 16th November before travelling to Three Bridges on Saturday 21st November. We then head to Dorking Wanderers on Tuesday 24th November.
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