Carshalton Athletic got back to winning ways with a battling victory against East Grinstead Town, writes James Barrett.
Home form back in place
Despite conceding the first goal of the match we hit three of our own to claim our 22nd home point since the start of November.
Team news: Jarrell Gray had fully recovered from his foot injury to make his first start in two months, while Ricardo Panton and Sean O’Toole came in on the flanks for Jerome Walker and Mickel Miller. Young Ricky Korboa was named among the substitutes.
We made a bright start and won a corner in the first minute but the first real chance fell to Town on six when Ben Chick almost capitalised on some hesitation in our box but he fired into the side netting.
We displayed a lot of energy in the first 15 minutes but our final passes and searching balls were wayward and it gave our visitors impetus to build up their own attacks, one of which brought a goal on 18 minutes.
A corner was flicked on and Mark Pelling rose highest at the back post to head the ball in.
That seemed to shock us into a determined stride and our attacks started to build more promisingly until we managed an equaliser seven minutes after conceding.
Bobby Price won a free kick deep on the right which Clarke whipped in to the near post area. Paris Hamilton-Downes leapt and thumped a header home for his first goal of the season.
We had a good shout for a penalty not long after as Sean O’Toole beat Jack North and cut inside the Town box. The defender seemingly dragged our man down but referee Lee ignored all the calls from all associated with us.
Another free kick was knocked in on 36 minutes which Adriano Moraes headed back across the Town goal. It dropped and Tommy Bradford teed up O’Toole on the edge of the box but his on target effort was blocked by a defender. The ball fell to Moraes and his cross-shot was too wide of the far post and too in front of the lurking Austin Gacheru.
We grabbed the lead just before the interval after Panton had a powerful shot just tipped wide by keeper Sebastian Bol.
Moraes kept the deep corner alive and spun to whip in a cross which fell at the feet of O’Toole. He steadied himself to shoot and it took a slight deflection to narrowly cross the line before a defending boot hacked it clear to no avial.
HALF-TIME: 2 – 1
Gacheru came close to grabbing an elusive goal for himself two minutes after the break but his first-time sidefoot on an O’Toole cross flew just wide.
Jack Eden made a superb save to keep us in front on 53 minutes as Joey Taylor got the better of Price and his angled drive took a nick off Gray, but our keeper adjusted his feet and kept it out acrobatically.
We broke from that scare and Price took a Panton pass but drilled a low shot straight at Bol.
Brendan Murphy-McVey continued his return from injury by coming on just after the hour before Bradford played in Panton, who pace got him clear of the final defender. Bol hesitated but then rushed out only for our winger to drift a shot wide of the far post.
Both sides traded attacks but we put a bit of distance between ourselves and Town by going further ahead on 73 minutes.
We kept an over-hit corner alive and Matt Males found himself with the ball just outside the box. He looked up and curled a delicious ball in for Gacheru to rise between two defenders and head home his third Robins goal.
Jon-Paul Collier almost chipped Eden from 25 yards four minutes later but the ball just dropped the other side of the crossbar, while Gacheru made way for Korboa’s first appearance of this season.
Our defence stubbornly kept Town’s attacks at bay during the last 10 minutes as they threw themselves forward, while sub Mickel Miller had a great chance to increase our tally in added time but he poked the ball past both the exposed Bol and the wrong side of the far post.
Next up: We visit Corinthian Casuals on Saturday 31st January before Folkestone Invicta arrive at Colston Avenue on Saturday 7th February. We then travel to Chipstead on Saturday 14th February.
Carshalton Athletic: Eden; Price, Gray, Moraes (c), Hamilton-Downes; Panton, Males, Clarke (Murphy-McVey – 62), O’Toole (Miller - 85); Gacheru (Korboa - 78), Bradford
Unused subs: Higgs, Moore
Goals: Hamilton-Downes (25), O’Toole (43), Gacheru (73)
Booked: Clarke, Hamilton-Downes
East Grinstead Town: Bol, North, Taylor, Sargeant (c), Pelling, Harding, Chick (Sinclair – 61), Collier, M Campbell, Hysi (Joseph – 46), K Campbell (Hart – 74)
Unused subs: Boyle, O’Connor
Goal: Pelling (18)