Uhlsport United Counties League

First Division

Irchester United v Melton Town

Saturday 18th October 2020

Albert Street

Report and photos from Finbarr Carroll.

Irchester with one win and 3 draws from their 8 games entertained 2nd in the table Metlton Town at Albert Street on a dull overcast autumnal day, fortunately there was no wind about to spoil the game.

Melton kicked off and it was the division’s top goalscorer Zak Munton who was already giving the Irchester back four of Lewis Moses, Sam Dengel, Dan Mortimer and Adam Randall a few anxious moments.

The game settled down and was pretty even from both sides with attempts to get forward from the Romans wingers in Alfie Taylor and Luqman Abdallah with plenty of balls being sent out to them from Adam Randall in midfield.

After a couple of long range efforts from Melton’s Corey Bucalossi.

The deadlock was finally broken when Bucalossi put a lovely pass out to team-mate Henry Dunn with Dunn placing a lovely pass to Tom Harris who controlled the ball superbly and with defenders breathing down his neck was able to turn towards the goal and fire his shot home to put Melton a goal up. 0-1

It was Melton who were making most of the goal-scoring chances at this point with some fine play from Jack Astill who was playing all over the park, Zak Munton had one shot going just over the bar, Henry Dunn had an effort blocked and another chance for Munton saw him just short an inch to get on the end of a Astill cross to poke the ball home from close range.

Melton then had defender Sam Beaver booked for a foul on Romans wing-man Alfie Taylor. The free-kick when taken from outside the area went out for a Melton goal-kick.

A long range shot from Irchester’s Ethan Goodman called Melton goalkeeper Rob Peet into action with Peet able to gather the ball in safely. Not long afterwards, Goodman found himself going in the book of referee Mark Simmons after he had fouled Melton’s Jack Astill.

A fine ball from Roman’s defender upfield to Lugman Abdallah saw a fine run and cross from Abdallah, with team-mate Ryan Lovell on the end of it, but the shot from Lovell sailed over the bar.

A fine cross from Melton player Astill found his colleague Henry Dunn at the far post who hit the ball hard and low across the face of the goal with it just sneaking in the net. 0-2

Just before half-time, Melton went further ahead when a fine run from Henry Dunn see him him end with him shooting at goal and Romans keeper Lewis North-Row unable to get anything on it to prevent it going into his goal. 0-3

Irchester’s Nathan Heycock was urging his side forward to try and get something back before the break with some fine play by him, but the half-time whistle came and the sides went for a break at 0-3.

The second half saw the first chance go to Melton with Jack Astill again laying on a good ball, this time to Zak Munton who tapped it to his team-mate Dunn with Dunn’s shot well saved by Romans keeper North-Row. Another effort from Melton’s Bucalossi was well defended by Romans player Nathan Heycock when Heycock was flat on the fall but managed to head the ball clear of danger.

Irchester then had Kasper Chyzynski booked for a foul on Melton player Tom Harris.

Irchester were playing much better in the second half and were doing a bit more running than the they did in the first half with the one person in Irchester having done the most running in the first 45 minutes being Steve Bone on the cricket side of the pitch fetching the ball back every time a ball was knocked out for a throw-in.

A nice bit of play from Irchester saw a pass from Alfie Taylor into Ryan Lovell with some lovely skill from Lovell on the turn to get a shot in that forced Melton keeper Rob Peet into making a fine save diving down to his left to put the ball out for a corner. The corner-kick was cleared by Melton defender Sam Beaver.

The first substitutions of the day was made by Irchester when Sam Dengel and Kasper Chyzynski were replaced by Alex Ashman and Tobi Shoyoye.

Irchester were having a good spell with Shoyoe adding a bit of pace to their play up front.

Melton were happy to knock the ball around in their own half playing some nice passing football and patently waiting for an opportunity to get forward and are most certainly not a hoof-it and run football team.

The first substitution from Melton was made with Tom Harris being replaced by Jordan Lever.

Melton had some more chances to increase their lead from 2 efforts from Lever defended and an attempt by Bucalossi to lob Irchester keeper North-Row fail with North-row getting to the ball to save.

Melton then replaced Bucalossi and introduced substitute Tom Manship into the game.

A chance for Irchester to reduce the arrears came when a long ball forward found Tobi Shoyoye who had beaten the Melton offside-trap, Shoyoye having seen Melton keeper Rob Peet off his line attempted a long-range chip over Peet, but Peet, outside of his area, was able to jump high enough to clear the ball with his head.

Melton the bought on Daniel Jones to replace Robbie Parsons.

With barely seconds remaining in the game, a foul from Lewis Moses on Melton’s Henry Dunn on the edge of the Irchester penalty area resulted in Moses going in the book for a yellow card. The free-kick was defended by Irchester with the ball only moving a few feet when Melton were awarded another. Before the kick was taken, Irchester had Nathan Heycock booked. The free-kick, when it was finally was taken by Tom Manship, saw the kick from Manship hit a Romans player lined up in their wall, sending the ball in the opposite direction to what Irchester keeper North-Row was expecting and found it’s way into the net, a bit of a cruel way to get a goal, but at the end of the season they all count.

The ball was put back on the centre spot for the re-start and when it was kicked, the referee blew his whistle for full-time. 0-4

Melton would have been happy with a win and a clean sheet and Irchester will be happy with their second half performance.

Teams

Irchester United

Lewis North-Row

Sam Dengel

Dan Mortimer

Kasper Chyzynski

Lewis Moses

Adam Randall

Alfie Taylor

Nathan Heycock

Ethan Goodman

Ryan Lovell

Luqman Abdallah

Substitutes

Alex Ashman

Tobi Shoyoye

Matty Freeman

Melton Town

Rob Peet

Owen Story

Sam Beaver

Corey Bucalossi

Nathan Benjamin

Cameron Gilchrist

Tom Harris

Henry Dunn

Zak Munton

Robbie Parsons

Jack Astill

Substitutes

Daniiel Jones

Quinn Johnson

Toby Fura

Tom Manship

Jordan Lever

Referee, Mark Simmons

Assistants, Robert Porter, Ajisola Babatunde