Saturday 27th January 2024
Isthmian North
BRENTWOOD TOWN 2 – 0 WALTHAMSTOW FC
By Michaela Georgopoulos
THE BLUES BLAZE AGAIN DESPITE A BRUTAL FIRST HALF BLOW
Brentwood Town continued their six match unbeaten spell in the Isthmian North Division after gaining a 2-0 victory over Walthamstow FC.
Only one change was made to the previous starting XI that secured last week’s victory over Redbridge with Sam Deering returning from injury in place of Jesse Olukolu.
The Blues managed to create three first half chances after the possession of the visitors forced them to defend robustly throughout the first half.
Walthamstow created several shots on target including a powerful header by Kevin Songolo but were unable to put them past Minter to take the lead at The Arena.
However, in the 35th minute play was temporarily suspended after a brutal blow to the Blues. Romél Aarons Royal suffered a concussion in the Brentwood penalty area as he collided with Melvin Minter and the Walthamstow strikers when clearing the cross. He was then taken to hospital where he received additional treatment and has since been discharged.
Connor Hogan came on to replace Aarons Royal whilst the remaining minutes of the half were played, but the score line remained goalless at the break.
George Sykes scored the first of the two second half goals and broke the deadlock in the 50th minute after tapping in the rebound of Mekhi McKenzie.
Walthamstow were then punished as Jason Beck received a straight red card for his two footed challenge onto Sykes, causing them to play the remainder of the game with 10 men.
The Blues continued to blaze with captain Matt Cripps, who was later awarded Man of The Match, netting the second from a corner delivered by Tom Stephen.
Daniel Ogunleye and Jesse Olukolu were amongst the other changes made in the second half, replacing McKenzie and Deering.
After the victory Matt Cripps said: “After an hour off the pitch it’s always hard to come back out but it did help us in the end to regroup and we were the better side from then on”.
Manager Keith Rowland explained, “Our first thoughts are for Romél. He is a great lad and has done really well for us. We are all concerned and will find out in the next few hours.“
“We will turn up next week with the same attitude and respect for the opposition and do our upmost to come away with something”, when asked about the Blues trip to Gorleston.
The victory puts Brentwood into 4th place and just 8 points behind the league leaders Lowestoft Town, who they will face on February 6th.
The Blues are back in action on Saturday the 3rd of February as they travel to Great Yarmouth to take on an in form Gorleston.
Attendance: 338
Brentwood Town: 1 Melvin Minter, 2 Jonathan Nzengo, 3 Tom Stephen, 4 James Love, 5 Matt Cripps, 6 Romél Aarons Royal (Hogan 35’), 8 Shad Ngandu, 9 Mekhi McKenzie(Ogunleye 80’), 10 Sam Deering (Olukolu 46’), 11 Andrew Freeman, 18 George Sykes.
Subs: 12 Jesse Olukolu, 14 Connor Hogan, 15 Daniel Ogunleye, 16 Alex Akrofi, 17 Samuel Jeremiah
