With the ODs looking to next season after the departure of management and players, they are fielding an inexperienced side to complete their fixtures. However, those who travelled hopeful of a hat full of goals were disappointed.
The home side had conceded an average of six goals a game in their previous seven matches so supporters expectations weren’t unreasonable. As it turned out Ware’s play never really produced enough clear chances and two goals before half time weren’t enough to kill off the home side.
Manager Paul Halsey felt that his team dominated throughout and should have scored more. They “created more chances than in any other game this season” but there were innumerable times when the ball was cleared off or from close to the goal line. Still, the objective of three points and a clean sheet had been achieved.
The ODs defence should take credit for somehow getting back to support keeper Noah Vaughan so many times. Both teams flooded the six yard area at times so it wasn’t entirely surprising that Reece Beckles-Richards once blocked a colleague’s shot bound for the net.
Halsey’s comments are not inaccurate but Ware’s preference for high balls forward didn’t always help. They caused problems in the home defence at times but also for attackers trying to control the play and open up chances.
The home side’s willingness to keep the ball on the ground looked more useful. Only their lack of experience kept them quiet under the watchful eye of a depleted Ware defence, that and a lack of a killing final touch. As a result they only once got close to a goal right at the end of the game when Fred Burbidge saved a shot when his view was blocked by the referee and then when he turned a shot against the post and off for a corner.
With Jack Grosvenor still unavailable Halsey’s plans were not helped when Josh Okotcha was withdrawn from the side with five minutes to kick off. A tweak in the warm up was, with tougher fixtures coming up, thought too risky and Leigh Rose was elevated to a starting place with Ware now limited to three usable substitutes. It was the one change from Saturday’s line up.
The start was positive with Josh Hutchinson getting a header in but just wide shortly after the kick off. Within a minute Beckles-Richards, with his back to goal, tried an over head kick that was cleared by the last defender in front of goal. Pressure continued but without success and as Ware became frustrated so the long balls forward became more frequent.
The breakthrough came just past the half hour mark. A Ware corner from the left came into the six yard area and initiated another of the goal mouth scrambles that had already become a feature of the match.
On this occasion however the ball came out to Gucci Soulya-Osekanongo on the six yard line. Rather than shooting it back into the melee of feet and bodies he shot high into the roof of the net to give Ware the lead. It was his third goal in four days.
Hutchinson was in action again near the end of the half, turning to shoot just wide before, with five minutes to the break, he made his most telling contribution to the game. He chased down a back pass to Vaughan whose hurried clearance bounced off the Ware man and looped across the penalty area in front of goal.
For a moment it looked as though it might end in the net but the ball spun away into the six yard box. There was Beckles-Richards closing in to shoot past a covering defender and double Ware’s lead. Thoughts that this was just the prelude to more goals after the break proved misplaced.
If this was a less than convincing win some people have suggested that Ware’s inconsistency has something to do with playing surfaces. The thought is that grass pitches are not always conducive to Ware’s style. If that is so they can take heart from the fact that of their eight remaining fixtures only one is on grass. Such is the changing nature of football at this level of the game.
Line-ups and cards
Ware: Fred Burbidge, Finlay Titchmarsh, David Sota, Jack Taylor, Jay Rolfe, Reece Beckles-Richards (C), Max Granville, Josh Hutchinson, Gucci Soulya-Osekanongo, Sam Mayuma (Johnny Allotey 57mins), Leigh Rose (Sami Moutawafiq 57mins). Unused subs: Josh Okotcha, Gabriel Ward.
AFC Dunstable: Noah Vaughan, Jeremy Amissah, Tyrelle Joseph, James Doherty, Marlon Burton, Mohibur Rachman (Benjamin Burt 70mins), Euan Warlow, Shea Greene, Jeffery Yeboah (Michael Brako 57mins), Jake Cowley (C), Christopher Carter (Flynn O’Connor 86mins). Unused subs: Cyril Mensah, Alex Copas.
Yellow cards: Jeffery Yeboah 51mins, Shea Green 91mins.
