Southall 3 (Heneghan 61’: Amu 65’; Stead 67’)
Guernsey 0
A calamitous seven minutes midway through the second half saw Guernsey beaten 3-0 at Southall in their second outing of the season.
Goals from forwards Arell Amu and Luke Heneghan, followed by a Louis Stead penalty, all between the 61st and 67th minutes, saw the collapse of a competitive contest at the Robert Parker Stadium. The Green Lions had been well in it until that point but leave still searching for their first goal of the season.
There was early dominance from the hosts but the Sarnians withstood it for the first 20 minutes and actually created the best chance within a minute as Keene Domaille squeezed round his man on the left and picked out the returning Will Fazakerley in the middle, but a defender got in the way of his first-time effort. Jamie Dodd also nodded over as Danny Hale swung in a free-kick.
Heneghan’s free-kick had Jason Martin scrambling to his left but he saw it bounce wide. The Guernsey stopper then made a brilliant save down to his right to spare Matt Loaring’s blushes after the GFC man had inadvertedly nodded a ball directly into Tavares’ path in front of goal.
The visitors would have been pleased to have got to half-time with a shut-out, and were hoping for more of the same while aiming to catch their hosts out on the break.
The Green Lions did actually see more of the ball in the first quarter-hour of the half. But they were unable to create much with it, and two quickfire chances at the other end were both wasted, with Bruno Tavares and Alex Nolan both blazing over from the right side of the area, the first especially gilt-edged as the pacy Tavares ran onto a loose ball and through on goal. It looked easier to score.
Those two chances were a nod towards what was to come as the Green Lions suffered their mid-half collapse that saw a positive result torn from them. Just after the hour, Heneghan received the ball on the left of the area, cut in onto his right foot and lifted a shot towards the far top corner that was just out of reach of Martin’s outstretched fingers.
Just four minutes later, the deficit was doubled as Amu scrambled home on the rebound after an intial save from Martin. Less than two minutes after that, the referee penalised GFC for a push in the area and captain Stead blasted his penalty to Martin’s right to seal the points.
Danny Hale almost got a spectacular consolation with just over 10 minutes left as he met substitute Robbie Legg’s cross with an acrobatic bicycle kick, but the ball dropped just over.
Martin did well to keep the score down for his side, going down to his right to deny Amu, fielding a weak effort from Tavares from range, then flinging himself to his left to ush away as Tavares curled towards the far corner on the counter.
An afternoon for the Sarnians to quickly forget, but two positives that immediately spring to mind were a sloid performance from Tom Vaudin on his full debut, and a lively cameo from Brandon Wallace on his first competitive outing for the club from the bench.
Tony Vance’s side have an immediate opportunity to show a positive reaction as Tooting & Mitcham United visit Footes Lane for our first home game of the season on Bank Holiday Monday.
The weekend’s other results were as follows: Ashford Town 3-1 South Park, Bedfont Sports 0-0 Chipstead, Binfield 4-0 Merstham, Hanworth Villa 0-4 Basingstoke Town, Sutton Common Rovers 0-5 Chertsey Town, Thatcham Town 1-2 Leatherhead, Tooting & Mitcham United 0-1 Marlow, Walton & Hersham 3-1 Uxbridge, Westfield 1-3 Northwood.
Southall: 1 Michael Edegbe; 2 Alex Nolan; 3 Frankie Taylor; 4 Louis Stead (c); 5 Carl Pearce; 6 Ben Tricker; 7 Jack Roper (16 George Isaac 75’); 8 Samuel Bello-Balogun; 9 Arell Amu; 10 Luke Henneghan (15 Darreon Mark, 66’ (14 Morgan Toney-Green, 90+1’)); 11 Bruno Tavares. Not used: 12 Onome Emovon; 17 Koju Aboyomi.
Goals: Heneghan 61’: Amu 65’; Stead 67’.
Booked: Bello-Balogun.
Guernsey: 1 Jason Martin; 2 Keanu Marsh; 3 Jamie Dodd (c); 4 Thomas Dodds; 5 Jacob Fallaize (12 Ben Le Tocw, 75′); 6 Tom Vaudin; 7 Matt Loaring; 8 Liam Mahon (15 Brandon Wallace 74’); 9 Will Fazakerley (15 Robbie Legg, 65’); 10 Keene Domaille; 11 Danny Hale. Not used: 13 Josh Addison.
Booked: Fallaize, Dodds. Loaring, Mahon.
Attendance: 50
Highlights are available on GFCTV now.
