Westfield 1-0 Guernsey
Abubakar 32′.
Guernsey’s search for a win away from home this season goes on as they lacked the cutting edge to find a way past the Westfield defence at Woking Park on Saturday.
Having fallen behind just after the half-hour, they got stronger in the second half but struggled to create anything clear cut, and have lost more ground on the teams they are trying to catch.
They perhaps missed the running of Kyle Smith up front, but would have hoped to create more with the return of Charlton Gauvain and Ben Acey as another winnable game eluded them.
After starting on the back foot, during which time Jamie Dodd had made in important block as Kyen Nicholas tried to work space to shoot from the middle of area, the Green Lions started to assert some control on the game and moved the ball around nicely.
Took 20 minutes for the first real action of the game as Stanton got down quickly to his right to make the block from Tayshan Hayden-Smith’s speculative effort that dipped awkwardly.
The Guernsey defence breathed a sigh of relief on the 25-minute mark as a Westfield cross was delivered from the right, took a nick off the head of Ross Murdoch, then Nicholas right in front of goal, but luckily the ball continued to travel across the six-yard box and away.
Tony Vance was dealt a blow when Thomas Dodds, who had started the game excellently, was forced off with an ankle injury, to be replaced by Tom Jackson.
GFC fell behind in the 32nd minute as the hosts won the ball high up the pitch and it was played quickly inside. The ball was moved on once more into the area, where Ben Le Tocq had not tracked Salhin Abubakar, who controlled before lashing the ball high into the net from the angle.
An instant reply was chalked off afters Jackson’s lovely chip pass saw Ross Allen run onto the bouncing ball and lift it over Callum Backhurst, but he had started his run a fraction too early and the offside flag went up.
Jacob Fallaize did well to meet Liam Mahon’s corner at the far post and head back towards the six-yard box, and was irate that not of his team mates were alert to the dropping ball as Backhurst scooped it up.
There was another scare as Samir Bajja lifted the ball over the top from six yards out after a corner dropped in front of him.
The first chance of the second half for the visitors came after a neat move involving Jackson and Acey, combining to tee up Ross Allen outside the area, but Backhurst was equal to the shot. The number 10 then broke into the box on the right but no one was on the same length to run on to his backheel.
Allen was looking like Guernsey’s best hope of clawing a goal back. He later hit a free-kick form a promising position into the wall and saw a shot cannon off Kai Davis and behind after a couple of drops of the shoulder.
Liam Mahon clipped the resulting corner towards the edge of the box for Gauvain to attempt the spectacular volley, but a defender flung himself in the way.
Substitute Dave Rihoy made the goalkeeper work at his near post on 75 minutes after overlapping Charlton Gauvain and driving towards the byline. Moments later, Acey burst down the right and whipped in a dangerous cross that took a nick off a defender, sending it agonisingly behind the run of Allen, who tried to flick a boot at it a couple of yards out. The resulting corner saw Fallaize head over the bar.
Substitute Sam Evans should have sealed the game for the hosts with 10 minutes left a corner was flicked towards him, but he somehow turned it wide from only a couple of yards out.
But there was little in the way of a late bombardment from Guernsey and the hosts saw the game out well for only their fifth win of the season, leaving Guernsey in the bottom two.
Westfield: 1 Callum Backhurst; 2 Kai Davis; 3 Callum Abraham-Barlow; 4 Caleb Wright; 5 Niran Butler; 6 Tayshan Hayden-Smith; 7 Salhin Abubakar (15 Troy Timothy 84’); 8 Samir Bajja; 9 Kyen Nicholas (12 Kai Hamilton-Olise, HT); 10 Ross Murdoch (14 Sam Evans, 77’); 11 Joel Nakatani-Brown. Not used: 16 Mekhail McLaughlin; 17 Ik Hill.
Booked: Butler, Abraham-Barlow, Timothy.
Guernsey: 1 Callum Stanton, 2 Keanu Marsh (14 Dave Rihoy, 68’), 3 Jamie Dodd (c), 4 Thomas Dodds (12 Tom Jackson, 24’), 5 Jacob Fallaize, 6 Kieran Mahon, 7 Ben Acey, 8 Liam Mahon (15 Glenn Le Tissier, 84), 9 Charlton Gauvain, 10 Ross Allen, 11 Ben Le Tocq. Not used: 16 Matt Loaring.
Booked: L Mahon.
Attendance: 163.
Highlights will be available on GFCTV over the weekend.
