First Team Vs Forest Hill Park

5 March 2019

Hospitals Charity Cup semi-final

Erith and Belvedere          1          Harding 77

Forest Hill Park                   0

HARRY TAKES THE DERES TO ANOTHER FINAL

It might not be the most important competition the Deres are involved in this season, and that was reflected in the lack of tension with which the game was played, but it’s always good to keep a run going, and this run is producing some remarkable statistics for the club.  A 16th game unbeaten, the last defeat now four months ago, a single goal conceded in seven games, and Harry Harding edging closer to the club record tally for a season.

In a season which has seen the Deres’ slowest turnover of players in over a decade, Owen Jones took the opportunity of a break from the league to make five changes, but the Deres still looked fluent and confident on the ball.  Yet the best chances in the opening period fell to Forest Hill Park: on 16 minutes Tim Beckford broke through one-on-one with Dan Teeley, lobbed him but cleared the bar by a distance.  Teeley was in action again two minutes later with a fine save from James Teodorescu, before Reece Barrett at the other end had a header cleared off the line by James Shields on 21 minutes.  David Olayokun, making his third start for Deres, had a 35th-minute drive well saved by Nathan Edwards and set up Chan Quan just before the interval for a header that went wide.

Inevitably the second half was punctuated by substitutions, nine in all, which affected the flow of the game.  Teeley, though, was as alert as ever, tipping a shot from Ishmail Ishmail superbly over the bar on the hour.  Quan, working hard in midfield, did well to provide a centre for Harding whose shot was well saved.  Shortly afterwards came the breakthrough, when a throw-in from the right was flicked on to Harding who drilled the ball home from close range for his 36th goal of the season.

It might have been the cautious thing to take Harding off at this point to save him for league clashes to come, but he completed the game, albeit with a scare when he was brought down by the burly Kazim Bishop who then fell on top of him.  But no damage seemed to have been done, and Deres were through to their second final of the season.  The date and venue are still to be confirmed, and the opponent to be decided next Tuesday when Stansfeld host Sutton Athletic.  In this mood they will be prepared for anybody, while hoping the date doesn’t contribute to fixture congestion, since the undoubted priority is promotion.  But this win will do them fine for now.

DERES: Teeley; Hill, Barrett, Curtis (G Jones 70), Yembra, Dobson (Holley 59), Muchenje (Mpungi 75), Quan, Olayokun (R Wade 53), Harding, J Jones (Kitondo 51).

FOREST HILL PARK: Edwards; Shields, Teodorescu, O’Shea, Kimberly (Daramy 84), Aluo (Duru 59), Ishmail, Bishop, Pope-Campbell, Arif (Hall 83), Beckford (Lawal 66)