MALDON & TIPTREE 0 AFC 1
Maldon and Tiptree 0 AFC Dunstable 1 (0-0 Half time)
F.A. Trophy First Qualifying Round
Park Drive Saturday 6th September 2025.
Attendance –
Match report by Richard Church.
Another cup day out in sunny Essex – this time to the very impressive set up at Maldon and Tiptree who have several ex professionals in their set up, including ex West Ham United player, Freddie Sears up top – our third such outing of the season and what a glorious day it turned out to be!
The game started very evenly with very few goal opportunities – the majority of the play was in midfield with AFC more than holding their own against some very experienced players. Tali in particular was on form and bossed the midfield against a team that wanted to play football but were not averse to a bit of good old fashioned route one get the ball forward.
First chance for the ODs came with 30 minutes on the clock when Carm (following some excellent work to get himself in to a good position) got off a shot but it was an easy save for the keeper – the first shot on target in the game perhaps? Tra picked up an unfortunate groin strain and was replaced by Avto a few minutes later. AFC continued to push and created a couple of half chances – Sean had a decent opportunity but could not get the ball completely under control to get a shot off, Kyle had a shot that went just wide and following a lovely run down the right from Avto and a good ball in to George but his first time effort was just wide. A pretty even first half but AFC definitely had the better scoring opportunities.
If the first half was AFCs, the second half was definitely dominated by the home side even though Tali had the first opportunity one minute in to the half following a nice ball from Avto but his shot was blocked. Maldon took control of the game and AFC had to resort to hanging on a bit and some definite game management (aka time wasting!). Matt was taking an age with every goal kick and eventually got a telling off from the referee for delaying. Nine minutes in to the half Maldon had a great opportunity but a mix of good defending and some good fortune saw the ball cleared. Five minutes later an excellent save by Matt prevented a certain goal – we were definitely well under the cosh as Maldon dominated in this period.
In spite of the pressure, AFC had a couple of breakaway opportunities – Sean played a nice ball through to Timothy but with an almost open goal he managed to sky the ball well over the bar. With 70 minutes on the clock came the decisive moment of the game. Tali played a ball through to Timothy who ran the ball forward and tucked the ball away under the despairing dive of the keeper to put us a goal up. The home twitter described it as a defensive mistake and an own goal – clearly saw something very differently to me!
Backs to the wall time as Maldon went desperately searching for an equaliser. Harry and Shawn were superb in the centre of defence and along with Matt in goal did just about enough to keep their goal intact. With a couple of minutes to go. Matt made another excellent save to push the ball wide, From the resulting corner Harry headed the ball away for another corner – this time the striker headed wide. Five minutes of added time were signalled and Maldon threw everything at us. Two bouts of pinball in added time when the ball could have gone anywhere as it bounced about – Matt dropped the ball at a strikers feet at one stage but somehow his shot was blocked and finally cleared. The final whistle was greeted with jubilance by the hordes of AFC fans. Into the next round where we play away to Enfield FC who play at Hertford FCs stadium.
Man of the match (as decided by the AFC committee) was Tali.
Team line up (subs in brackets) ; Matt Bonsu, Aaron Addy, Carmichael Uchenna, Tali Jallow, Harry Riley, Shawn Joseph, Tra Lucas (Akhsiashvili Avtandil 32), Timothy Okwusogo (Abel Damoah-Kyeremeh 75), Sean Duodu, George Joyce (Tommy Blennerhasset 86), Kyle Brooks.
(Abel Damoah-Kyeremeh 75), George Joyce, Maks Jarzabek (Eric Frunza 64), Mwita Mgoyo, Harry Riley, (Akhsiashvili Avtandil 32), (Tommy Blennerhasset 86), Sean Duodu (Patrik Horvath 78), Tali Jallow, Kyle Brooks.
