FA CUP PRELIMINARY ROUND

Saturday 29 August 2009

BURNHAM 2 KENTISH TOWN 1

Burnham overcame a potential banana skin result with a 2-1 victory over Spartan South Midland League side Kentish Town.  Burnham had a superb start scoring both their goals in the first nine minutes.  In the first minute the Blues had a good chance to go ahead when a through ball from Daryl Jones to Dean Papali was then pushed through to big striker Ryan Bird who managed to toe poke the effort over the crossbar from close range.  Papali was in the action again forcing keeper Nethaniel Elraz to concede a corner.  The resulting corner found Adrian SEAR unmarked at the back post and he made no mistake in putting the home team in front.  The visitors won a corner on 9 minutes that was cleared by Bird out to PAPALI who beat the only defender just inside his half and cut in to score a superb goal.

Burnham kept pressing forward creating chances that were either saved by goal keeper Elraz or cleared by the defence.

Town won two free kicks in quick succession with Blues keeper Paul McCarthy making a good stop from Tom Looney and then Ossie Barkat saw his effort cleared to safety. 

On the half hour Bird lobbed Elraz only for the ball to come back into play after hitting the top of the crossbar.  In the 37th minute Town pulled a goal back when from a corner Mariusz SERWIN was left unmarked at the back post and headed home.

Burnham could and should have gone in at the break with the match all byut ended if the chances created had found the back of the net.

A minute into the second period Papali had the chance to make it three only for Elraz to save with his feet. Burnham had more chances to go further in front but were denied by their determined opponents.

On 75 minutes Town were reduced to 10 men when Elraz bought Papali down just outside the box leaving the referee with no alternative to produce a red card.  The Blues played out the last 15 minutes without further score but have qualified for the next round with maybe the odd scare along the way, although saying that Burnham did have loads of chances to have tied the match up a lot earlier.

Burnham: Paul McCarthy, Dave Tilbury, Daryl Jones, Paul Brett, Tom Willment, Adrian Sear, Paul Coyne, Robert Saunders (Oli Godwin) Dean Papali, Ryan Bird (Jordan Dowdican) Stuart Swift (Terry O’Connor)  Sub not used Daniel Hicks.

Kentish Town:Nethaniel Elraz, Chinua Phimnn Archer, Ossie Barkat, Kesi Dryden (Joe Monks) Joe O’Connor, Michael Gennaris, Thomas Looney (Luke Morgan) Fabion Simms, Luke Cavanannagh, Marius Serwin, Jason Donlon (Richard Johnson) Subs not used Gastavo Angel, Dan Marsh, Carl Gibbs, Aaron Gibbs.

Referee:Tim Donnellan

Attendance:77

Entertainment value 4/5

Man of the Match:Dean Papali