Another point for the Reserves as the trip to Kiln Park ends goalless.
Tuesday 12th April 2022
UHLSPORT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE-RESERVE DIVISION
RAUNDS TOWN Reserves (0) 0 COGENHOE UNITED Reserves (0) 0
Damien McGrath took charge of the Reserves again as they made the trip to the east of the county to face an improving Raunds Town second string. The home side seemed to include a healthy mix of youth and experience with their central defence falling into the latter catergory in the shape of Kalon Peniasko and former Cooks player Aaron Campion as they reprise the roles they had played in at Rothwell Corinthians in the Premier Division not too long ago. McGrath made a few changes from Saturday with the most noticeable being the absence of two-goal hero Shad Reza, although he was able to call on skipper Jake Walpole after being unavailable at the weekend.
The game was slow to get going with most of the play being in midfield with neither side looking like opening up their opposite defences. Ben Short played a free-kick into the box that caused the Shopmates defence into action, whilst down the other end Ben Westwood had his first sniff of the ball as he caught a free-kick played into the box from just inside the Cooks half by Filip Kulinowski. The first corner of the game saw Short swing the ball in, but Deji Odude just got to it in front of Nzube Nwosu in the centre. Ben Waterhouse broke through the middle and slipped the ball past Westwood and from where I stood it appeared to be going in, but Eman Kyrermeh, who was standing in an offside position, decided to get the final touch meaning the ‘goal’ was ruled out.
Another Ben Short corner saw Kelvin Gyamfi use his height to meet the ball with a powerful header that Jenson Leon palmed away before his teammates cleared the ball up field, then Kyrermeh played a good ball across the box and Odude just couldn’t get behind his attempt at a volley. An early sub saw Gyamfi make way for Darren Fotso with 35 minutes played just before a piece of very brave keeping saw Westwood dive at the feet of Kyrermeh to claim the ball a split second before the two collided. Although both players stayed down, thankfully neither were badly injured and they were able to continue. Westwood saved a close range effort by Kyrermeh, whilst the final chance of the half came down the other end when a lovely ball from Nwosu picked out Short on the left and he took the ball inside before drilling in a low shot that Leon gathered safely.
Half-time; Raunds 0 Cogenhoe 0.
Luke Andrews played a good ball through to pick out the run of Fotso down the right channel and he took it on before firing a low shot that was too close to the keeper to cause him any real problems, then the lively Kyrermeh cut inside from the left before firing a shot straight across the face of the goal. Kulinowski picked play up on the left, but his shot went high and wide of the far post. Some very nice football from the home side saw Lewis McLaughlin steer a volley straight at Westwood as Raunds had a decent spell of possession in the Cooks half.
Short played a free kick into the box that Ben Mason challenged for, but the ball came off a defender’s head before going over the bar, although the referee didn’t have a good view of proceedings inside the busy penalty area and awarded Raunds a goal-kick. Cogenhoe’s best chance of the game came when Joe Morris fired a free-kick in and Leon could only palm it into the air. The ball dropped to Andrews inside the 6-yard box, but he couldn’t get over the ball and his header went over the bar.
Connor Gibbins made way for Seb Patrick Medan on 68 minutes, then five minutes later Nat Allam went into the book for bringing down his man just beyond the left corner of his box. Nwosu made himself a yard of space in a central position around 25-yards from goal before hitting a decent low shot that flew just wide of the keeper’s right hand post, then Short did well to beat the full-back to get to the bye-line before pulling the ball back across the box, but a defender got their foot to the ball just ahead of Mason and the game finished goalless.
The point moves Cogenhoe up to 12th in the table whilst Raunds remain rooted to the bottom, six points adrift. Their goal difference means that they are now doomed to pick up the wooden spoon, but they have been slowly improving in recent weeks since Neil Healey took over in the hot-seat and the recent addition of an U18s team could well see them turn things around next season. There was definitely an end of season vibe to this game and in all honesty it won’t linger in the mind for too long. I felt Raunds looked the better of the two tonight, but on the whole it was the two defences that stood out in a game of very few chances.
Raunds; 1. Jenson Leon 2. Joe Chubb 3. Shay Duncan 4. Deji Odude 5. Kalon Peniasko 6. Aaron Campion 7. Lewis McLauchlan 8. Jamie Kerrisk 9. Emanual Kyrermeh 10. Filip Kulinowski 11. Ben Waterhouse. Subs; 12. Justin Dickinson 14. Marcus Dowman * 15. Alex Gudyer * 16. Mo Sayed * 17. Elliott Gillingwater.
Cogenhoe; 1. Ben Westwood 2. Joe Morris 3. Lorenco Soulollari 4. Nzube Nwuso 5. James McGrath 6. Jake Walpole © 7. Ben Short 8. Luke Andrews 9. Ben Mason 10. Connor Gibbins (sub 12. Seb Patrick Medan 68) 11. Kelvin Gyamfi (sub 15. Darren Fotso 35). Subs unused; 14. Shaun Fotso 16. Joey Kearsley 5. James McGrath.
Referee; Tom Roberts.
