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City 4 Orpington 2

- 28/11/2009

For over an hour City played with ten men after goalkeeper Paul Hyde was sent off for handling outside the penalty area. They also had to endure the last fifteen minutes with only nine as a result of another sending off, but still they battled though adversity and showed great strength of character to record another win in their recovery from early season setbacks.

This was an extraordinary game in which City seemed to be more or less strolling to victory after taking a 3-0 advantage despite playing with ten men. Full back Hamilton Bowler had taken over in goal and did well to support a defence that towards the end came under increasing pressure.

Unusually, City manager Dave Fairclough started with a team that closely resembled that side that had played the previous week. It would have been an even closer resemblance had not Sam Baker pulled out at the last minute with a recurrence of an injury.

Dave Read, Wayne Fittall and Royston Gough again took up the strikers' roles but this was a day in which Fairclough’s hopes of achieving some consistency started to fall apart after only twenty minutes. Fittall had to abandon the game with a groin strain. Until then the striker had troubled Orpington and worked hard to provide Read and Gough with opportunities.

Action came quick and fast. A minute from the start Gough had the ball at his feet in the penalty area, nimbly turned the defender and slammed in the opening goal. Read, whose ability to hold the ball up with head or foot was outstanding throughout, cracked a shot close and Gough had one turned away by the Orpington 'keeper.

Craig Southern took up the attack, deftly accepting a fine long pass from Read and blasting a shot a yard wide. He kept moving forward from midfield and headed over before linking with Gough to cause more problems to the Orpington defence. Gough's header was deflected away by the 'keeper.

The departure of Fittall was a blow, yet City kept up their pressure. Read had another shot parried but then they found themselves without their new, inspirational goalkeeper Hyde, who came out beyond the penalty area to face an oncoming striker. The ball bounced high. The striker got first contact. Hyde instinctively put his hands up over his face and the ball struck him. Since the striker would probably have scored, the referee showed Hyde the red card. Bowler moved from full back into goal.

Problems multiplied. Luke Jackson went down with a facial injury. A nosebleed is not usually a lasting problem but although he came back on, in the end he had to give up his place to Luke Lockhart whose reliable performance in the centre of the defence was invaluable.

Perhaps thinking that they had a chance to unnerve a deputy goalkeeper, Orpington tried several long shots which Bowler dealt with well enough, though sometimes with a touch of good fortune.

Three minutes into the second half Read had the ball at his feet and only the goalkeeper ahead of him but it was the 'keeper who got the better of the contest. Obviously, Read was keen to make up for that and did so when Gough sent him a pass that left another chance to beat the Orpington goalkeeper, which he did by first drawing him out then placing the ball beyond him.

Only a minute later Read became the goal-maker when he back headed the ball to Liam Whiting, whose impressive dipping shot had the goalkeeper completely beaten. Orpington themselves then came down to ten men when an injury forced out one of their players and they had no substitutes.

Read's honesty in attempting to stay on his feet when clearly he had been fouled in the penalty area probably cost City another goal but had to be applauded.

On the hour Gough swept through the Orpington half, beating three attempted tackles before scuffing his final shot. Read followed up, blasting a drive across the mouth of the goal. City still seemed to be controlling the game, but then the defence drifted into a period of uncertainty. Kentley sent a shot under Bowler and then took advantage of further tentative defending to side foot his team's second goal to make the last fifteen minutes a lot more worrying than City had anticipated. Those minutes were made more troublesome when Whiting, who had already been cautioned, was sent off for a tackle from behind leaving City with just nine men.

At 3-2 City were in that difficult situation of not being confident that they could hold on to a narrow win and not wanting to commit themselves wholeheartedly to seeking out another goal that would make victory certain. Scott Lawford made up his own mind by taking the ball on a forty yard run and finishing with a shot the 'keeper had to parry at the near post.

Orpington had no choice but to commit themselves to the attack against City's nine men and should have been capable of pulling off a draw but City defended stoutly, with striker Gough carrying out defensive duties with the best of them. Five minutes from the end Mark Rook's free-kick found Read in the penalty area and he headed the ball over a stranded 'keeper to give his team a remarkable win on a day when so many problems could have seen them lose their appetite for the challenge.

CITY: Hyde (Bowler); Bowler, Lingham, Hossick, Lawford, Whiting, Southern (Searle), L. Jackson (Lockhart), Gough, Read, Fittall (Rook).