This time of year always becomes a little difficult to get around to grounds or clubs you really want to as the midweek offering starts to dry up beyond cup competitions so Saturday becomes a bit more with planning.
I’ll be completely honest that Chipstead vs Chertsey Town wasn’t on my radar before November arrived, readers of my old blog will know I made it to Chipstead during the stop start year in the FA Cup, a few nostalgic grounds at that time having spent time at High Road for Tandridge League cup finals back in the day.
The hospitality we had back then was first class from the chairman at the time Keith Rivers and I suppose gave me my first taste a little behind the scenes of a County League club at the age of 14, the pitch was always in great condition in May despite a season of football on it.
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My visit was to see and catch up with the opposing manager, Dave Anderson, a very good mate and of course that Barnet connection even though we struck up a friendship before he pitched up at The Hive.
The last time I saw Dave manage a Chertsey Town team was at Wembley as they won the FA Vase to go with a promotion to this level and promptly the man with a fantastic amount of non-league experience retired days after. Well, a short retirement with that spell under Simon Bassey and Dean Brennan and now himself back in the dug out as a number one.
Town have faired well since his return and this afternoon was a tough assignment for the home side who have been at Step 4 since 2007 and have more than held their own since that time, a 10th placed finish last year something to build upon.
On a crisp, but partly sunny November afternoon Town were first to attack needing to keep the pressure on Northwood at the top of the table but found the Chips not in any way were going to make it easy for them.
Chips were looking dangerous on the break but Chertsey had the edge with chances created although they weren’t finding the target with any of them, not scoring when on top does create its own problems. It was the home side who took the lead just before the half hour mark, which at the time was against the run of play.
Jonathan Hood was sent clear of the Curfews defence, rounded the on-rushing Nick Jupp and calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net for the game’s opening goal.
The goal certainly stunned Chertsey a little and took them a few minutes to compose and then regroup, not helped by an injury to William Montague just before half time, the home side going in with the lead.
You expected Chertsey to come out with big expectations in the second half and that they did, wave after wave of attack and despite forcing a lot of corners they just couldn’t test the home keeper Matt Kerbey, Chipstead defending their keeper and penalty area very well.
The old adage does say you need to score when putting that much pressure on your opponents and for the Curfews it just wasn’t happening, the Chips soaking up all the pressure and hoping to hit Chertsey on the break and that’s exactly what happened as the game entered stoppage time.
Andy Kabuiku-Somo was a handful all afternoon, strong, power and pace with a good touch, the striker got on the end of a clearance and raced away to go one on one with Jupp and finished with great aplomb to seal the points for the home side.
Chertsey will definitely rue not putting shots in on goal during that pressure period, Chips however scored at the right times and a valuable three points for them saw the Curfews drop a few places in the table.
Good to see a couple of familiar faces in both line up’s JJ O’Sullivan and Daniel Pappoe are two I’ve seen around the non-league circuit, indeed the presence of Pappoe in midfield was a key component of the game whilst O’Sullivan a steady head at right back. Jupp had a spell at Barnet and was Anderson’s Vase winning keeper, well liked during his time at The Hive, still see the Football League traits in things that he does.
As always great to catch up with Dave Anderson afterwards, just a brilliant man to know and always has some stories to share, still keeps in touch with Kirk, Tumble and Dean at Barnet but then that friendship goes back a long way too.
Very reasonable attendance of 158 there to watch, a fair few travelled around the M25 too and with four weeks of no top flight action hopefully there were some in the crowd watching non-league for the first time but not the last.
