In a match that wasn't going to be easy for Tony Fenn's Barkingside, they slumped to a dissaponting defeat to lowly Clapton. Clapton were the derserved winners in this one and the scoreline could have been wider if it wasn't for poor finishing by the hosts and good last-ditch defending from the visitors.

The home side started well and a brilliant move saw them go ahead on 6minutes. A good run by Keith Oppong split the Side defence and his low cross found Troy Hewitt alone inside the box. A smart turn and drive by the striker was too much for Matt Cope in goal. 1-0 to Clapton.

 

Side looked suprised by the quickness of their hosts. The hosts though were suprised minutes later when Side equalised. A good run by Mark Steadman won a freekick out on the left. The ball was put in brilliantly by Mark Steadman allowing Jordan Tolan to leap and head home the equaliser. Goalie no chance.

 

Moments later the visitors should have took the lead. Side's Warren Bennett really ought to have done better when clean through but fluffed a shot well wide of the goal. Perhaps it was due to rustiness on his part as he hasn't played a competitive match in the last month.

 

Just after the half hour, Clapton went back into the lead. Stefan Lawrence broke Side's offside trap and ran through on goal on the wing. Side's goalie Cope tried to force the striker wide but Lawrence skipped past him before putting the ball back into the box. With Cope not in his goal the ball was put on a plate for Hewitt. With just a moments hesitation he turned across his defender before blasting home.

 

Hewitt wasn't finished there and on the stroke of half time almost scored to complete a memorable first half hatrick. Nothing looked on when he picked the ball up outside of the box from a corner. But he shot brilliantly on the turn and only a fine save from Cope prevented it from going in. It was a save that more than made up for his part in Hewitt's goal beforehand.

 

Clapton throughly derserved their halftime lead and 10 minutes into the second half had a chance to increase their lead. Hewitt showed his class again by running through on goal, where he was alledged to have been brought down by Side's Callaway. It looked a harsh decision on Callaway's account as it was hard not to avoid Hewitt's blisterning run on goal. With a chance to wrap up the game and score his hatrick, Hewitt blew both. Cope doing brilliantly down well low to his right to keep out the goal.

 

With time wearing on Tony Fenn went for it and made attacking changes to possibly win the game. It was a bold thing to do but his side only had only half-chances on goal that were missed. Greg Thompson had the best of these but was unlucky with a shot form 20yards that flew narrowly wide of goal. The closest either side came to scoring late on was when Clapton's Lawrence hit the outside of a post when through on goal.

 

A dissapointing defeat for Tony Fenn's team in this one, but credit to Clapton's Troy Hewitt who throughly derserved to be on the winning side.