United 2
(Cooke 5′, Young 13′)
Chelmsford 2
(Hyde 31′, James 82′)
It ended all-square on Saturday, as United were held to a 2-2 draw at Plainmoor.
A scintillating start saw United two goals to the good inside the quarter-of-an-hour mark, with Cody Cooke’s opener being swiftly followed up by debutant Jordan Young. Jake Hyde’s reply reignited the contest, and although United held out until the latter stages, it was Chelmsford skipper Cameron James who had the deciding say, to ensure his team went home with a share of the points.
There were four changes to the side that went down 2-1 at Hornchurch last Saturday, with Young joining Omar Mussa, Matt Carson and Oscar Threlkeld in replacing Lirak Hasani, Brad Ash, Finn Tonks and Will Jenkins Davies in the starting eleven, with the latter dropping out of the matchday squad.
Torquay’s new signing wasted little time in gaining the affections of the Yellow Army.
In the fifth minute, a mazy run deep into visiting territory prompted Young to drill a shot towards goal from just inside the penalty area, and although that effort was blocked at source, the rebound looped up kindly into the path of Cooke, who calmly volleyed home from the spot-kick mark to give The Gulls the lead.
Eight minutes later, provider turned poacher.
After seeing a thumping effort steered behind by City goalkeeper Woody Williamson, the resulting corner was only half-cleared, allowing Young to pounce onto the loose ball and fire home from fifteen yards out.
2-0 was nearly 3-0 moments later, however, on this occasion, Young’s strike from the edge of the box, following neat work from Mussa, cleared the crossbar.
It was breathless stuff.
Despite making a nightmare start, City began to make a fight of it as the first half wore on, and just before the half-hour, they nearly pulled one back, as Sam Gale’s darting run into the box ended with Hyde forcing Hamon into a decent low save to his right.
There was no reprieve a minute later though.
This time it was a deep cross that did the damage, with Hyde applying the clinical final touch by way of his precise header.
In what seemed like a one-man mission to get his side back on level terms, Hyde had three more attempts within the space of the next five minutes that went within a whisker of restoring parity, before United thought they had made it three.
There was certainly little wrong with the delivery, and after Sam Dreyer smashed home near the penalty spot, it looked like the Yellow Army would be celebrating a two-goal lead at the change of ends.
After consulting with the Assistant, the Referee ruled the effort out though, and after Hyde dragged another strike wide soon after, their was some relief when the half-time whistle sounded, with the home side still ahead.
City’s pursuit for an equaliser continued following the restart, with a number of threatening deliveries into the box seeing Chelmsford’s aerial prowess coming to the fore.
United rode out the storm during the 20 minutes directly after the change of ends, before Young went close to bringing the house down on 66 minutes, as his left-footed free-kick from just short of the touchline just evaded the far-post, with Williamson loked decidedly worried.
How The Gulls didn’t score in the 70th minutes is anyone’s guess, as Cooke and Threlkeld both saw goalbound efforts blocked just short of the goal line, before Young sent his strike over the bar.
With Wotton’s men taking heart from that, Mussa looked to have done the hard work by twisting his way this way and that before progressing through to the 18-yard box, before placing his effort too high to test the City glovesman.
Former Gulls loanee Osman Foyo took the action up the other end , and nearly punished his side with eleven minutes left, with his deflected effort from just outside the area forcing Hamon to scramble across the skiddy surface to keep the ball out.
With the match heading into the final stages, hopes were high that United could hold out, yet with eight minutes remaining it was 2-2.
A combination of pinball inside the six-yard box and the slippery conditions saw the ball slide out of Hamon’s grasp, and despite the best efforts of the covering United defenders, it was Clarets captain Cameron James who nipped in quickest to make it all-square.
Both sides went all-out for a late winner – Dan Hayfield saw a point-blank effort deflected over the bar – but neither succeeded, with the final whistle ending the action with nothing to separate the two sets of players.
Onto Salisbury on Tuesday.
UNITED: 1. James Hamon, 2. Finley Craske, 3. Jay Foulston, 4. Jordan Dyer, 5. Sam Dreyer, 8. Jordan Young, 10. Omar Mussa (7. Lirak Hasani, , 79′), 14. Matt Carson, 18. Oscar Threlkeld (c), 19. Cody Cooke, 20. Dan Hayfield.
SUBS NOT USED: 9. Ben Seymour, 11. Brad Ash, 17. Finn Tonks, 21. Dean Moxey.
Yellow Card: Craske 41′, Dreyer 63′, Hamon 73′, Cooke 77′, Carson 90′
CHELSMFORD: 13. Woody Williamson, 2. Cameron James (c), 4. Archie Tamplin (15. Arthur Penney, 57′, 11. Kalvin Kalala, 61′), 6. Alfie Bendle, 9. Jake Hyde (31. Jordan Greenidge, 31′), 16. Charlie Ruff (19. Freddie Hockey,, 72′), 17. Sam Oguntayo, 18. Osman Foyo, 22. Brad Williams, 26. Sam Gale, 32. Paul Appiah.
SUBS NOT USED: 12. Albert Eames.
Yellow Card: Tamplin 54′, Williams 65′
Attendance: 3,466 (62 away)