Six goals, two points dropped!

Saturday 27th August 2011

Penn & Tylers Green 3 – 3 Maidenhead United Reserves

Maidenhead were the visitors to French School Meadows today and they played out a six goal thriller. Penn went in to the game unbeaten in two however they knew it wouldn’t be a walkover.

The first chance of the game came in the 5th minute when Maidenhead’s Adeyinka Adeniji’s shot was well saved by Matt Cannings in the Penn goal. Maidenhead looked threatening early on but the breakthrough came from the home side. A dangerous free kick was swung into the box by Chris Hurst, it was cleared only as far as Rino Sepede who’s deflected shot found its way into the bottom corner. 1 – 0.

Penn grew in confidence as the half went on and this was showing with some good possession and flowing passes. Penn winger Jamie West was booked on 26 minutes after he threw the ball at an opponent. “Using the ball as a weapon” were the words of referee Tribe. Maidenhead equalised against the run of play 6 minutes later when Lamin Sonkoh broke through on the counter attack, his initial shot was saved by Cannings however he fired in the rebound. 1 – 1. From this point on Maidenhead really started to put pressure on the Penn defence. This pressure paid off in the 41st minute when Adejinka Adeniji calmly slotted the ball past Matt Cannings on the counter attack. 1 – 2. The half time whistle went with Penn fans wishing their team had taken advantage of their dominance in the majority of the first half.

The second half started slowly, neither side created many chances and the game was becoming scrappy. Penn were forced into a substitution in the 57th minute when Jamie West was injured in a 50:50 challenge in the centre circle. Sam Walters came on to replace the injured winger. 10 minutes later Maidenhead made their first substitution when Brandon Baker – Timms came on for Ignazio Fiumara. Just 2 minutes later Penn had a great chance to equalise but Alan Akerman’s header hit the bar. Controversy crept in when Penn’s Antonio Sepede was booked for a challenge extremely similar to one a Maidenhead player got away with just 5 minutes earlier. Penn fan’s questioning the referee’s consistency.

Penn boss John Sepede made a crucial substitution in the 72nd minute when he brought on youngster Luke Cohen. He replaced Antonio Sepede. Cohen was immediately thrust into the action after his glancing header drifted just wide of the keepers near post. Then, 7 minutes after coming on Luke Cohen took advantage of a defensive mix up and coolly slotted the ball past Michael Pearce in the Maidenhead goal. 2 – 2. After this Maidenhead’s Adeyinka Adeniji was replaced by Ryan Tye. With the scores level the game became stretched and it looked like either team could grab a winner. In the 86th minute Penn thought they had when Reno Sepede grabbed his second of the game.

The striker twisted and turned on the edge of the box and with a bit of luck he scored off the post. 3 – 2. The game then became feistier and the ref’s consistency was again brought into question in the 90th minute. A terrible challenge from Maidenhead’s Ashley Watson went unpunished. A free kick was given right in the corner of the Maidenhead half. Instead of searching for a definitive winning goal Penn decided to keep the ball in the corner. This was an error as Penn were quickly dispossessed and Maidenhead went up the other end a grabbed an equaliser. Lamin Sankoh second goal of the game was a screamer from 25 yards which broke the hearts of the home faithful. 3 – 3. The refree blew the whistle to end an enthralling game.

Penn fans were disappointed trudging back to the clubhouse after conceding such a late equaliser. I spoke to one Penn fan that disagreed with Penn’s tactic to keep the ball in the corner right at the death and thought they should have crossed it. Maybe if they did Penn would currently be sitting on 10 points rather than 8.  However fifth in the table early on one cannot be too disappointed.