Ash Trees 1 Saints 1

A bit of a strange match against a team who didn’t fully live up to their nickname.

In a nondescript first half where one supporter counted just three shots on target, we took a 22nd minute lead when a fine move resulted in a corner lashed home from eight yards by Weighty, then Chalfont St. Peter claimed a deserved equaliser from the spot after Mitch hauled a forward down on the edge of the box and Louis Stead hit the 36th minute penalty down the middle.

Mitch then got sent off in the 57th due to a second yellow for apparent deliberate handball, which looked a bit harsh. The man advantage lasted just two minutes, when Victor Osobu reacted to a Tom Brunton challenge by aggressively pushing Tom to the ground and starting a melee for which he got a straight red. Osobu took ages to leave the pitch (but not as long as it took the ref to make the obvious decision), whereupon he reacted to something said in the crowd by walking into the spectator area and getting involved in another altercation from which he had to be retrieved by a teammate.

After the sendings off, the visitors looked more willing and likely to win as we sat very deep and tried to catch them on the break. With Webby and Conor unavailable, we missed that bit of oomph in midfield needed to take the game more to them, but we ground out a good point against a rather moany side who were allowed to get away with a number of ‘gamesmanship’ fouls by the ineffective ref.