Page 18 - Raynes Park Vale vs Banstead Athletic 13.10.20

Continued... ed to gain control of the game, with the vast
into a half-empty net but for a brilliant bit majority of the second half being played in
of defending from the Redhill left-back to the Redhill half. Redhill found themselves
head behind at the expense of a corner. with an even bigger uphill struggle after 65
Just two minutes later, it was that man Jor- minutes when their number 8 found him-
dan again driving at the retreating Redhill self in the sin-bin after an exchange with
defence, where he danced his way past 3, the official on the far side.
before seeing his shot from 16-yards saved With the two-man advantage, RPV looked
smartly from the Redhill keeper with a to the bench and introduced Jack William-
strong right hand. son, who nearly doubled the lead after 70
The next 15 minutes passed without any minutes after getting to the byline, beating
real threats on either goal, as both teams two players before seeing the Redhill keep-
continued with a back and forth battle er make an excellent close-range stop.
largely contested in the middle third of the Despite being back up to 10 men, Redhill
pitch before a long ball over the top saw the still found themselves pinned in and found
Redhill striker get in down the right be- themselves under an RPV barrage in the
fore drilling a ball along the ground across final 10 minutes, that saw both James
Smith’s goal, however, despite being a spec- Curran and Tom Harland-Goddard clear
tator for much of the half, he remained the crossbar, Henri Mkinsi having his
alert and made an excellent stop, in tricky shot from 10-yards stopped by the legs of
conditions, to prevent a Redhill equaliser. the increasingly busy Redhill goalkeeper
Vale, clearly buoyed by the comments and Harland-Goddard doing fantastically
from the management team at half-time, well to jink his way into the box, before
looked to push on in the second half and seeing his initial shot blocked and then his
started the brighter of the two sides. Just rebound trickling agonisingly to the goal-
8 minutes into the second half, Redhill’s line before the Redhill defender cleared his
already tough challenge to get back into lines.
the game become even harder after they With just injury time to play, Redhill
were reduced to 10-men after the Redhill started to look to go direct, but all they
defender was booked for a foul just outside found was club captain, Danny Alderton,
their box. After not taking to kindly to re- returning from a lengthy spell on the
ceiving an initial caution for the challenge, sideline, winning everything that came his
the Redhill number 5 proceeded to have way up until the final whistle
heated words with the referee, which was The Vale, who admittedly were not at
only going to end one way, a straight Red- their best had done enough across the
card and an early bath. Vale wasted the 90 minutes to progress to the first round
resulting free-kick after hitting it straight proper of the FA Vase, where they will now
into the midriff of the Redhill wall. With face another CCL Premier side, Sheerwater
the man advantage, Raynes Park Vale start- at Grand Drive on Saturday 31st October.