Match Report: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

Dorchester Town 0-2 Uxbridge

So goes the old saying about Magpies - and in Uxbridge’s case their latest trip to Dorset to face the “Magpies” of Dorchester Town on Saturday proved to be joy as The Reds ended their recent slump in form to pick their first win in ten matches. After the recent stormy weather, the match was played in brilliant sunshine and on the familiar surface of a 3G pitch, which Uxbridge used to their advantage.

The match began with the visitors on the front foot, within the first five minutes, Kai Hobbs proved to be a handful for the defence, first seeing a back-post header held by Benfield in the Dorchester goal before clipping the crossbar with a dangerous cross just sixty seconds later. The pressure didn't let up. The impressive Casey Bocarro sent a free-kick agonisingly over the bar at the 10-minute mark, before Jo Lawal forced Benfield into a superb save in the 28th minute when a corner was knocked down to him and hit a fizzing low drive that was destined for the bottom corner. Dorchester were on their own poor run of form, having only won once in their previous six matches, and this lack of confidence showed as they struggled to make any impact on the Uxbridge back line - a lone effort comfortably held by Rhys Forster just after the half hour was all they had to show for it. The match moved towards half time with Uxbridge not having made their possession count. George Moore did his best to change that as a firstly a cross found him unmarked in the box, but his first time volley was straight at Benfield who parried the ball and with neither Ada Okorogheye or Frank Keita able to get to the loose ball. Moore then almost scored a wondergoal from fully forty yards out, latching onto a loose ball he spotted Benfield off his line and lobbed him, but the ball drifted inches wide of the post. Finally though right on the whistle Uxbridge did take the lead when a corner from Bocarro on the right hand side was punched into his own net by Benfield as CJ Fearn closed him down - despite the protests for a foul from the home side, the goal rightly stood and The Reds went in with the advantage.

HT 1-0

The second period started with much of the same energy from Uxbridge, both Moore and Keita both had sights on goal within five minutes of the restart, but neither could find the target. However, the Reds did double their lead in the 58th minute. Okorogheye did the hard work out wide, beating his man and getting to the byline - he then put in a superb low cross that evaded the Dorchester defence leaving Toby Nnadozie perfectly positioned to slot home and make it 2-0. This did spark something of a response from the home side as just past the hour a good ball across the area from Luke Pardoe just evaded Joe Parker and was tidied up by Fearn. In the 75th minute, a potential break for Dorchester following a foul throw was cut short by a perfectly timed block from Bocarro. In the dying embers of the match, Dorchester managed to force Forster into another save with a goalbound snap-shot in the 90th minute, but the Uxbridge keeper was equal to it, diving low to make a crucial save and ensure the clean sheet remained intact until the final whistle.

Overall a result and performance to be pleased with for Uxbridge who will look to push on in the second half of the season - next up is a return visit to Honeycroft for North Greenford Utd in the Middlesex Charity Cup

FT 2-0

Att: 436

Uxbridge: Forster, Hobbs, Bocarro, Fearn, Stepney, Nnadozie (Prior-Tack), Lawal (Boorn), Rush, Okorogheye (Nwachuku) , Moore, Keita (Giamattei)

Match Gallery here - Courtesy Emma Neumann-Russell

Opening Goal as Casey Bocarro's corner is punched into his own net by Gerard Benfield

Great work from Ada Okorogheye to setup Toby Nnadozie for our second goal

Videos courtesy of David Mallam