Match Report: Parkway make wasteful Reds pay

Uxbridge 1-2 Plymouth Parkway

Back in the heady days of November, with Uxbridge riding high, the trip to Plymouth had resulted in a comfortable 3-0 win for the Reds, with their sights firmly set on the upper reaches of the table. Things have changed a lot since then. With just one win in eleven league matches, this latest home defeat at the hands of second-bottom Plymouth Parkway leaves Uxbridge nervously looking over their shoulders at the teams below them. Following the midweek victory over North Greenford, where three new players had started, Uxbridge introduced another couple of new faces: Troy Perez-Duah in the starting eleven and Kameron English on the bench—leaving just five players who had started the match in Devon ten weeks ago in the starting eleven today.

The hosts, though, started well and signalled their intent from the opening whistle. In the 2nd minute, Josh Boorn sent an inviting cross into the box that was flicked goalwards by Frank Keita, forcing an early save from the Plymouth keeper, Zak Baker. Shortly after, Marco Underwood was called into action at the other end, pulling off a sharp save to deny Jensen Ireland following a powerful snapshot for the visitors.

A pivotal moment occurred in the eleventh minute as George Moore looked to have opened the scoring with a fine low finish after being played through; however, the linesman had other ideas, raising his flag for what looked like a very tight decision—where are those VAR lines when you really need them? Uxbridge continued to enjoy plenty of possession. On 21 minutes, a good, intricate move into the Parkway box ended with Harry Rush’s low shot clipping the post before being cleared for a corner. Uxbridge, though, lacked a real spark, and despite a couple more shots from Moore going over the bar, the match drifted to halftime with very little incident.

HT 0-0

The sluggish feel to the game continued in the second half. Moore again provided the brightest spark, and he had a great chance on 53 minutes as he was played in again, but this time he dragged his shot past the post as the defender closed him down. Six minutes later, Moore turned creator as he stood up a fine cross to the back post, but Keita’s header went agonisingly wide of the far post.

Parkway offered little threat up front, but equally, Uxbridge were finding it hard going, breaking them down. Ada Okorogheye had two good chances on the hour mark, firstly hooking a ball wide from a Boorn cross, and then two minutes later, he joined the ranks of players unable to keep their shots down. Plymouth Parkway’s rugby-inspired away kit may well have had the effect of getting everyone to attempt to get "three points" over the bar.

However, against the run of play, it was Plymouth who took the lead on 64 minutes. A misplaced header by Jordan Stepney was seized upon by the visitors; there was still plenty of work to do, but James Watts-Barciela drifted into the Uxbridge box, and his low shot evaded Underwood and nestled into the far corner of the net. The Reds responded by bringing on English and Nams Nwachuku, with English soon going close with a far-post header on 70 minutes and a snapshot just over the bar a few minutes later.

Even with the late introduction of midweek hat-trick hero Josh Adepoju, it looked as though it wasn't going to be the home side's day. So it proved on 87 minutes as an Uxbridge attack broke down; Parkway caught the Reds on the transition, and Gunnar Franke ran clear to make it 2-0. There was time with almost the final kick for a Casey Bocarro cross to be headed home by Moore, and despite a very late goalmouth scramble—curtailed by another linesman’s flag—it was Plymouth who took the points back to Devon.

Uxbridge now have a tricky run of three away games in a row, starting with a midweek trip to Berkhamsted.

FT 1-2

Att 254

Uxbridge: Underwood, Boorn, Bocarro, Fearn, Stepney, Perez-Duah, Montague (English), Rush, Okorogheye (Nwachuku), Moore, Keita (Adepoju)

Man of the Match Josh Boorn