Godalming Town were held to a 0-0 draw at Leylands Park although it was ironic that after thrashing Crowborough 8-0 on Saturday they couldn’t get a single goal against a similarly-placed side. This was the fourth time this fixture had been scheduled to play after rain, snow and a floodlight-failure had postponed the previous three matches. It was also Shaun Elliott’s 300th appearance for Godalming Town.
The game started leisurely with both teams taking twenty minutes to settle down into what would become a dire, sluggish game that yielded very few chances until the final ten minutes. Phil Williams skewed Godalming’s first chance of the game wide after intercepting Justin Gregory’s cross pitch pass. Burgess Hill forced a few sudden counter-attacks with Godalming struggling to assert control over the game. Quality was scarce from both teams and they mostly resorted to high lobs into the opposition defence, of which Godalming’s were easily dealt with by the mountainous Danny Gainsford. Passes were frequently misplaced and the sloppy play continued throughout the game. However there a few moments of class from Godalming, one of those moments coming from Benson Paka who imaginatively found Graeme Purdy in acres of space in the penalty box only for Purdy’s volley to spin wide when Callum Christie really should have been tested in the Hillian’s goal.
Godalming were struggling to find the ‘va va voom’ that would inject life into the game and Burgess Hill threatened with a few chances just before the half time whistle sounded. Hillian’s captain Steve Harper saw his chip fall over the Aulsberry’s crossbar before his shot from distance was well saved by the Godalming goalkeeper. Chris Wales also made sure that the score would stay goalless when he cleared Gregory’s header off the line.
After the break the game continued in its lackadaisical and dull manner. The game was competitive but the quality was in seriously short supply and neither keeper had much too do apart from orchestrating their defence. Steve Harper saw another good chance go over the bar from Jon Lansdale’s cross and also sent a volley off his shin wide of Aulsberry’s goal. Chuck Martini replaced the fading Andy Ottley with Adam Haddad with fifteen minutes to go and Phil Williams went close with a shot from an acute angle saved by the keeper, rebounding out to Paka who flashed the ball wide. However Godalming’s golden chance came with five minutes to go when Glen Stanley was played through one-on-one with Christie. Looking certain to score Stanley fired weakly and Christie only had to fall down to his left side to smother Godalming’s best chance of the game. The final five minutes saw the intensity and ferocity of the game erupt and both sides went all out for a goal that would steal three points. Godalming went close again in injury time when Haddad was strangled to the ground by a Burgess Hill defender and the resulting free kick by Chris Wales agonisingly smashed the goal post.
In the end a draw was the fair result although neither team will be happy with just a point.
Burgess Hill will be rueing the chances which meant they missed out on what would have been three vital points for them to aid their relegation battle and Godalming were left kicking themselves after coming so close in the final stages to nicking a goal and three away points.
Godalming: Aulsberry, Wales, Elliott, Mariner, Paka, Taylor, Ottley (Haddad), Kiri, Purdy, Stanley, Williams
Greg Lewry
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