Ilford 3 – 1 Buckhurst Hill
Essex Senior League – Saturday 8th October
Buckhurst Hill had an afternoon to forget on Saturday at Cricklefield. Hosts Ilford went in at the break three goals up, a brace from Joe Lilly alongside a Harry Rawlings goal gave the Stags a huge uphill battle to get anything from as they went into the second half. A goal from Hassan Nalbant in the 56th minute was to be a mere consolation as Ilford picked up all the spoils.
The game couldn’t have got off to a worse start as far as Buckhurst Hill were concerned. In the 3rd minute a ball being played around the Stags defence allowed Joe Lilly to pinch the ball inside the box and then steer a shot past Dan Blockley to open the scoring.
It was to get worse because in the 6th minute Ilford again had the ball in the box and a handball inside of it gave them a penalty: Lilly going on to send Blockley the wrong way to make it 2-0.
Shell-shocked, the Stags did manage to test Tim Pitman the Ilford keeper when Sam Sollosi fired a low free kick that the Foxes stopper got down low to tip away.
But Ilford were having most of the play, a brace of corner needed to be dealt with, then Lilly had a shot deflected for another corner. The host certainly were not resting on their laurels, and whilst Pitman had to punch clear a Sam Sollosi free kick, it was Blockley that was the busiest of the two keepers, having to at one point having to come out of the box and hook a ball clear after Ilford had managed to get through the Hill defence.
Lilly almost completed his hat-trick when he turned and fired a shot that ultimately rattled the crossbar. But in the 21st minute the hosts were able to score again with Harry Rawlings picking his spot before bending his effort past Blockley.
The Stags were able to win the add corner, the occasional cross, but created nothing of note for the rest of the half. Ilford meanwhile created a final bit of havoc in the Hill box with a teasing ball into the danger zone eventually being cleared away for a corner by Henry Day after having first clipped Blockley’s cross bar!
The Stags opened up the second half looking to keep the ball a lot better than they had done in the first half. And for the first five minute they were able to keep possession, but it was to be Ilford that created the first chance when a counter-attack ended with Caleb Adomoko-Mensah having a shot tipped away by Blockley.
In the 56th minute a high ball into Ilford’s box was headed home by Hassan Nalbant – and at that point there was enough time to salvage something from the game.
However Ilford’s defence were a brick wall, limiting the Stags to free kicks, with Day twice having long range efforts saved by Pitman. A cross inside the six-yard box by Nathan Sollosi got cleared, while Tyler Dolan drilled a shot just wide.
Buckhurst Hill’s defence also tightened up in this half, meaning that the hosts were not creating as much upfront as they had in the previous half. However Lilly did manage to work his way in before skewing his shot wide.
The final event of note came in the 88th minute when Nalbant tussled with the ball with an Ilford player that ended with him kicking out and that saw the referee produce the red card, with Nathan Sollosi also getting sin-binned. It meant the Stags had to play out the final minutes with nine men, on an afternoon that for the visitors never really got started.
Buckhurst Hill drop to 6th and face an away trip at 3rd-placed Enfield on Saturday.
Buckhurst Hill: Daniel Blockley, Alfie Harris, Ted Buchanan (Harry Markatis 45′), Tyler Dolan, Henry Day (Capt), Sonny Shilling (Columbus Iyayi 79′), Sam Sollosi (James Deaney 65′), Jake Moss (Liam Foster 45′), Hassan Nalbant, Ezekiel Bademosi, Nathan Sollosi.
Scorer – Hassan Nalbant (56′).
