Non-League and Academy football writer

On Monday evening I made the trip to Aveley, in Essex, to watch the inform National League South side host Chelmsford City at their Parkside ground, in an Essex Derby fixture, in the National League South. Aveley started the match on Monday in second place in the National League South table, with Chelmsford City starting the game in seventh place, and six points behind Aveley in the league standings. This particular game finished 2-1 to the visitors Chelmsford City, despite Aveley getting a goal back and pushing Chelmsford right until the very end of the match. Played in very windy conditions, the first real chance of the match came the way of the home side. Sydney Ibie’s good forward run with the ball down the right flank, resulted in him going into the Chelmsford penalty area, before hitting a powerful effort into the side-netting of ex-Spurs academy goalkeeper Joshua Oluwayemi’s goal. Neither side could really settle on the ball during the early stages of the match, and I think that that was mainly because of the windy conditions. After a pass ended up running through to Aveley player Eduino Vaz inside the Chelmsford box, the former Barnsley player had a resulting effort on goal saved by Joshua Oluwayemi, with the ball then going behind for a corner-kick.

Chelmsford City ended up scoring the opening goal of the game, from what was their first real sight of goal of the game. The ball ran through for Freddie Hockey inside the Aveley penalty area, and the Chelmsford forward clinically finished low, past Jonathan North in the Aveley goal, on 35 minutes. Ody Alfa then hit an effort wide from distance for Chelmsford, before Jonathan North saved a decent effort on goal. At the opposite end of the pitch, Dara Dada hit an effort wide from distance for Aveley, just a couple of minutes before Cameron James hit an effort over the Aveley goal, on the half volley from just outside of their box, in what was the final chance of note of the first half. Early on in the second half Aveley midfielder Siju Odelusi had an effort from distance on the Chelmsford goal, well pushed away by Oluwayemi, before Aveley defender Tom Stephen hit an effort over the Chelmsford goal, from the edge of their penalty area. However, the visiting side doubled their lead on 65 minutes. A good low cross from Finley Barbrook to pick out Ody Alfa at the far post of the Aveley box, resulted in the former QPR player tapping the ball home from close range.

Less than ten minutes after Chelmsford had doubled their advantage in the game, and after the visitors had been enjoying a good spell in the game, Aveley managed to get a goal back. Following an Aveley free-kick the ball came to Siju Odelusi on the edge of the Chelmsford penalty area, and the Aveley midfielder’s powerful low effort on goal took what seemed like a slight deflection, on its way past Joshua Oluwayemi. Not long after, Aveley came so close to getting level in the match. Nana Kyei found Eduino Vaz inside the Chelmsford box from a cross, from which Vaz brought the ball down, before he turned and hit an effort inches wide of Oluwayemi’s goal. It was an exciting end to the game, but despite Aveley’s best efforts they just couldn’t get that all important second goal of the game. A very late ball into the Chelmsford penalty area by Nana Kyei, found Alex Hernandez, but he couldn’t get enough power on the ball, and his effort ended up going behind for a Chelmsford goal kick. This was a very competitive Derby game, which in my opinion could have went either way. Aveley’s goalscorer Siju Odelusi was impressive in midfield, despite going down with an injury during the first half, and he was my player of the match. However, for Chelmsford, I thought that goalscorer Ody Alfa played very well for them, while 18 year old Zech Obiero (on loan from Leyton Orient) showed his quality on the ball at times in the game, a game in which Chelmsford played well as a team in. 

I enjoyed my visit to Parkside, which is a very nice ground, and I will be writing more about Aveley’s rise as a club in recent years, in the near future.