Non-League and Academy football writer

OIR FC faced Chipperfield Corinthians on Tuesday night, in a Herts Senior County League Premier Division fixture at The Stewart Edwards Stadium, in Hoddesdon. OIR started this match in 12th place in the league standings, after 16 league matches played. The visitors on Tuesday, Chipperfield Corinthians, started this match in second place in the league table, after 16 matches played, with a win against OIR meaning that they would move above league leaders London Cheetahs, in the table. This step 7 match was won 3-2 by Chipperfield Corinthians. Chipperfield Corinthians would see more of the ball in the final third, during the early stages of the first half. And the visitors would manage the first effort on target of the game, with James Yallop’s free-kick effort on the OIR goal, from distance and out on the right flank, having to be tipped over the crossbar by the OIR goalkeeper, Can Ozkan. And from the following corner-kick delivery into the OIR box, a Chipperfield Corinthians player would glance a header wide of the goal.

Soon after those two early efforts on goal from the away side, Chipperfield Corinthians would take an early lead in the game, from a counter. A long ball forward from defence would see Daniel Griggs manage to get around a defender on the left flank, showing some good pace in the process to get to the ball. Griggs would then quickly shift the ball out to Louie Griffiths, on the right-hand side of the OIR penalty area, from where he powerfully finished, via a slight deflection off a sliding defender, and into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, 0-1. There weren’t a lot of goalscoring chances during the first half of the match, with Chipperfield Corinthians seeing more of the ball in good forward areas of the pitch. After James Yallop had won the ball inside OIR’s final third, he would pass the ball to Daniel Griggs, on the edge of the penalty area, but the ball bobbled up, as Griggs’ powerful resulting effort went wide of the goal.

Right on the stroke of half-time, OIR managed to score an equalising goal. As Abdirahman Ahmed headed an effort into the bottom right-hand corner of the Chipperfield Corinthians goal, after meeting a good corner-kick delivery into the centre of their penalty area, 1-1. Quite early on in the second half, Chipperfield Corinthians would regain the lead, with Aidan Lesslie winning the ball in midfield, before shifting it out to Daniel Griggs, on the left-hand side of the pitch, from where Griggs would whip a good ball towards the back post of the OIR goal, with Louie Griffiths on hand to finish into the goal from close range, 1-2. Soon after having regained the lead and after the game has started up again, James Yallop would get to a clearance inside of the OIR box, before just passing the ball to Aidan Lesslie, whose powerful effort on goal was well pushed over by Can Ozkan, at his near post.

OIR were continuing to play their football, as they looked to get level again in this match, as well as trying to stop the away side from creating chances. Shortly after Hasan Yilmaz had got to a low cross on the edge of the away team’s box, his resulting effort would go over the goal, just before Chipperfield Corinthians came very close to making it 3-1. As after Louie Griffiths’ forward pass down the right flank had found Daniel Griggs, the Chipperfield Corinthians winger would spot Can Ozkan slightly out of position inside of his penalty area. However, Griggs’ resulting curling effort went across the face of the goal, going so close to finding the goal. Sam Hutchings would then hit an effort from distance, which would go wide of the home team’s goal, a couple of minutes before a great pass across the pitch, would find Hasan Yilmaz, just inside of the away team’s penalty area, with Yilmaz’s low effort on goal being gathered by the Chipperfield Corinthians goalkeeper, Zac Green.

This really interesting game of football was proving very difficult to predict, with the home side having really improved in their all-round play during the second half. After Chipperfield Corinthians’ substitute Adrian Abramian had headed an effort wide after meeting Josh Quinlivan’s free-kick delivery towards the back post, inside of the OIR box, the home side would then go on to draw level, with a relatively late equalising goal. Starting with Hasan Yilmaz, who after receiving a pass out on the right-hand side of the away side’s penalty area, he would show some tremendous quick feet with the ball. Yilmaz would skilfully get beyond a defender to work the space, before squaring the ball to Zahir Ali, who from around five yards out from goal, would finish low into the goal with a first time effort, 2-2.

Both sides would go in search of a very late winning goal. However, soon after Adrian Abramian had shown some good skill on the ball (close to the edge of the OIR penalty area) before lifting the ball over to Josh Quinlivan on the left-hand side of the box, in a bit of space Quinlivan’s low effort was gathered by Can Ozkan, Chipperfield Corinthians would then score a very late winning goal. Following a free-kick which had been awarded to Chipperfield Corinthians out on the right-hand side of the pitch (relatively close to the OIR penalty area), Josh Quinlivan would deliver a great ball into the centre of the box, which Sam Hutchings was able to get to and volley into the goal, 2-3. This was an excellent and very enjoyable game of football, which was played at a good pace throughout. Despite Chipperfield Corinthians undoubtedly being the better and more creative side during the first half of the game, OIR really came back into the game in the second half, and they really showed their quality as a team, I thought. The home side would only narrowly lose this match, to a very good and talented Chipperfield Corinthians side, who managed to show their quality to get a very late winner, as they continue to push for the league title.

There were a number of very good performances, on both sides, on Tuesday. For OIR, I thought that Hasan Yilmaz, substitute Zahir Ali (he got the goal which made it 2-2), and Ridwan Hussein, were some of their most impressive players during this game. The very creative and skilful Zahir Ali, really did help to change the game for OIR, after being substitute on in the second half. However, my player of the match, despite their being a number of contenders, was Chipperfield Corinthians’ impressive winger, Louie Griffiths, who scored two important goals for the away side. And a special mention to Sam Hutchings, the match winner, Daniel Griggs, Josh Quinlivan, and James Yallop, who were just some of the impressive performers for the away team. Finally, keep an eye out for a post-match interview that I did with the OIR manager Deniz Koca, and his coaching staff, which will be out in the next couple of days, on my blog.