In a second round tie of this season’s Tom Keane Memorial Trophy (Islington Midweek Football League), two strong Division 3 sides, in Barnet Deaf and Camden United OG’s met at Market Road Pitches on Thursday evening. An eventful game of two halves, it was Camden United OG’s who progressed into the next round of this cup competition with a 4-2 win on Thursday.
Following on from a very early Camden chance, Barnet Deaf came close to making it 1-0 at the opposite end of the pitch. As their number 17 had met a low cross from the left, to the right-hand side of the Camden box from where his powerfully hit effort on goal was well parried and kept out by Ali Abdalla. Soon after that chance however, Camden would make it 1-0. A threaded forward pass from midfield by Amar Suleiman would end up going into the path of Omar Mohamed, who from in behind the Barnet defence would sprint forward with the ball down the right-hand side of their penalty area, before finishing low into the goal, 0-1.
Soon after that opening goal of the game had been scored by Camden, they would make it 2-0. Sami Tahir had done well to reach Ayyub Bana’s excellent defence splitting pass from deep, out to the left flank. From there Sami Tahir would skilfully progress the ball into the Barnet penalty area, where from the left-hand side of their box he would roll the past a defender and then square a pass to Dahir Abukar, who finished powerfully into the goal under pressure, 0-2. Camden United OG’s were now dominating this game, quickly going on to add a third goal to their tally. As Amar Suleiman’s free-kick pass from out on the right-flank, had gone into the path of Dahir Abukar, who worked the space in skilful fashion before finishing into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, 0-3.
Before half-time Camden forward Dahir Abukar would get his hat-trick goal. This goal was all the about the excellent surging Gareth Bale-esque forward run, from deep by Kevin Almeida, however. As the creative Camden player had really shown great pace to take the ball forward down the right-hand side of the pitch, really gliding past several Barnet players before entering the right-hand side of their penalty area and then playing the ball across goal for Dahir Abukar to tap home from close range, 0-4.
The second half of this cup tie however, was all about Barnet Deaf. Following some really good work from their number 9 (soon after a good chance for Kevin Almeida of Camden United OG’s) he would create an initial chance inside the Camden box, before the ball came to a teammate, who finished powerfully off the ground and up into the goal, 1-4. The rain was coming down heavily by this point in the second half, with Barnet Deaf really taking the game to Camden. In a relatively short but sustained spell in the game, Barnet Deaf would dominate play, as they went on to create a further six good clear goalscoring chances, including some one versus ones with the Camden goalkeeper. However, Camden would hold on for now.
Relatively late on in the game and with Barnet Deaf FC still pushing Camden, their impressive and influential number 9 would finish powerfully and low into Ali Abdalla’s goal, from the edge of the Camden box, 2-4. This set up a very interesting end to this cup tie, which after seeing the Barnet number 11’s low effort on goal (from the edge of the penalty area) be turned behind by Ali Abdalla, Barnet would give their all at a real intensity as a team right until the final whistle. During the final minutes of the game, Kevin Almeida’s whipped free-kick effort around the Barnet wall (from some 30 yards out) was well turned over by their goalkeeper. A fantastic game of football between two very good Division 3 sides who I have enjoyed watching so far this season, my player of the match on Thursday was tenacious Camden United captain and early tempo setting midfielder Amar Suleiman, despite real competition from the Barnet number 9, Dahir Abukar and Kevin Almeida.
Team-sheets/match-day squads:
Camden United OG’s:
(1) Ali Abdalla
(4) Michael Yeboah
(3) Aqib Aweis
(14) Adbulkarim Aweis
(6) Amar Suleiman (captain)
(13) Dahir Abukar
(10) Ayyub Bana
(16) Omar Mohamed
(17) Mohamed Elmi
(8) Shafie Abdulle
(7) Kevin Almeida
Substitutes:
(5) Hafid Ali
(9) Sami Tahir
(18) Abdul Kadir Omar
Leave a Reply