At Silver Jubilee Park Stadium on Wednesday evening, in a London Senior Cup second round tie, Hilltop FC (of the Combined Counties Football League Premier Division North) and Petts Wood & Holmesdale (of the SCEFL Premier Division) faced each other. Two step 5 teams, it was Petts Wood & Holmesdale who won this cup tie 1-0.
After a cagey start to this cup tie, on 21 minutes Hilltop would create the best early chance of the game. Following a good and intricate passing move, Tyrese Okello would play a short pass forward to Hussein Mahdi inside the away team’s penalty area, and after a nice bit of skill he would in turn lay the ball off to Rizgar Badir, whose deflected first time effort went just wide. Before half-time the visiting team, Petts Wood & Holmesdale, would go close on two occasions to taking the lead.
For their first chance of the game Petts Wood & Holmesdale player Ollie Andrews would get to a deep low cross into the Hilltop box, where his low and powerful effort on goal was well saved by the feet of Ahmed Omer. Then around ten minutes later, Oliver Milton would knock the ball past a Hilltop defender down the right flank, before quickly entering their penalty area, where his low effort went narrowly wide across goal.
On to the second half of this cup tie, and six minutes into the second half Petts Wood & Holmesdale would take the lead. With Lewis Heywood-Oriogun controlling the ball well before lobbing an exquisite effort (from 24 yards out and with Hilltop goalkeeper Ahmed Omer slightly off his goal-line) into the Hilltop goal, 0-1. Following that impressive opening goal, the away team would again come close to scoring another goal. Substitute Keidi Xhika would go forward down the right flank before playing the ball across to Lewis Heywood-Oriogun, who one versus one with Ahmed Omer and just inside the penalty area, would chip a good effort against his left-hand post.
Hilltop were seeing quite a lot of the ball, and they were continuing to work some good openings. However, some of Petts Wood & Holemsdale’s last ditch defending inside their penalty area was very good indeed, and it would frustrate Hilltop. Very late on in this game and with Hilltop having committed a lot of players forward, they would lose possession of the ball inside their final third. Keidi Xhika would then take the ball just into the box, before seeing his curling effort on target be well tipped onto his near post by Ahmed Omer. In the end it was Lewis Heywood-Oriogun’s goal which was the difference in this important cup tie, and it was the Petts Wood & Holmesdale forward who after putting in a good performance in the forward areas of the pitch, was my player of the match. Creative and direct Hilltop winger Tyrese Okello was my Hilltop player of the match on Wednesday.
Team-sheets/match-day squads:
Hilltop:
(1) Ahmed Omer
(19) Timothy Mpolesha
(8) Hussein Hussein
(5) Abbas Osman
(3) Mohamed Ali
(6) Mohamed Hussein (captain)
(14) Rinalds Jurkstis
(10) Adil Mohamed
(9) Rizgar Badir
(22) Hussein Mahdi
(11) Tyrese Okello
Substitutes:
(20) Wadea Aljenai
(21) Ibrahim Benabbas
(7) Mustafa Said
(17) Nadeer Kahssay
(13) Mohamed Abdullahi
Petts Wood & Holmesdale:
(1) Reece Hobbs
(2) Frank McCormack
(3) James Teodorescu
(19) Ollie Andrews
(21) Ben White
(17) Lewis Heywood-Oriogun
(14) Oliver Milton
(18) Oliver Chiriseri
(9) Jesse Rowe
(20) Owen Punselie
(5) Ryan Mahal (captain)
Substitutes:
(7) Armani Jordan-Martin
(4) Daniel Awokere
(15) Omotunmise Akanbi
(10) Keidi Xhika
(6) Frank Little
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