Jammers continue on winning run

Histon FC V Maldon and Tiptree FC Isthmian League One North Saturday 7 March 2020

The jammers made four changes from the midweek win at Tilbury with both Lance Akins and Ryan Charles sidelined through injury, Jake Cass rested and Kojo Awotwi unavailable. Into their places came Stephan Ngamvoulou, Jorome Slew, Billy Cracknell and with a welcome return from injury, Danny Parish.

Histon threatened in the first minute with Ed Rolph going through on goal but his shot was weak and lobbed into visiting goalkeeper Ben McNamara's arms, then the visitors Stephane Ngamvoulou got away down the right before crossing for Charlee Hughes to nudge towards goal and despite Maldon and Tiptree claims that the ball had crossed the line before being cleared the referee allowed play to go. Histon keeper, Phil Peachey, then did very well to thwart Jorome Slew as the visiting forward burst through on goal only to see his shot just pushed away then Conor Hubble put a right wing corner low into the home penalty box and both Billy Cracknell and Ngamvoulou saw shots just cleared off the line. Histon's Pat Bexfield then attempted to break the visitors pressure with a measured left wing corner but he saw his well hit effort roll along the top of the crossbar before being going behind then the visitors put together their best move so far with Hughes, Danny Parish and Jorome Slew combining to put Parish through on goal but Peachey pulled off a fine save to push the shot away. From another Jammers corner Hughes saw another shot blocked before a clearance by a home defender caught the back of Martyn Stokes and the ball rolled just wide of the home goalpost. The latter period of the first half was a pretty dour experience with neither side playing a lot of passing football with virtually no goal scoring chance being created although a quick Histon free kick gave Rolph a shooting chance from a good position but he fired wide.

Half Time Histon FC 0 Maldon and Tiptree FC 0

Half chances were created early in the second half with the Jammers Ngamvoulou getting to the touch line before crossing for Hughes but his effort lacked strength and Peachey saved easily before home substitute Andy Ballester's good cross field ball found Rolph but his shot was held by McNamara. After Hughes had fizzed a strong, low 22 metre shot narrowly wide of Peachey's goal Michael Onouwigun did the same with another strong shot from 20 metres which again flew just wide. Jake Cass's introduction from the substitutes bench had an immediate impact for Maldon and Tiptree when he forced a fine flying save from Peachey when he just managed to put Cass's header from Hubble's free kick round the post then after 76 minutes he scored the goal that the visitors had threatened for most of the second half with a well judged shot from another Hubble free kick. Cass almost increased the Jammers lead when Onouwigun and Hughes combined and the latter got to the byline before crossing to find Cass whose shot was just cleared off the goal line. Restricting the home side to the occasional breakaway, Maldon and Tiptree, again made fine progress into the home half with another good passing move which ended with Al-Amin Kazeem's cross finding Cass who was unlucky to see his header smack against the bar before rebounding out. Keeping the pressure up right to the end Hughes drove into the penalty area to give Ngamvoulou a shooting chance but he fired just over the bar then Cass almost fired home but the ball would not drop quickly enough and the chance was gone.

Full Time Histon FC 0 Maldon and Tiptree FC 1

Maldon and Tiptree's next match is at home to Cambridge City on Tuesday 10 March with a 7.45 pm KO then on Saturday 14 March they are at home again to Bury Town with a 3pm KO