Four sent off as
Marlow FC: Second half fight-back loses impetus as Marlow
Marlow 0, Chertsey Town 1
This game, which was short on quality from both sides throughout, will probably best be remembered for the second half flash point that led to four red cards being brandished by referee Christopher Poole.
The game was settled early in the first half by William Montague's coolly taken penalty, but the Blues will be kicking themselves that they weren’t able to take one of several presentable chances that fell their way in an improved second half showing.
The Blues came into this clash third in the Isthmian League South Central, just above their visitors Chertsey, having picked up 14 points from their opening seven matches.
However, the form that's taken them into one of the play-off places in the early stages of the season was sadly lacking in the first 45 minutes of this clash at Oak Tree Road.
The Blues lacked composure in a flat performance, and they struggled to lay a glove on Chertsey's defence and goal until late in the half, when Junaid Bell flashed a shot wide after running onto Dawid Rogalski’s flicked header.
Prior to this the half was mainly shaded by the visitors who could conceivably have come off at the interval two or three goals to the good. There were few chances prior to the match winning goal in the 15th minute. It came from the penalty spot and there could be no arguments about the decision after Elijah Oladunjoye's rash and clumsy challenge on the impressive Trevan Robinson just inside the area.
Former Windsor player Montague rolled the ball into the bottom corner leaving Blues keeper Aaron Watkins rooted to his spot.
If this was the wakeup call for the hosts, it wasn’t heeded. If anything, they got worse, with Lee Lewis firing a low fierce free kick straight down the throat of Watkins a few minutes later, Lewis then combined well with Baxter from a short-corner routine in the 21st minute, the latter playing Lewis in with a clever backheel, but Louis Rogers bravely blocked his goal bound effort. The Blues scrambled another headed off the line from a corner in the 33rd minute before Montague came within a lick of paint of increasing his and Chertsey's tally. Five minutes before the end of the half, the ball rolled kindly for him on the edge of the box and his curling shot was deflected onto the post with Watkins well beaten.
Bell’s chance went begging for the Blues in the 43rd minute before Ben Mulley was rightly cautioned for attempting to hook the ball into the net from a corner with his hands.
Slowly but surely, Marlow worked their way back into the contest after the interval and can lay claim to being the better side in the second half. Tristan Campbell fired wide in the 50th minute after being found by Naheer-Omar Nawaf, while Rogalski crashed a shot off the inside of the post just before the hour mark after Nawaf slipped the ball through to him. In between Watkins did well to rush out of his goal and keep out Montague’s shot after he was played through by Robinson's cushioned first-time pass.
Rogalski couldn’t quite get enough purchase on another cross in from Nawaf in the 70th minute before Rogers glanced a header from substitute Jordan Brown's free kick well over the bar.
However, any momentum Marlow were building was lost in the most dramatic of circumstances when Brown charged into the Chertsey dug out to retrieve the ball and got into a scuffle with one or two members of the visitors' coaching team. It appeared on first viewing to be a needlessly aggressive act from Brown, however, manager Mark Bartley – who was also sent off in the ensuing melee – defended his player claiming he was blocked off not once, but twice as he attempted to get the ball back in play with Marlow chasing a leveller.
Players from both sides bundled in and the crowd loved the pantomime of it all. After the simmering tensions died down and the players and coaching staff were separated, the referee dished out four red cards to Brown and Bartley on the Blues side and Chertsey's Quincy Rowe and another member of their coaching staff.
The incident took the sting out of Marlow's player; however, they created two more chances to grab a share of the spoils. Captain Chris Ovenden headed over in the 87th minute and Rogalski missed possibly the best chance of all in stoppage time. When Bell's free-kick was parried by Jupp it looked like the striker would have a tap in, but off balance he failed to get his foot to the ball and the chance – as well as Marlow's hopes of a draw – went begging. The result drops Marlow down to fifth ahead of next Saturday’s trip to 10th placed Hanworth Villa.