Felixstowe & Walton United FC

FELIXSTOWE & WALTON UNITED  2  - 0   BASILDON UNITED 

Two stunning goals secure another home win 

Felixstowe & Walton United extended their unbeaten start to the Isthmian League campaign with a comfortable victory over visitors Basildon United. Lamell Howell scored a great individual goal to liven up a quiet first half and Billy Holland scored an early contender for goal of the season, lobbing the goalkeeper from the half way line to wrap up the points in the 75^th minute.

The Seasiders welcomed back Noel Aitkens and Callum Bennett to the starting line-up, Lamell Howell also in the first eleven. Henry Barley remained on the bench due to injury with U23’s player Meshack O’Connor also on the bench for the second game in succession.

From the first whistle it was clear that Basildon were here to play a physical game and look to frustrate at every opportunity, Felixstowe were trying to play through a tight midfield but a strong, and tall! defence was equal to most things that came there way. An early chance for the visitors went begging on 3 minutes as they worked a move forward but the attackers’ low shot didn’t trouble Callum Robinson too much. Charlie Warren did well on 6 minutes to find space on the left and his speedy cross looked to have caught Zak Brown unprepared and he shot wide when well-positioned. The game continued in a stop start fashion with Basildon creating very little but managing to stunt every Felixstowe move forward. It took until the 34^th minute for the next significant chance to come and it was Noel Aitkens who created his own opportunity with a great run that took out two defenders before his bottom corner bound shot was deflected out for a corner. Two minutes later and the Seasiders scored the goal that their hard work and determination had deserved, Lamell Howell scoring a brilliant individual effort, weaving his way from deep through four players before finding himself in space inside the box and he picked his spot superbly to give the goalkeeper no chance. Callum Harrison had a great chance to extend the lead shortly after, receiving Charlie Warrens cross fifteen yards from goal, he opted for placement and was unlucky to see his rising shot just go over the crossbar. From the goal kick the ball was quickly returned to Felixstowe and nodded through for Zak Brown to chase, with the goalkeeper inexplicably racing off his line and missing the ball and player completely, luckily for him! Zak rounded him and a defender and his powerful effort from the left was brilliantly cleared off the line by a backtracking defender before Callum Harrisons follow up shot was saved by the returning ‘keeper. The slender advantage was evident on the stroke of half time when Basildon finally got the ball down and with two clever passes found themselves in a good position on the right of the box but the attacker could only fire wide.

The second half started with Basildon looking to play the ball around more and it took several minutes for Felixstowe to adapt to that and from then on they took a firm grip on the game. Charlie Warren again raced clear on 52 minutes and crossed into the six-yard box for Noel Aitkens who had two efforts to score, the second forcing a good save. Felixstowe were winning free kicks regularly in dangerous areas from the card-happy referee and as usual, these were causing problems for the visiting defence, firstly Joe Whight fired over before Callum Harrison tried his luck and only the last second claw away from the goalkeeper kept out his shot that had flown around the wall. From the third free kick, Harrison again took aim, this time his effort was towards the left of the goal and it agonisingly smacked the crossbar and went out to safety. Billy Holland did well to get a shot at goal when on the floor in the box on 62 minutes as Felixstowe really started to turn the screw looking for that elusive second goal. Charlie Heatley lashed the ball wide when he looked to finish off a good break forward for the away side on 72 minutes. Three minutes later and the biggest roar of the game greeted a special goal for Felixstowe to get that two-goal cushion, Noel Aitkens was rewarded for his brilliant performance all afternoon when he won the ball just inside the Basildon half and laid the ball across to Billy Holland, from literally the half way line, he lobbed the goalkeeper and his incredible effort nestled into the top corner of the goal, a simply superb goal and the worthy winner of any match. From there Felixstowe continued their dominance, restricting Basildon all over the pitch and seeing out the game to record another home win that takes the Seasiders up to fifth place in the table.

Seasiders Assistant Manager Andy Crump spoke after the game as he continued to lead the side in Stuart Boardley’s absence. “I think it was important today to really match the physicality of Basildon, we knew they would want to take us into the type of game that we don’t enjoy playing in normally and I thought the boys stood up to that very well in the first 30 minutes, our play wasn’t overly pretty but at the same time, it had to be that way to dig in and work hard to allow ourselves to get the chance to score, which we did at a really good time in the game. We took probably ten minutes again in the second half to really get going again but from then on played well. The substitutes, especially Josh Hitter and Harry Blackburn came in and showed why we need to use that full squad and they did well and gave us that extra energy, as did Charlie Warren who had an excellent game once again, with Zak Brown also working tirelessly up front today.” Crump went on to say. “The bit that was great for me was how hard we worked to win the ball back on occasions, typified by Billy Hollands goal where Noel Aitkens has performed another lung busting run to win the ball and from there it’s just special what Billy has done, the awareness of where the goalkeeper was, was exceptional and to be fair he has tried that enough times since joining us so it’s about time one of those came off! From there, our reward for all that hard work earlier was evident in that we could control things and still create chances for ourselves whilst Basildon were of course still trying to get something out of it, yes we could have scored more goals if we had been a bit more clinical today but I’m not worried about that because the attitude of the squad was first class, coming off the FA Cup game in that they had been so disappointed with their performance in and they put that right today with their attitude playing a big part in that.”

Report by Stuart Daynes

Photos by Stefan Peck

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