ST MARGARETSBURY FC 1-3 BERKHAMSTED FC: FULL, INDEPENDENT MATCH REPORT...

Bright Berko Inflict Vase Pain On ‘Bury Battlers

St Margaretsbury FC 1-3 Berkhamsted FC

(FA Vase Round 3)

A keen opening few moments by the Bury were survived by Berko, who then went on to dominate the offensive play in the opening 45 minutes, scoring twice and also forcing home ‘keeper Adam Seymour into stretching saves from Ashton Campbell and Adam Meade. The hosts threatened not at all and visiting custodian Carl Tasker merely yawned a few times, as he watched his team control things for the most part. Dan Jones’ inventiveness, Steve Hawes’ menacing midfield presence and Jack Stevens’ conscientious play in the workhouse were all tough for Bury to deal with and along with Campbell who proved a real handful for home defenders Simon Grove-White and Sean Givenhaud to cope with, Alex Campana’s clever feet occupied home skipper Michael Cooper to the full too. 

SILENCE FOR CHAPECOENSE...

...AND AGAIN...

After the interval the guests were less dominant partly due to the replacement of Campbell, Jones and the wide-man Dan Edwards who also caused regular problems for the St Mags’ defence. Certainly the hosts looked more adventurous in the second period though but Tasker saved from George Beattie and replacement Billy Murray struck the crossbar with a decent header. Deep-lying and in truth rather quiet home forward Ryan Wade did score with a fine late drive but by then Dan Weeks had netted a deserved third goal for Berko although the shot seemed to go through Seymour’s saving attempt.

LONG JOHN SHAKES HANDS...

COOPER JOINS IN...

HOW A HUDDLE BREAKS...

I was warmly welcomed by the St Margaretsbury club and Manager John Barker chatted with me for a few moments before the match began but he would probably have been ill prepared for his team’s lack- lustre first-half. They had looked lively for 5 minutes or so but then visiting central defender Mead and skipper Jim Baldry looked solid and home striker Harley Haag was too often almost exiled in attack and Courtney Clay was unable to create any danger on the offensive right. Both Berko full-backs, Weeks and Gerardo Smaldone threatened in the opening 15 minutes before a Bury back-pass saw Seymour fly-kick the ball against the chasing Campbell’s legs. A wild lunge on Grove-White by the over-exuberant Hawes might have been rewarded with a yellow card on another day but the referee managed to avoid cautioning anyone until a loose Campbell boot saw him booked, perhaps slightly harshly, after previous challenges by others had gone unpunished.

JOHN BARKER FOLDS A MANAGER'S ARMS...

CAMPANA: NICE FEET, SHAME ABOUT THE GLOVES...

COOPER ISN'T HAPPY...

HAWES IS MR INNOCENT...

Campana and Weeks combined well but Edwards lashed an angled effort into the side-netting on the left flank with his right boot but I guess it was no surprise when the guests netted their first goal following an errant Bury pass in midfield. ‘Mr Mop’ Stevens mopped up, latched onto the loose ball, shovelled it forward to Campbell who slipped the ball between two defenders at inside-right for an onside Edwards to rush onto and he slipped a low shot across Seymour’s dive and into the net off the base of the far upright.

0-1...

EDWARDS WAS THE SCORER...

Goal two arrived after Seymour had leapt left like a leopard at a giraffe’s neck to push aside a volleyed attempt from 16 yards by Campbell and following not only home defender Ryan Goodman’s header from the ensuing corner straight out of his ‘keeper’s hands, but also after Seymour had been forced to palm aside an angled cross from the left by Weeks. Jones, who was nudging some neat first-time passes forward on occasions, managed to send Campbell running at inside-left, who was actually pushed in the back by Givenhaud but Seymour had rushed from his goal like a fox into a chicken coop. In the subsequent untidiness, the ball appeared to nudge Campbell’s arm as he knocked it past the swerving ‘keeper but he was allowed to go on, being forced left and his low shot found the net despite the attentions of Grove-White on the goal-line. 

CAMPBELL IS CAUTIONED...

SOME SKY...

"LOOK! NO HANDS..."
MAYBE, ASH, MAYBE...

0-2...

'BURY IN A HOLE NOW...

SEYMOUR: NOT IMPRESSED BY GOAL 2...

Seymour was fortunate to get away with mishandling a Smaldone centre, Seymour then whacked Wade’s back-pass straight to Edwards but his long shot was also a high shot before Campbell was manhandled by Givenhaud who received an obvious caution. From the resulting free-kick, Seymour bent backwards to touch Mead’s 27 yard shot over the goal-frame. Campana, always loitering, always seemingly a danger like a lit fuse on a Roman Candle, had a couple of shots blocked as the break approached and the sunset reddened like the shirts and faces of the Bury players whose progress in the FA Vase was already under serious threat.

WOW...

WE LIKES THIS...

WHAT A BACKDROP...

The orange dusk offered a fine sky but also hung bitter cold over bare camera fingers and John Barker’s talking at the interval appeared to have been effective, once Campbell had been felled at the start of the second-half and Jones had been denied inside the penalty-box by Givenhaud’s slide and Seymour’s deflection. Campbell then failed to pass either to Jones or Edwards on a break but Bury began to show signs of a revival, for a Haag shot was deflected, Cooper drove way over the crossbar and Beattie, always looking for an opening, found space on the left and fired in a shot which Tasker got his gloves to. The ball bounced behind him but Wade, running in, was unable to capitalise as the goalie somehow baulked the Magsman. Murray then replaced Goodman for the hosts and he at least looked lively.

ST MAGS HAVE A FREE-KICK...

This resurgence of fortunes for the hosts was cruelly halted by their guests however, for in a concerted attack they added a killer third goal. Campana caused the initial problems with neat footwork and a hard shot which Seymour beat away but his defenders failed to clear the ball properly and eventually, following a couple of sorties, Weeks took possession on the left. He exchanged passes, I think with Hawes and drove an angled shot at Seymour whose attempt to save saw the ball squirm through him and although Campana nudged the ball deeper into the net, Weeks was adjudged to have scored the goal. St Margaretsburied…

GOAL FOR WEEKS...
0-3 NOW.

Smaldone got away with a pull-back on Haag and then during the Berko substitution period, whereby Max Farrelly, Tom Carter and Callum Wilson-McLoughlin all appeared, the hosts squandered a fine chance to get back into the game. Murray’s 8 yard header smacked against the cross-beam but Haag somehow lifted the rebound over the goal-frame from 3 yards away. He hung his head. Tasker shook his. As did Mr Barker of course… Anthony Anstead unsurprisingly replaced the ineffective Haag and after Seymour had stopped a Carter shot, St Mags pushed forward again, only for hard-working midfielder Danny Charles to shoot wide and for Murray to drag a shot past the left stick when well placed, just 12 yards from goal. The referee cautioned a Bury substitute remarkably, following some heated moments but that soon died down…

DUGOUT ANGER...

Carter then missed a trio of opportunities for Berko using a trio of different methods: first he received a short corner but sliced his left-booter wide of the far post, next he was slipped clear at inside-left by Campana but lifted his shot over some trees into the darkening sky and finally, following another Campana assist, he had a shot blocked. That was it for Berko but the hosts managed a very late goal and an even later miss, for Wade’s 25 yard strike ripped into the top left corner of the net before Tasker raced out to stop the bothersome Anstead from getting in a telling effort at goal.  

Berkhamsted had virtually won by the time their playmaker Jones and two of their goalscorers were relieved of their duties which naturally saw Bury push on, through Murray in attack and Beattie, as well as Charles and Rian Carroll in the midfield areas. Mead and skipper Baldry (who had made one superb attacking run which was halted by a foul) stood firm though and St Mags were left appealing about Campbell’s use of an arm although acknowledging that the better team on the day had qualified for the last 32.

CAMPBELL: DANGEROUS AT TIMES...

I spoke with Berko boss Tom Garratt after the game and he seemed pleased with the result as did his beaming players…

SOMEONE NEEDS A PEE.
OR A PAIR OF GLOVES...

Me? 121 miles back, for the whim of my satnav suggested the M25, M1, M6 and M42, not the M23, M40 and M42, meaning very much of a round-trip on the day… I was home by 7.05pm…

It’s what I do…   

TEAMS:

ST MARGARETSBURY FC:

ADAM SEYMOUR, MICHAEL COOPER (CAPT), RYAN GOODMAN, DANNY CHARLES, SEAN GIVENHAUD, SIMON GROVE-WHITE, COURTNEY CLAY, RIAN CARROLL, HARLEY HAAG, RYAN WADE, GEORGE BEATTIE.

SUBS:

BILLY MURRAY, JON STEVENSON, JETMIR BRIJA, ANT ANSTEAD, JORDAN LEE.

BERKHAMSTED FC:

CARL TASKER, GERARDO SMALDONE, DAN WEEKS, JACK STEVENS, JIM BALDRY (CAPT), ADAM MEAD, DAN EDWARDS, STEVE HAWES, ASHTON CAMPBELL, ALEX CAMPANA, DAN JONES.

SUBS:

LUKE LADYMAN, MAX FARRELLY, CALLUM WILSON-McLOUGHLIN, BRAD O’DONOVAN, TOM CARTER.    

IMPECCABLE...

IMPRESSIVE...

IMMEMORIAL...