Late goal breaks Romania resistance

Chipstead 2 FC Romania 1, Isthmian League South Central Division, Saturday 7^th December 2019

I’m starting to feel like I’m not destined to visit SCFL Division 1 side Roffey this season.

Having planned visits to their ground a few times over the past couple of months, only for said plans to be ruined by the weather, I woke up on Saturday morning fairly convinced this would be the weekend where I'd finally get to see the SCFL’s newest senior side in action.

In truth, Roffey’s scheduled match against Littlehampton Town hadn’t been my first choice of fixture. Ideally, I would have gone to Sutton to watch the last remaining Sussex side left in the FA Vase, Lancing, take on Sutton Common Rovers in a replay.

Alas, with my Saturday morning work commitments making reaching Sutton in time for kick-off highly debatable, I begrudgingly had to shelve this particular idea. Even the last-ditch efforts of the Lancing goalkeeper, Matt Evans, to convince my boss to give me the morning off fell on deaf ears. I like to think that it’s because I’m totally indispensable to 5Ways Soccer School… but I highly doubt this is the actual reason.

So it was to Roffey I turned my attention. However, by 7.30 on Saturday morning this plan had also been thwarted. Noticing on Littlehampton’s Twitter feed that the game was due to kick-off at 14:00 instead of 15:00, this meant I wouldn’t be able to get there in time for kick-off either. I later found out that the game once again fell foul of the weather anyway. See - I'm not destined to visit Roffey.

Instead, for the first time since September, I decided to visit a ground belonging to a team playing above Step Five on the Non-League Pyramid. One I hadn’t yet been to. After checking out a few possible options, I eventually settled on Chipstead vs FC Romania in the Isthmian League South Central Division.

I arrived at Chipstead’s High Road Ground about 15 minutes before kick-off and parked in the car park located right outside the stadium. Stopping for a quick coffee in the well-appointed clubhouse, the entrance to which is outside the ground itself, I then paid £10 to enter High Road. Unfortunately, Chipstead are one of the growing number of non-league clubs to have gone fully digital when it comes to programme production, so there was no programme memento for me this week.

High Road is a pleasant little ground, with covered standing areas behind both goals and a main covered seated stand along one side of the pitch. There is also an outside snack and coffee bar meaning you don’t have to leave the ground every time you feel the need to replenish yourself.

Chipstead are an established Isthmian League side, having been in the division for a number of years now, but their visitors are anything but. As their name suggests, FC Romania is a club made up mainly (although not solely) of Romanian expats. Now based in Hertfordshire, the club have enjoyed a meteoric rise since forming as a Sunday League side playing at Hackney Marshes just 13 years ago.

While FC Romania have undoubtedly found their first season at Step Four hard going - they were bottom of the league going into the match - they were only four points and five places below their hosts. It’s very tight in the lower reaches of this particular division.

There wasn’t much to choose between the two teams in the early exchanges. While the hosts certainly looked more accomplished in possession, it was clear from the outset that their visitors would make them fight tooth and nail for every single ball during the afternoon.

In a first-half that was high on industry, yet a little lacking in overall quality, it was arguably the assistant referee flagging the end Chipestead were attacking, who had to work harder than anyone else. He had to raise his flag so often as time-and-time-again the home team's attackers wandered needlessly offside, that I can only imagine how much his arm must have ached by the half-time break.

It was FC Romania who went into the interval ahead. While Chipstead had bossed possession, they failed to threaten the visiting defence too often, while on FC Romania’s few counter attacks they did look dangerous.

The visitors took the lead after 37 minutes when good work from Adrian Hurdubei was eventually finished off by Vladut Sighiartau, whose scuffed finish had just about enough on it to beat Chipstead ‘keeper Oliver Pain.

The goal seemed to rock the hosts, and Joel Lamb almost doubled the visitors’ advantage just before half-time, racing clear only to be denied by a strong hand from Pain.

Chipstead came out with much more attacking intent in the second-half and laid siege to the FC Romania goal. Substitute Tom Collins was denied by a good save from visiting goalie Adrian Darabant before Kyen Nicholas wasted a great chance to equalise.

With the hosts getting firmly on top, the visitors resorted to giving away lots of niggly fouls. It’s not that they were particularly dirty, but there were a number of, shall we say, tactical fouls (not necessarily in particularly tactful areas) that led to Chipstead having lots of set pieces from dangerous areas.

The hosts eventually got the equaliser their pressure deserved midway through the second half, when Sam Bell powerfully headed home at the far post – although Darabant may feel he should have done better (see video below).

As Chipstead pushed for a winner, FC Romania almost retook the lead when some great play from sub Lawrence Nzuruba down the left culminated with Sergiu Maximov forcing a good save from Pain.

It was a rare second-half foray forward for the visitors, though, and the pattern of the game largely continued unabashed: Chipstead attacking, FC Romania fouling.

When the main culprit of the aforementioned ‘tactical fouls’, Macedo Hernany was shown a second yellow card and subsequently sent off with ten minutes to go, I don’t think it really came as a huge surprise to anyone. It had been coming.

Actually, despite FC Romania being a man-down, Chipstead didn’t create too many more chances and the visitors’ organised defence looked like it would hold out for a valuable point.

Then, literally right on full-time, a Collins free-kick, following yet another foul, was floated into the box, and somehow ended up in the back of the net. I’ve no idea who got the final touch, or who the goal will eventually be credited to, but the hosts didn’t care. They had snatched victory with the very last kick (possibly head… maybe even knee) of the match.

Indeed, the referee blew the final whistle while the jubilant hosts were still celebrating, leaving the battling visitors utterly crestfallen and deflated.

It’s hard to argue that Chipstead didn’t deserve the three points – they were definitely the better team over the 90 minutes – but the manner of the victory was decidedly cruel on a hard-working FC Romania side.

Enjoyed this blog post? Then you may be interested in reading my kindle book which recounts my 2018/19 groundhopping journey (take a look, it’s only 99p).