Town impress at high-fliers to record third win in a row

FOOTBALL

Chesham United 1-3 Stratford Town

Evo-Stik Southern Premier

Report by Bryan Hale

STRATFORD turned in a battling performance on Tuesday evening to record their first away win since the opening day of the season and make it three straight wins overall.

Goals from Charlie Evans and Will Grocott plus a Darren Locke own goal settled the points at the Meadow.

Town could hardly have made a better start as they took the lead in only the sixth minute. Eli Bako wriggled his way along the byline on the right before pulling the ball back to set up a straightforward finish for Evans from inside the six-yard box.

High-fliers Chesham looked for an immediate response and went close to an equaliser ten minutes later when David Hutton’s free-kick from the right was met at the far post by a bullet header from Locke which cannoned against Stratford keeper Louis Connor’s right-hand post.

Adam Watkins then had a rasping effort deflected behind and another Hutton free-kick was pushed away by Connor and Stratford were having to work hard to keep their lead intact.

Connor superbly tipped over a well-struck left-footer from Watkins on 34 minutes and three minutes later it was all square when Town failed to deal properly with Hutton’s right-wing corner.

The loose ball fell kindly to Benji Crilley lurking some 20 yards out and he thumped it back through the congested penalty area into the net.

Chesham piled on the pressure as soon as the second half got under way forcing three corners in quick succession and were close to going ahead on 57 minutes when Zack Reynolds surged down the left to find Joe Iaciofano in space, only for Chesham’s leading scorer to blaze inches lover.

Instead it was Stratford who regained the lead in the 62nd minute when Mike Taylor’s persistence led to the ball dropping to Grocott and he volleyed past the static Chesham keeper Hafed Al-Droubi.

And as Chesham struggled to create any really clear-cut chances Town wrapped up the points a minute from time when Lee Thomas’ cross from the left was turned into his own net by Locke as he stretched to get it clear.

For more details and reaction, see tomorrow's Herald.