Pre-Season Friendly
First-Half: Halliday, Friel, Balogun, Wilkie, Adjetey-Brew, Kennedy, Dyke, O’Brien, Vaughan, Talla, Petrie
Second-Half: Halliday, Trialist, Cuthbert, McDowell, Leahy, Trialist, Neill, Sanyaolu, Neziri, Trialist, Coomes
Attendance: 575
Chelmsford moved to the Melbourne Stadium in 2006. There is small, old stand behind one of the goals and at the other end there is an uncovered standing area.
Set well back from the pitch, the Main Stand has a capacity of just over a 1,000 and situated opposite that is the back wall of the Sports & Athletics Centre, with a small overhanging roof and a few seats in front.
Around the pitch perimeter is an eight-lane running track and adjacent to that is a long-jump area.
Chelmsford are currently members of the National League South.
On 2nd January 1960, a QPR X1 lost 3-4 in a hastily arranged friendly at their New Writtle Street ground.
On a very hot afternoon, it was the home side who provided the first attempt on goal when, in the first minute, Jack Barham’s header was comfortably saved by Joel Halliday.
This was soon followed by the same player’s angled strike bouncing off the upright.
At the other end, Rohan Vaughan’s shot received a slight deflection off Kian Ronan before going behind for a corner.
From which, Chelmsford went on a swift counter-attack, which led to their No.10 being shoved over in the box, but the referee wasn’t interested.
Then on eight minutes, the Clarets’ No.12 forced a flying save from the R’s keeper.
Although Chelmsford had looked the more dangerous, Rohan Vaughan tapped in Lorent Talla’s cross at the back-post after 14 minutes.
Alex Wilkie’s solid challenge left the 19-year-old centre-back down and in need of some attention.
The next opportunity fell to the home side when their No.11 headed over the crossbar.
For the R’s, Rico Kennedy got through on goal, but his shot from around 20-yards didn’t trouble Chris Haigh.
With Rocco Friel temporally grounded, a second drinks break ensued on 37-odd minutes.
Chelmsford went close to an equaliser in the closing stages of the half. After an initial shot was blocked, Joel Halliday went down to grab the follow-up. Half-time: 1-0.
Once again Paul Furlong changed all the outfield players, whilst for Chelmsford, Angelo Harrop introduced one less for his side.
Into the second-half, and the R’s No.12 trialist, from a close-range position, forced a very good save from the trialist keeper.
This was a much stronger start from the away side and apart from enjoying slick passages of possession, the next attempt saw one of the trialist’s belting one over the crossbar.
Jake Coomes burst forward before his dangerous cross was pushed away by the keeper.
The R’s No.14 trialist got himself into the box, but then he suddenly went down. I thought that he may have incurred an eye injury, but eventually he was led off in great discomfort, apparently with a shoulder injury?
This left the away side depleted with ten players, but they continued to be the better side.
Then, following a cross from the right, Rangers’ trialist No.4 headed over the bar.
And what was to be the last kick of the game, the same player let fly from around 20-odd yards to make it 2-0 to the visitors.
All in all, it was a very professional second-half performance from Paul Furlong’s side.
On Saturday the Development Squad travel to the EMJ Community Stadium to take on Winchester City.
Steve Russell