Match Report: Chatham Cup vs Western Springs
Chatham Cup Round 2 Match Report: East Coast Bays vs Western Springs, Bay City Park, Monday 2nd June 2025.
Defensive Mistakes Costly as Bays exit Chatham Cup early
After the excellent win on Friday night at Birkenhead the football switched from league action to Chatham Cup Round 2 action with Bays hosting in form Western Springs at Bay City Park. Damion was back in the starting line up instead of Ryusei and with James Elder injured on Friday Matt came in up front. Jack Young made his full starting debut for Bays on the right side of defence on his 19th birthday. Congratulations Jack on both achievements.
Bays started off brightly with Damion playing Matt through. But his last touch wasn’t a good one losing control of the ball, before being able to shoot. Hackett played Normann through, but he had got into an offside position. Bays were then guilty of giving the ball away cheaply on a couple of occasions. First up Jack Young lost the ball but did well to recover & clear the cross away. Then the ball was lost in midfield leading to Makimoto taking a long range shot that went wide. A good exchange of passes between Damion & Billy looked like it would get Liam away, but the final pass was not good enough.
A cross in from the right by McLeod saw Orlando head the cross away before Damion was brought down trying to get away. Nathan won the ball on the left and found Billy who tried to thread the needle, but the keeper was out sharply to intercept the pass. An excellent ball out to the left wing by Orlando to Nathan saw a cross into the box that only just evaded Liam’s head. Liam then burst down the right wing and his cross saw Guy with his back to goal. We turned sharply but his right foot shot went over. Guy was pulled up for hand ball in the middle of the park but after that there was a nasty follow through by Dhandra on Guy. Both went down. Guy recovered but after a bit of attention and going down again Dhandra was forced to leave the field injured and was replaced by Thomas.
Matt made a break down the left wing, played the ball back to Nathan to cross in, and Guy was upended without the ball. No penalty or free kick given, and play was allowed to continue. Great teamwork between Orlando, Damion, & Matt saw a cross blocked for a corner. Jack Caunter’s was headed out of the box where Matt tried a volley that was blocked. Jack Caunter’s throw into Billy was played back and the cross was put behind for another corner. Orlando’s corner was cleared away at the back post. Springs thought they had scored when Jack Young lost the ball and Makimoto raced to the by-line before crossing for McLeod to power a header forward. Louie made a fine reflex save by pushing the header over the bar but while all this was going on the assistant referee had flagged that the ball had crossed the back line and gone out of play for a goal kick.
A couple of minutes later Springs did take the lead in the 44th minute when all the Bays players stood still thinking the ball had gone out of play on the far side. A long ball was played forward and McGavin dummied around Louie before shooting into an empty net for the opening goal. Not long after this the half time whistle went, and the score was East Coast Bays 0 Western Springs 1. Both teams had their chances in the first half but whereas Bays did not take theirs Springs did with their one just before the break.
Bays started off the second half giving the ball away again. This time it was Liam and Springs broke at speed leaving McGavin free to place a left foot shot just past the far post. A foul by Damion led to a free kick by Drake that was eventually cleared by Adam. At the other end a powerful header forward saw Damion play through Orlando, but his left foot shot went high & wide. A poor back pass by Jack Young went to Hackett and his shot beat Louie as well as the far post. Jack Young played a nice ball down the right wing to Liam, and he played the ball inside to Billy. His right foot shot went high & wide.
In the 61st minute Springs made a change with Tayeb coming on for McLeod. Jack Caunter played a fantastic diagonal ball from the left side of defence down the right wing. Guy raced down the right flank but the ball across the box was just slightly away from Orlando. Springs made a third change with Carey coming on for Simons in the 66th minute. Bays came closest to equalising when a ball forward by Matt found Liam and he in turn found Billy. His left foot shot beat the goalkeeper but was cleared off the line. Bays made two changes in the 75th minute with Yun & Moses coming on for Damion and Matt. A cross in from the right wing by Liam was headed away under pressure by Carey.
Hackett was then shown a yellow card for stupidly kicking the ball away in an obvious attempt at time wasting. Yun then linked up well with Liam and his cross into the middle was just over the head of Guy. A long throw in by Jack Caunter found Yun and his right foot shot went straight to the keeper. In the 86th minute Bays equalised with a quality finish. Billy played the ball into Moses, and he dropped the ball off for Guy to hit a perfect volley into the top corner past a stranded Springs keeper. The score now read East Coast Bays 1 Western Springs 1.
Bays then turned up the pressure. Guy robbed a defender of the ball and played it forward to Orlando. He tried to turn but lost possession and then gave away a foul. A pass by Billy was intercepted by Tayeb and he played it into his captain, Drake. Luckily, Drake’s shot was quite tame and went straight to Louie. Bays weren’t so lucky a couple of minutes later when a mix up in the Bays defence saw the ball fall to Normann and he placed his right foot first time shot right into the corner past Louie for what turned out to be the winning goal.
Bays made two immediate changes with Nathan Pepper and James Edgeler coming on for Jack Young & Orlando. A long throw in from Jack Caunter saw a shot by Moses saved. Then a goalmouth scramble in the Springs box saw a first shot saved from Moses and a second shot saved from Liam. Straight after these two near misses the fulltime whistle went, and the match had finished with a disappointing loss & exit from the Cup for Bays. Final score was East Coast Bays 1 Western Springs 2. Jack Young was named Bays Player of the Day. This Saturday we have the same opponents in the league as we play Western Springs again at Bay City Park with a 3pm kick off. See you all there.
Final Score: East Coast Bays 1 vs Western Springs 2
East Coast Bays: L Caunter, N Maisey, J Young (J Edgeler 90), A Huskic, O Thorpe (N Pepper 90), D Kim (M Akimana 75), GFE Penda, B Jones, L Andersen, M Matanyayire (YS Chang 75), J Caunter
Western Springs: O Mason, D Dhandra (M Thomas 35), J Hackett, T Makimoto, R McLeod (R Tayeb 61), O Browne, N Steinmetz, R Drake, C McGavin, D Normann, D Simons (A Carey 66)
Goals: East Coast Bays: GFE Penda 86
Western Springs: C McGavin 44, D Normann 90
Photo credit: Simon Harmer, @simonharmerphotography
