MARLOW SLIP CLOSER TO RELEGATION

FTL FUTBOL HELLENIC

PREMIER DIVISION

Kidlington  4 Marlow United 0

Marlow slipped to a disastrous defeat at Kidlington conceding three first half goals in an inept display leaving relegation a real possibility.

They say that revenge is a dish best eaten cold, well after this display Kidlington must have thought the dish was frozen!

Returning to the scene of their superb semi final win of five days previous and with the same team who finished that match United must have felt reasonably confident of gaining something from what was a more important fixture bearing in mind their precarious league position.

That they didn’t owed much to the home teams centre forward Jimmy Deabill who notched a first half hat trick as the Marlow defence seemed either unable or unwilling to compete with the Kidlington man.

Now Jimmy is an imposing figure, towering over most of his opponents as he does, a pretty useful footballer to boot, and the Marlow defenders were probably still nursing a few bruises from their encounters with the player from Tuesday but this cannot excuse the inept defending that allowed him to score probably his easiest three goals of the season.

With the midfield failing to protect the United back four the visitors were on a hiding to nothing from the kick off.

Deabill could have opened the scoring in the first minute, lobbing keeper Murray only to see the ball skim the bar.

That only delayed the inevitable as three minutes later from a throw on their left Kidlington crossed the ball into the area where the unmarked forward guided the ball home.

Marlow had the ball in the net on eight minutes with Dickens effort being ruled out for handball as they briefly threatened the home goal.

With Nicol proving a thorn in the Kidlington side Marlow kept up the pressure with Coull seeing his shot saved and Dickens and Ollie Flint seeing free kicks go wide only for the home team to double their lead on twelve minutes as Benyon’s headed clearance found Deabill unmarked and unchallenged 25 yards from goal.

He promptly played the ball back toward goal were it ended up in the corner of the net with the Marlow defence in disarray.

Dickens then saw his free kick beat the defensive wall only for Beames to safely gather.

With Kidlington dominating the play the game was as good as over on 21 minutes when Nick Flint inexplicably scythed down Andy Styles in the edge of the area, Deabill completing his hat trick from the spot.

Despite continued protestations from the bench United were simply unable to raise their game and changed ends three down.

HT

3-0

Much to the relief of the Marlow defence Deabill was replaced after 9 minutes of the second half by Wise and although the game became increasingly scrappy the away team never looked like retrieving anything from the 90 minutes, not even their pride.

The fact that they restricted the home team to one goal was at least one small mercy.

That goal arrived on 77 minutes as a through ball found sub Wise on the edge of the area.

He twisted past his marker and fired past the advancing Murray to complete Marlow’s misery.

Very few players emerged with credit from this performance, Brown, Nicol, Pedley and Dickens being the exceptions.

With a very difficult home game against high flying Ardley coming up on Wednesday this is indeed a test of Marlow’s team spirit.

The management team really do need to lift the performance after this abject display or relegation will become a real possibility after just one season in the Premier Division.

FT 4-0

Team

Murray, Ovens, O Flint, Doswell, Benyon, Dickens, N Flint, Coull, Nicol, Brown, Pedley

Scores

C Murray  4

L Ovens  4

O Flint  4

M Doswell 4

S Benyon  4

A Dickens  5

N Flint  4

C Coull  4

A Nicol  6

L Brown  5

D Pedley  6

Man of the Match

ANDY NICOL