EAGLES came away from Standon and Puckeridge with just a point after a disappointing performance. They were left to rue a succession of missed chances against their much-improved opponents after enjoying decent spells of pressure throughout.
Lee Pateman was presented with the best opportunity of the first half but he put too much on his lob and sent it over the bar. The rest of the half was a scrappy affair, with neither side able to string together a sequence of passes efficient enough to trouble their opponents.
The second half had a more open feel about it, and it was Standon that took advantage. An in-swinging free kick from the left hand side of the box was flicked into his own net by the unfortunate Markus Brown. Eagles began to look disjointed and nervous and were noticeably missing the influence of captain Luke Garwood in defence. But Rob Groves had a good chance to equalise when he found himself free in the area after Pateman’s cut back, however the ball took a huge bobble on the poor playing surface and he missed his kick.
Paul McGennity then climbed highest above a defender to head in what looked like the equaliser, but the referee spotted some pushing and disallowed it. Joe Tyler was then given a straight red card for protesting the decision, meaning Eagles had to play the remaining 15 minutes with ten men. However, after switching to 3-4-2 they continued to create chances, with sub Jack Gregson causing Standon problems with his hold-up play. The equaliser came when Gregson chipped a pass over the top for Groves and he rolled a right footed shot underneath the keeper when clean through. With Eagles bombing forward for the winner they were always likely to be caught on the counter attack, and twice had Dan Eely to thanks for superb close range saves. Ben L’Honore, fresh off the bench, almost won it twice in the dying stages, when first his long range volley dipped just wide, then his header from a right-wing corner glanced inches past the post.
In the end, Eagles had the linesman to thank when he ruled out a Standon tap-in for offside with almost the last kick of the game.
Team: Eely; Pennery, McGennity, Brown, Mitchell (L’Honore); Pateman, Tyler, Groves, Locke; Holland, Genesis (Gregson)
