11:29am Tuesday 10th November 2009
CHELMSFORD City’s fifth match unbeaten in the Blue Square South saw them move up to seventh in the table as goals from Ricky Modeste and Ricky Holmes earned them three precious points, though Head Coach Glenn Pennyfather warned: “It’s too early yet to start thinking of the play-offs.”
The Clarets’ threadbare squad performed admirably to take a first-half lead, then find the character to re-establish their advantage when substitute Rob Davies levelled on the stroke of half-time and Glenn was quick to highlight the special bond his players have.
He claimed: “We have honest boys here who have stuck together and are growing-up together.
"We’ve suffered a lot with injuries recently, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse as all teams have to deal with those at some stage.”
Skipper Dave Rainford returned to the side in place of the injured Anthony Cook, with Matthew Lock moving from the centre of midfield to the right as City shuffled their pack. W orcester then seized the early initiative when striker Marco Adaggio headed off-target inside the opening minute then a drive from skipper Tom Kemp shortly afterwards flew just over the bar.
Adaggio also found the net on 12 minutes though the offside flag of the Assistant Referee saved the Clarets, who also benefitted when Matt Birley could only bury his subsequent effort into the side-netting mid-way through the period.
Chelmsford weren’t without opportunities of their own, however, as the sides were on equal terms.
Holmes looked amongst the brightest for the visitors and he was additionally involved in a couple of threats to goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe’s goal.
Though it was his namesake, Modeste, who broke the deadlock. Having just survived a clearance which nearly resulted in an own goal, then a penalty appeal, the visitors went ahead.
Eleven minutes prior to the interval, Modeste stayed on his feet despite a push, then Rainford did well to keep the ball in play. By this time, Modeste had made a run to the far post which was picked out and he buried into the bottom corner.
Worcester’s reply was swift, but less so than the scorer Davies who came off the bench for the injured Kemp in stoppage time to drive in from close range with his first involvement.
After the break, the spectators witnessed more end-to-end football, with most of the early action at the Chelmsford end.
Nevertheless, a half-hit Danny Hockton effort and a Holmes dribble into the box then smash over constituted a fair effort from the Clarets to go back ahead.
City were hitting their hosts on the counter and Worcester were frustrated when a 67th-minute Matt Dinsmore ball into the danger area went unconverted.
Despite their lack of squad depth, Pennyfather’s men maintained their energy and drive until late in the match and were rewarded.
John Martin supplied a well-weighted pass through to the on-rushing Holmes whose cool finish won the game for the Clarets.
Adaggio’s wasted chance three minutes into injury time then confirmed this was to be Chelmsford’s night as they moved back up towards the play-off scene.
“There’s a long, long way to go before we can talk about play-offs,” summed-up a grounded Pennyfather after the game.
“We can look at that in April. So far the only game where we didn’t deserve anything was the Newport match so we just have to keep plugging away and banging more points on the board for our fans, who I thought were excellent in coming all this way to support us tonight. We can’t thank them enough.”
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