Chippenham held in Vauxhall Road shocker

4:54pm Saturday 23rd August 2008

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Hemel Hempstead Town 1-1 Chippenham Town.

The term 'beautiful game' was very distant from Vauxhall Road as Chippenham Town and Hemel Hempstead played their part in a woeful match to share the points.

Luke Gullick's 44th minute goal gave the Bluebirds the lead in an dire first half where it was hard to see where any entertainment was going to make an welcome apperance.

Yiadom Yeboah's 65th minute equaliser left Chippenham outraged as they surrounded referee Paul McCaul and linesman Simon Cheney, claiming the defender used his hands to score.

Bluebirds boss Adie Mings made the one change from Tuesday's 2-0 defeat at Evesham as he handed midfielder Ashley Williams his full debut as David Pratt dropped to the bench and Gullick moved up front to partner Sean Seavill.

Like fans, optimism during the first half, was sparce and was joined in it's boycott of Vauxhall Road by quality.

The kick and rush style of the opening stages was so frantic and disjointed it left you wondering where the jumpers for the goalposts were.

Possession was won and lost by both sides so often the players looked like they were playing as one big 22-man team and deliberately passing the ball to each other.

The Bluebirds would loft the ball up to their imaginary targetman, where the Hemel defence would easily win the ball in the absence of any strapping six footer.

Gary Sippetts tried to inject some excitement into proceedings but he weak shot crawled wide on 15 minutes but neither side were looking likely to create any kind of inspiration.

A dull and listless start hardly captured the imagination of a new season as Adie Mings' men looked to erase defeat at Evesham from their minds.

Chippenham finally saw the whites of Tudors' keeper Ian Brown's eyes just before the half hour when Seavill's delicate ball just evaded the onrushing Gullick for Brown to smother.

The next 15 minutes introduced some much needed cohesion to the game, with the Bluebirds starting to edge proceedings but Seavill, who was playing as a central striker with Gullick, was dropping too deep and too wide, leaving his strike partner isolated.

But with the half edging slowly, very slowly, towards the end Chippenham had the temerity to take the lead.

Seavill bustled his way between Jon Stevenson and Steve Wales and his miss-hit cross shot was expertly turned in by Gullick at the far post. A woeful first period forgiven? Not quite.

A half time lead from either side was more undeserved than a Russian invasion of Georgia and Simon Sweeney had to be alert to block Gullick's goalbound effort two minutes later to ensure the Bluebirds didn't have an even more surprising lead at the interval.

Half time: Hemel Hempstead 0-1 Chippenham Town.

Hemel opened the half doing their best to rally and Nathan Bowden-Haase headed over in the 48th minute but the Bluebirds had their own chance a minute later when Seavill just missed out as Gullick screwed his shot across goal.

Already there was more urgency to the half in the first minutes than in the whole of the first half as Sam Allison warmed Brown's hands twice and Tudors' captain Paul Edgeworth whistled a 25-yarder just wide.

And in the 65th minute Hemel equalised with a goal which left the Bluebirds players enraged.

Edgeworth swung in a corner from the left and Yeboah rose at the near post to glance a header in, but the Bluebirds were convinced the defender had used his arm in netting the leveller.

The visitors had lost their cool, with Kevin Halliday the main culprit, as Ross Adams and Iain Harvey lashed out during wild challenges.

Mings introduced David Pratt for goalscorer Gullick and the striker had a penalty appeal rightly turned down after he was eased off the ball by Bowden-Haase.

Chris Marsh then scuffed a presentable chance wide with ten minutes remaining as the game became increasingly bad tempered - although still lacked a single booking.

Wales fired straight at Chris Snoddy from the angle before Cortez Belle received the first caution of the afternoon after bringing down Adam Martin.

Seavill was felled 18 yards out as the game entered injury time but his low free kick was blocked before he skied a left footed effort over at the death.

Chippenham Town: Snoddy, Adams, Halliday, Richards, Belle, Harvey (c), Lye, Williams, Allison, Seavill, Gullick, (Pratt, 72).