BEAVERS BEATEN IN SEVEN GOAL THRILLER
BY PAUL EDWARDS
Despite what was a promising performance, Hampton and Richmond Borough slipped to a narrow 4-3 defeat at home to long-distance travellers Truro City.
Having outplayed the Tinners for over an hour, the visitors pulled off a miraculous recovery, scoring three goals in 13 minutes, to overturn a 3-1 deficit in the dying embers of the match.
It was new interim managers Max Kretzschmar and Craig Saunders’ first league game since taking charge, and it did not take long for their impact to tell.
Irish loanee Wilson Waweru opened the scoring with his first goal for the club since joining from Wealdstone. After some tidy work from fellow newbie John Ryan down the left hand side in the 26th minute, a right-footed cross from the left-back found the head of Waweru who guided his header into the far corner.
The lead was short-lived, however, as a fortuitous double deflection dragged John Askey’s side level. The first came from the cross, which ballooned up from the right-hand side, the second was after the resultant header from Tom Dean, whose effort ricocheted off Luis Fernandez to wrongfoot debutant keeper Jamie Searle.
To cap off what was a blistering first half of action, Bright Siaw bagged his second goal in as many appearances for the Beavers to give his new side the lead at the interval. After battling to win possession just inside his own half, the man The Sun once called the ‘next Jeremy Doku’ drove past three Truro defenders to blast into the bottom corner from 25 yards out.
Following the break, the dream continued. Waweru, now evidently hungry for more goals, was on the scoresheet again. Siaw’s effort was initially saved by Aidan Stone in the Truro net, but the Irishman was on hand to head home from mere centimetres out. He would have done well to miss.
With less than 30 minutes left on the clock and two goals to the good, the Beavers were in dreamland. Except, you would hope the so-called ‘dreamland’, wherever that may be, would have better weather. Storm Boelo raged down for the duration of the match, giving deserved plaudits to the 653 fans who braved the torrents of rain which stair-rodded down on the Bev.
And, much like the weather, in a 13-minute storm, Truro turned the fixture on its head. Tyler Harvey netted his first of the match in the 65thminute, smashing past Searle from eight yards out following pinball in the penalty area.
Ben Starkie got the Tinners level four minutes later. His effort from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection off Beavers skipper Will de Havilland to nestle in the bottom right corner.
With just 12 minutes remaining on the clock, Harvey completed his brace by nudging home a delicious freekick from Luke Jephcott to complete the comeback and take his side into third in the Enterprise National League South.
Despite the result, there were plenty of positives to take from the match by the home side, and they don’t have much time to dwell on the result either.
Their next match takes place on Tuesday October 27 away at Billericay.