The Ambers moved out of the early relegation zone and dumped Whitehawk into it as they cruised to a 2-0 victory on the Sussex coast. Chances were few & far between in the first half as the sides sized each other up, the wide play & throw ins bought Cheshunt more opportunity but new Hawks keeper Huffer had the attempts on goal covered. For the home side Gianluca Botti went close with a header, but R’avan Constable recovered his ground to make the save.
The deadlock was broken when a Cheshunt corner was flicked on at the near post, headed down into the six yard box & Ambers Remi Sutton was quickest to react, steering the ball beyond the advancing Huffer to go into the break a goal to the good.
Cheshunt had to work hard in the second half, playing up and across the slope, they had to defend resolutely to keep the Hawks out. Botti, Borg & Jennings all had half chances, but the centre half pairing of Curran & Furlong won everything in the air & smothered anything central. Sutton & Granville at full back held up any attempts to get wide, and intercepted a lot of loose passes, to set the Ambers away up the hill.
The midfield trio of MJ Muyembe, Jack Thomas & Nathaniel Orafu constantly chased down giving Whitehawk no time to settle and Nalbant kept both home centre halves busy with his hold up play, bringing Vas Vasiliou & Jeremy Bisau into play. Bisau was replaced by the returning Sol Baugh, who in turn was replaced by Lordon Akolbire when an ankle injury forced Baugh to retire from the fray.
It was Akolbire who had the last say, urged by the Ambers fans to take the ball to the corner in the eight minutes of additional time being added, he did just that, drawing two Hawks in to challenge, rolls, step overs & feints followed before a pull spin & nutmeg set him clear and travelling goal ward along the bye-line, a quick look up & a short pass inside found Vasiliou advancing, and making no mistake to place the ball low inside the near post under pressure of a desperate challenge.
A fine win, clean sheet & three valuable points.