Blueboys brush aside Amersham

SSML Division One

London Colney 5 Amersham Town 1

LONDON Colney brushed aside the cobwebs after a three-week hiatus with a 5-1 win over Amersham Town.

With regular No.1 Mark Whittamore unavailable the Blueboys handed a debut to 17-year-old goalkeeper Ben Ryan and the local youngster enjoyed a solid outing.

The league leaders were immediately into the stride with defender Andy Saul seeing an early header saved by Amersham stopper Perry Cheadle.

Matt Newman, who had an effort hacked off the line, and Bruce Hutchinson worked a one-two that saw the latter smash a shot against the crossbar and Greg Shaw saw a free kick cleared off the line by Aaron Morten.

The deadlock was eventually broken when Hutchinson flicked the ball on for Jim Warner who beat Cheadle with a fierce drive from 18 yards.

One became two just two minutes later when Warner collected Craig Knightley’s pass and sidestepped his marker before placing the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

The Blueboys ramped up the pressure on the visitors after the break and were rewarded with a third goal when Newman reacted quickest to turn the ball home after Cheadle had parried an effort from Warner.

Ryan Thompson’s side showed no signs of taking their foot of the pedal as Knightley, Newman and Hutchinson all tried and failed to add to Colney’s tally.

Thompson introduced recent signing Andy Murphy to freshen things up and the former Cockfosters forward had an immediate impact winning the ball in midfield and releasing Hutchinson. The midfielder’s effort was blocked by a defender but Newman was on hand to fire home from 14 yards.

Nick Baptine reduced the deficit for Amersham when he latched onto Ryan Forbes’ defence splitting pass to fire past Ryan.

The Blueboys had the last say though as Murphy and Newman combined to tee up Warner and he fired home to complete his hat-trick.

London Colney: Ryan; Thompson, McCafferty, Saul, Paradise (S Murphy), Sutton, Knightley (A Murphy), Shaw, Newman, Warner (Hudson), Hutchinson.

* Sebastian Thomas scored twice as the Reserves beat Langford 4-0. Johnny Armitt and Jacks Woods completed the scoring.

The Blueboys’ second string also picked up a point at Stotfold with Armitt again on target.

Yasin Boodhoo came within inches of handing London Colney Blues all three points from their clash with high-flying Belstone but his effort flew past the post as the game finished goalless.