The rain started early Saturday morning and persisted until an hour before kick off making Casuals ground 8 slippery for their opening fixture of 2016 against the somewhat unknown Rivercity Chiefs.
The Casuals keeper, Buck Buchanan, was unavailable so management gave a debut to reserve stopper G Unit Singh. Other new players for 2016 were Andy Gilberd, Paul Geezer Miller, Jordan Beech and Craig Thompson. The balance of the squad was back from 2015.
Casuals were quick out of the blocks and threatened – particularly down the left flank and it wasn’t long before winger Andy Gilberd sent a perfect cross in for Paul Miller to nod home. And not long later Geordie Steedman back from a series of injuries received a through ball, beat some bewildered players and slotted home.
But bad habits crept back for the Casuals. Sloppy marking saw a Chiefs midfielder given too much time on the ball and he lashed one home from 25 yards. Unstoppable.
Then the pacy Chiefs striker found space on the right and crossed for what appeared to be an offside colleague who tapped in at the far post.
As halftime approached the Casuals won a corner. Paul Maguire sent a teasing ball in which eluded the keeper. Russell Eades tried to ‘bollock’ it in – but it fell nicely to Cameron Dale who made no mistake whatsoever in making it 3-2.
Agonisingly from kick off Chiefs equalised to make it 3-3. Again a cross from the right was unfortunately deflected into his own net by Russell Eades. Had he not made contact the Chief behind him was patently offside. It seemed the Casuals may have been dealt another harsh blow.
The second half was quite even although the Casuals started to make their possession count and became more dangerous as the end neared. But again they were caught ball watching as the nimble Chiefs number 3 beat Singh as the Casuals fell asleep at the critical moment.
All was not lost. A perfect through ball from Jonathan Sykes sent Matt Roberts clear and he buried a sweet left foot drive to make it 4-4 – not long after rattling the newly painted crossbar.
A few late corners for the Casuals came to nothing and there was a scare when the Chiefs broke late but ref Mandy Musa whistled for full time with the honours even.
It was a decent performance all round from the Casuals. Andy Gilberd was strong on the ball, Brendan Haughian safe at the back, Cameron Dale quick on the break but man of the match was Geordie Steedman who defied a catalogue of injuries to put ion a sterling performance up front capping it off with a fine goal.
