Crookes United 2–2 Beeston AFC: a repeated sequence

Match report

Let the record show that Crookes United and Beeston AFC produced another 2–2, the second such scoreline between the sides this season, and the pattern was not subtle. Beeston, seventh and in good form, took the lead on Monday 17 August through Mensah Mensah-Boateng’s goal from a corner, Marco Sequeiros with the assist, and for five minutes the gap between twentieth and seventh looked exactly as wide as the table suggested. Crookes’ response arrived with a penalty, converted by Allan Cariri-Filho on the half-hour, a goal that mattered less for its construction than for its timing: it prevented the hosts from settling into the passive role their league position might have prescribed, and it handed a twentieth-placed side the foothold that an equalising penalty often provides.

The better evidence of intent came nine minutes later. Job Dekker-Bos finished from Joseph Brightwell’s pass, and Crookes went in at half-time with a lead their pre-match circumstances had not advertised. That they held it for twenty-seven second-half minutes was something, though Beeston’s equaliser had a certain inevitability given the source. Hiroki Horiguchi rose to meet another Sequeiros corner in the 72nd minute, the provider’s second assist of the afternoon, and the coda was a reminder that these two clubs keep returning to the same routes to goal.

Mensah-Boateng had scored in each of his previous three appearances, so his 25th-minute contribution was more continuation than surprise. Cariri-Filho’s penalty extended a modest scoring run of his own, though neither footnote altered the fundamental arithmetic: a draw keeps Crookes in the lower reaches and checks slightly the momentum of Beeston. The first meeting of the campaign finished 2–2 as well, which makes this less a result than a habit.

Both sides must now reset. Matchday 24 arrives tomorrow, 18 August, and if Monday’s evidence is anything to go by, the pattern may not change overnight, but the points are available to whoever breaks it first.