Wellsford Athletic 1–0 Stepney FC: the specialist strikes

Match report

Wellsford Athletic beat Stepney FC 1-0 at home on Thursday 20 August, keeping them third in the table on 44 points and nudging Stepney back to sixth on 41. The scoreline flatters nobody, but it flatters one team more than the other, and that is usually the point.

The first half was cooked low and slow. Both sides arrived in good nick, which translated into mutual suspicion rather than adventure. Stepney had the ball in the opening quarter-hour without ever finding the pass that would unlock the home defence. Wellsford sat, invited, and waited. At half-time the score was 0-0 and the vibe was that somebody would have to do something silly, or something brave.

Three minutes after the restart, somebody did something brave. Tatsuya Iijima found Adriano Crialese with a pass that split the Stepney lines, and Crialese finished with the calm of a man who had been practising exactly this moment since the 27th minute of his previous game. Look, his record is becoming a running joke: goals against Beeston, Pendle and Beeston, all in 1-0 or 2-0 wins, and now this. The Italian is a specialist in narrow margins. Honestly, I reckon he doesn't score hat-tricks. He scores the only goal, and then he stops.

Stepney huffed for an equaliser and got a near thing or two, but nothing that forced a proper scramble. The earlier meeting between these two finished 6-1, which made this a very different kind of afternoon: one goal, and endless patience.

Wellsford climb to 44 points and keep pace with the sides above. Stepney slide to 41 and will not have much time to dwell. So here's the thing, the calendar has no mercy: both go again tomorrow on Matchday 27, and there is no point in either dressing room staring at yesterday when the next kick is already wobbling towards them.