Home finale ends in victory

With the season's end drawing near, and a summer to look forward to, Cambridge City played their last home fixture of the season when they entertained a Sporting Bengal United team who were already destined for the drop.

City were hoping to bounce back from defeat to Walthamstow on Saturday and they played a team who had conceded 20 goals in their last 4 matches. Sporting Bengal United were playing at step 4 of the National System for the first time ever, and it showed that they were not quite up to scratch at this level, the team having lost their last 6 matches and scoring just twice in that period.

City had beaten their opponents 5-0 in their Boxing day meeting against the Bengal Tigers, so the City faithful were secretly expecting another 3 points against the team who have the worst away record in the league, Maldon & Tiptree being the only team that Sporting Bengal had beaten on the road.

With the match underway it didn't take long for the Lilywhites to cause immediate problems for Sporting Bengal's defence. One minute in, Jack Thompson and Alfie Mason played neatly on the left-hand side, Freddy Tandon did well to get between Mason and the goal but a miss-kick from Tandon very nearly fell to Ramiah Mills; the Sporting Bengal team breathing a sigh of relief when Mills failed to capitalise on the advantage.

There wasn't much to shout about for a few minutes after that, until the 12th minute when captain Jamie Dicks and Thompson played through Mills, the striker got upended and Dicks then fired the free-kick over the crossbar, Laurence Whymark was relieved to see the effort get wasted.

Thompson then came through the centre, passed to Giani Ashley, who then crossed but neither Mills nor Jamie Cureton, who was making his first start since becoming manager, could not score.

The Lilywhites then had another free-kick opportunity which Jayden Gipson connected with to lob on towards Ed Tassell, who's looped header was saved by Whymark in the Sporting Bengal goal. Sporting Bengal then went on the counter to send Neil Spencer towards the vicinity of the goal, Alfie Mason coming to the rescue to shoo away the danger.

Mason was then on hand at the other end to almost give City the lead when he latched onto a long pass and his outside of the boot effort struck the inside of the post and Sporting Bengal were fortunate to survive.

Myles Dominique wasted a free-kick for Sporting Bengal after 36 minutes, which was then followed up an effort from Codey Cosgrave to shoot wide after neat footwork by both Thompson and Mason which allowed Cosgrave to take the chance.

But then, just a minute later, Sporting Bengal had their big chance. Neil Spencer found himself on his own and bearing down on goal, but the Sporting Bengal striker let his nerves get the better of him and he rolled his effort marginally wide of the post.

There was just enough time for Thompson to miss a chance and then Mason to force Whymark to punch away a free-kick before the referee brought the 1st half to a close.

City looked to bring their positive first half performance into the second half, and it only took 4 second half minutes for Mills to take control of the ball on the right. He then delivered a perfect cross towards Jamie Cureton, but the player-manager's shot was blocked on the line by the increasingly lucky Whymark.

Ashley and Thompson combined well to find Mason at the far post; the left-back scuffing his shot wide of the post, and then Junior Mubiayi and Mills worked together to find Ashley, who's blocked cross seemed to add to City's frustration.

Sporting Bengal's defence was already looking sloppy and Timi Joseph added to their already bleak situation when he procrastinated with the ball which let Ashley in to dispossess the defender. The cross didn't find it's mark but the ball eventually landed at Mubiayi's feet, the striker fired his shot wide but it took a slight touch on the way out resulting in a corner that Sporting Bengal dealt with comfortably.

With one hour played, Mills collected a pass from Mubiayi and then sent a pass into Thompson's feet. The midfielder then weaved himself into the penalty area and sent a left-foot shot crashing onto the crossbar.

After sustained City pressure, Sporting Bengal took another chance to score on a counterattack when Dominique managed to find a cross-field pass into Spencer's feet but Sporting Bengal's no.7's shot wasn't enough to trouble James Philp in the City goal.

Mason then passed through Mills, who then gave it back to Mason but his shot was blocked. But a minute later, Mason played through Mills again to beat the offside trap. Mills ran through but his effort struck the post. This time, however, Codey Cosgrave came running onto the rebound; the midfielder thumping his side into the lead in the 73rd minute.

3 minutes after the goal, Sporting Bengal nearly had the perfect response when Keanu Hill threaded through Daniel Balogun into the area. Philp made the save to preserve the clean sheet, which was then followed up by an effort from Spencer that was blasted over the bar.

With 10 minutes left, Cosgrave appealed for a penalty that was waved away by the referee, then Thompson crossed tantalisingly towards the far post but Whymark stopped the chance from producing a goal.

As the end approached, City had a few more chances to double their lead. Cosgrave thought he was going to notch his second goal of the game, but Cureton stuck out a leg and deflected his teammate's effort over the crossbar. Cosgrave then scored an Olympic goal but the referee awarded a free-kick to Sporting Bengal. Mills then took a throw which hung in the air for Cureton to attempt an overhead kick which flew miles over the bar.

After Sporting Bengal tried, unsuccessfully, to find an equaliser, City held on to win their 16th match of the season, in doing so, doubling the amount of wins from last term.

Connor Taylor-Creek