Narrow 2-3 loss for Ongar Town against Stortford Swifts

Ongar Town lost their first game of the season in a hard fought match at the Fortress against a good Stortford Swifts side.

The Town raced into yet another early lead fully 30 seconds into the game when Blair raced into a good through ball and lobbed the advancing away Keeper to open the scoring. Rather than this being the catalyst for Ongar to grow into the game and put pressure on their EOFL Premier opposition, it proved otherwise and coupled with poor decision making and defensive errors Ongar found themselves 3-1 down after 25 minutes and starring down the barrel of their first home defeat in 30 or so games.. Blair made the deficit 2-3 after 30 minutes and a few more chances were squandered by the home team to level before half time but to no avail, so the home team went in at the break 3-2 down.

Second half started in similar fashion as end of the first half with Ongar really pushing for an equaliser and pinning the away team in their own half for long periods of the half and the away goal keeper pulling off a fine double save from Blair again to deny him his hat trick and a brilliant one on one save from Tom Leach after a brilliant mazy run from the half way line going past at least 6 defenders before being foiled by the keepers legs..

Ongar had the ball in the net on 75 mins, only for the referee to wave play on and No goal after Lilly had a shot that clearly was in from all angles.. The away side were now being dominated and clearly hanging on for a result to get them through to next round.. but The Town kept coming at them and with only 5 minutes left, Jack Zielinski looped a brilliant header back over the advancing goal keeper to make it 3-3.. Only for the away team linesman to raise his arm to signal for offside, a decision that didn’t go down well with the home team or their support..

The game finished 3-2, with the away side advancing to the next round leaving Ongar Town rueing some silly defensive mistakes and a lot of missed opportunities in front of goal.. Congrats to Bishop's Stortford Swifts.