Report

A bitterly cold and foggy morning in Saffron Walden saw Milton record a narrow but vital win against a stubborn Saffron Walden team that weathered an early storm, rode their luck and benefitted from some goalkeeping heroics.

Anybody who watched the first twenty minutes of this match would have laid good money on the final score being decisively in Milton’s favour. By that time Milton were one up and had missed a host of chances.

For that whole period the ball hardly left the Saffron Walden half as Milton dominated possession. The goal came after 8 minutes, when Joe collected a cross-field ball from Remi on the right, hit the goal line and played a perfect low cross that Jack converted from close range. Before that Shaun had already hit the back stantion with a shot from the left. Not long after the goal Aiden twice found himself one on one with the keeper who saved the first and got enough on the second to mean that a defender could get back and clear the ball as it trickled goalwards.

But as the half wore on Saffron Walden began to grow in confidence, and while Milton still dominated possession the chances seemed to dry up. When they did arise they were either wasted or the keeper came out on top. Adden, on as sub after 25 minutes, immediately forced a save from the keeper one on one, and as the last act of the half Aiden missed another gilt-edged chance when played in on goal, missing both keeper and target.

Milton are often a second half team, but on this occasion hopes of an improvement in the second half came to nothing. Early in the half Adden spurned two more chances, getting behind the defence on the right but failing to hit the target. Milton were living dangerously as demonstrated when Ben W was penalised for handball on 55 minutes, perilously close to the edge of his own penalty area. Fortunately for Milton the free kick was lofted over the bar.

A couple of minutes later Jack had a close range shot from a corner that was blocked by a fine save, and a goalmouth melee ensued – one of those mass hacking exercises where neither strikers nor defenders seem able to get a decisive touch. In the end the ball was cleared to safety.

After this Milton endured a sterile 15 minutes with no chances to speak of until Joe managed a heroic burst down the left and low cross which just eluded the strikers and was cleared for a corner, from which Jack again saw his shot saved on the line by a keeper who was definitely earning himself a well-deserved hot lunch.

The risk of hanging on at one-nil was underlined with a few minutes still on the clock, when saffron Walden mustered a low cross shot from the left. The previously largely redundant Munja in goal seemed to get stuck in the goal mouth mud and ended up just desperately scrambling the ball round the post for a corner.

The last act of the match summed up Milton’s morning as a fine one-two between Sam and Adden saw Sam clean through on goal at a medium angle from the right, but he pulled his shot across the face of the goal.