Glenn Boosey’s stunning 30-yard strike failed to prove decisive in giving Corinthian-Casuals all three points as a late equaliser from Hicham Akhazzan rescued a point for Sittingbourne, writes Greg Keane.
Boosey was looking lively from the start and on 14 minutes, after good link-up play between Saheed Sankoh and Murray-Price on the Casuals right, the ball found its way to Boosey 35-yards from goal.
With the Sittingbourne defenders backing-off, Boosey needed no further encouragement to shoot and after a couple of strides forward, he let loose with a swirling 30-yard rocket which rifled into the keepers top right hand corner.
Despite this early moment of magic, it failed to inspire either side for the rest of the half with Casuals seemingly happy to sit back and Sittingbourne’s toothless attack unsuccessfully managing to muster up a single chance against a solid Casuals back-line, aided by new arrival Wayne Finnie, fresh from Kingstonian.
As soon as the second half commenced, Casuals' task could have been made easier when an on-rushing Murray-Price forced the Sittingbourne keeper to kick the ball against his own defender - with the ball travelling backwards into his own net, the ball was cleared off the line by the Brickies defender.
This close call seemed to rejuvenate Casuals somewhat and encouraged them to look for that all important second and killer goal.
A header from Finnie on 52 minutes grazed the outside of the post from a Boosey corner.
Two minutes later, Boosey found Jamal Carr on the left of the Sittingbourne box, whose cross almost found Murray-Price, but he just failed to get a proper connection on the ball to send it past the keeper.
It took until the 65th minute for Sittingbourne to register their first shot on target forcing Matt Mann to make his first save in the Casuals goal, however Casuals still looked most likely thereafter.
Murray-Price found space in the box on 70 minutes but his curling effort ended up a yard wide past the post and Murray-Price again sent an effort inches wide after being found from a Boosey corner on 73 minutes.
Then, against the run of play Sittingbourne equalised on 76 minutes.
A long throw caused mayhem in the Casual’s box and the ball wormed its way to Akhazzan who struck sweetly past Matt Mann, low towards Mann’s left.
The game finished all-square with Sittingbourne undoubtedly the happier of the two sides to come away with a point.
Corinthian-Casuals: Matt Mann, Luke Gay, Tom Jelly, Wayne Finnie, Scott Hassell, Scott Corbett, Saheed Sankoh, Tyrone Myton, Carlton Murray-Price (Wesley Harrison), Glenn Boosey (Nicky Ogbanufe), Jamal Carr SUBS NOT USED: Matthews, Hennessy, Sergeant
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