Beavers fall to last-minute penalty

Beavers knew they were in for a tough afternoon on Saturday travelling to second-placed Chelmsford, who were unbeaten in their past eight games, writes Keith Hussey.

And it certainly proved that way in a testing first half, with Chelmsford targeting long balls to their version of Peter Crouch in Rob Edmans and his lively partner up front in Ricky Holmes.

However, the Beavers defence, led by skipper Dean Wells, and the hard-working midfield limited the number of efforts on goal, leaving Matt Lovett without too much to do.

At the other end, Hampton also found the going hard against a strong defence.

Craig Dundas broke down the right and whipped in a dangerous ball that the defender cleared before Dave Tarpey could apply a finish.

Perhaps the Beavers' best opportunity of the half came from a speculative volley from Stuart Lake, from 25 yards, on the half-hour that the keeper couldn’t hold at his first chance – however, he recovered just in time to claim ahead of the closing Dundas.

Wells was booked for a foul on Edmans. Fortunately, the resulting free kick from Lock went high.

Hampton nearly scored on the half-time whistle, with a Dundas flick-on falling to Tarpey, but his powerful strike went over the bar.

The second half was packed with talking points – the first being Chelmsford number four Ben Martin escaping with only a yellow card for raising hands to Tarpey after the two players had tussled.

Martin was in the action soon after with a powerful header from a City corner, but the ball was cleared.

Chris Robinson conceded a free-kick 25 yards out – and was booked, but Rainford's effort went wide.

Then Lovett was called into serious action. Livewire Holmes found some space to get away and put in a curling shot. Lovett was equal to it with a magnificent diving fingertip save to his left – tipping it on to the post.

Quashie came on for Karl Beckford and, when a Lake shot deflected away for a corner, Wells probably couldn’t believe the space he got in the area and his free header went over.

With 15 minutes to go, Hampton thought for all the world they had taken the lead.

Tarpey rolled a superbly weighted ball into the feet of Dundas, whose low strike looked goal-bound – but somehow Harrison’s outstretched foot deflected the ball away for a corner.

Immediately, the two combined again – this time, Dundas the provider as he beat the attentions of three defenders and lay the ball back to the waiting Tarpey. Again Harrison was equal to the strike on goal.

The two number 15s came on - Martin for Chelmsford and Joey Collewijn for Hampton.

Both were to have an impact – Martin somehow contrived to miss from five yards out when getting on to a low cross from the right hand side but managing to hit the post, when he should have scored.

With five minutes to play, Hampton had claims for a penalty. Collewijn flicked the ball over the top and Dundas ran through towards the City goal with only Harrison to beat.

As he entered the penalty area, that man Martin was involved again as he appeared to pull Dundas to ground.

Hampton's appeals were ignored by the referee and his assistant. A lan Devonshire was then sent to the stands for dissent.

Collewijn nearly nicked it with an injury-time header from a Louis-Rae Beadle corner but the game was settled with virtually the last kick of the game.

A throw-in from the left bounced into the Beavers penalty area and Rainford went down from contacts with Lake.

The referee immediately pointed to the spot.

Rainford hit a powerful penalty, giving Lovett no chance and, with only time to kick off before the final whistle went, City claimed all three points, leaving a brave Hampton performance unrewarded.

Hampton: 1 Matt Lovett 2 Chris Robinson 3 Luke Kanjor 4 Orlando Jeffrey 5 Karl Beckford (14 Ashley Quashie 6 Dean Wells (C) 7 Stuart Lake 8 Louis-Rae Beadle 9 Craig Dundas 10 Dave Tarpey (15 Joey Collewijn, 83) 11 Barrie Matthews

Unused subs: 12 Lawrence Yaku 16 Billy Witham

Referee: Robert Hyde (London)

Assistant referees: Ronald Albert (Catford) and Adam Bakalarz (Bromley)

Attendance: 1,020