Noah Bercott on a disappointing away defeat for the Blues

Wingate & Finchley FC's 2024/25 squad photo — Wingate & Finchley’s 2024/25 squad – (Credit – Martin Addison)

Bognor Regis 2-1 Wingate & Finchley

Wingate & Finchley have been showing signs of continued improvements, including the rresounding 4-0 victory over Thame United in the FA Cup last week but, on a grey day in Bognor Regis, it just wasn’t meant to be.

The match started with Bognor dominating continuing on from their own 3-0 win the FA Cup last week. They had five chances in the first five minutes but did not trouble Charlie Grainger. Wingate’s first chance came in the 10th minute with Michael O’Donoghue crossing the ball to Ogo Obi who did not quite get the connection and the ball rolled wide.

After a few more chances for the home side, the Blues scored in the 30th minute through a corner taken by Luke Deslandes which was headed goalwards by Ben Frempah to Obi who redirected the ball past the keeper. The final 15 minutes of the first half were dominated by Bognor but again creating little of note to trouble Grainger in the Blues goal.

The North London side could have doubled the lead after the break when Deslandes was played through but found his one-on-one saved. Not long afterwards, Bognor scored a well-deserved goal in the 59th minute through a freekick on the edge of the box taken by their number 8 Matt Burgess, in which Tommy-Lee Higgs deflected the ball past goalkeeper Grainger and into the back of the net.

To make matters even worse, nine minutes later Andronicos Georgiou controversially received a second yellow card for supposed time wasting as Wingate were setting up an attacking free kick, and was sent off.

Surprisingly for the next 20 minutes or so Wingate looked to be to the dominant side, notably with an impressive shot from Obi towards the top right corner which the goalkeeper somehow flicked over the crossbar for a corner. The dominance came to end in the last minute of regulation time due to a dangerous cross and a well-timed header from Callum Barlow to give the home side the slender win.

The Blues will move on and look forward to next week when they play Cray Wanderers away at 1pm on the 14th of September in the FA Cup.

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