Stotfold 3-0 Maldon Town

Stotfold started this Chairman's Cup match with a slightly experimental line-up. Payne joined Davies, Lee and Bickerstaff in the back four, while Lamcraft and Simkins joined Hedley and Fitton in the midfield, resting our midfield engine, Clarke. Butina and Taylor started up front, and within 5 minutes, Taylor put through Butina who lobbed the advancing goalkeeper for 1-0. A few minutes later, Davies' long pass was 'controlled-down' by the side of Butina's face, he beat Maldon's defender to score a great goal from 12 yards. 2-0 and game as good as over. Howard came on for Butina, Clarke for Hedley and Phillips went back to his right back position. On a very wide pitch, Stotfold had complete control of the game, with Fitton and Payne attacking on the wings and supplying the balls for Taylor and Howard, but the score remained unchanged until half time. Such was the dominance of Stotfold during the first half, Farmer had only one save to make. Early in the second half saw Stotfold continuing their dominance, but too many long balls allowed Maldon to organise better and suddenly Stotfold had a lot of defending to do. Butina was brought back into attack and Stotfold settled with most of the action taking place in the Maldon's half. Finally, Butina put through Taylor to seal the game at 3-0. There were 5-6 other good chances for Fitton, Clarke and Butina but all went begging. This was a very solid performance by the whole team and another clean sheet for Stotfold puts them top of the Chairman's Cup Group, with maximum points after 3 games.