MATCH REPORT | Bedford Town 1-4 Wealdstone

A first-half brace from Max Kretzschmar secured a 4-1 victory against Bedford Town for Wealdstone on a sunny day at The New Eyrie.

The Stones dominated the ball against the Southern Premier Division side and came out of the blocks flying as Nathan Ferguson smacked the ball onto the post early on.

Despite their strong start, the Stones fell one goal behind when Conor Tomlinson scored a fantastic lob against the run of play, from 25 yards out. Bedford found confidence from their goal and one minute later Moriarty struck the bar for the hosts.

Wealdstone started to grow into the game and were finding success down the right wing through David Sesay. Two pinpoint balls into the box from the Sierra Leone international were failed to be converted by Olomola, who was looking lively in his second appearance for the club.

The pressure finally payed off on 34 minutes when Trialist B tapped in Olomola’s squared ball into the box to level the score. Just one minute later Olomola thought he had his first goal for the club but was unfortunately denied by the offside flag.

Just four minutes later the Stones went ahead when Kretzschmar scored his first goal for the club with a tidy finish into the bottom left corner. Kretzschmar doubled his tally and Wealdstone's advantage on 42 minutes when he got a slight touch on Dom Hutchinson’s curled ball into the box.

The Stones continued to dominate in the second half and substitute Jordy Mongoy was unlucky not to score when he saw his effort saved by Duffy and then fired his rebound over the bar.

Persistence payed off for Wealdstone on 75 minutes when Hutchinson tucked the ball through the keeper’s legs, following some fantastic link-up play with Tarryn Allarakhia.

As Bedford began to tire, the Stones continued to create chances with Allarakhia and Hutchinson continuing their link-up and both saw efforts saved by the Bedford keeper.

Stones are next in action Tuesday night when we travel to Essex to face Billericay Town for the penultimate game of pre-season in a 7:45PM Kick Off.

WEALDSTONE: Trialist A (Negraru 71), Hearn, Cook (c) (Trialist C 64), Habergham (Shrowder 64), Sesay, Charles (Young 64), Ferguson, Kretzschmar (Allarakhia 51), Hutchinson, Olomola (Napa 64), Trialist B (Mongoy 51).

Subs not used: Balogun, Mboglem.

Attendance: 175

Report by Will Beaman

Photo by Tia Thorne