CRANBORNE 1 CHICKERELL UNITED 1

CHICKERELL United dropped two points in their latest outing in the Magna Dorset Premier League at Pennys Lane.

Poor defending allowed Cranborne to take an early lead and although the Chickens came back strong, they were unable to force a winner in the closing stages.

United boss Maurice Welch told Echosport: “It was not ideal as the last thing we wanted to do was drop points.

“With Hamworthy Rec-reation and Portland United drawing it was an opportunity missed to gain some ground and at the end we were obviously a bit disappointed.

“We went one down after 10 minutes and it was a poor goal to concede. The ball went straight down through the middle and we should have dealt with it.

“That is a couple of times this season where we have gone behind early and it is something we need to sort out.

“After that the rest of the first half was fairly even but despite creating a few chances we were still one down at half-time.

“We had a chat at the break and told the lads to raise their game and to be fair in the second half they were superb and we completely steam-rolled them.

“Tom Peck equalised and after that we really thought we would go on and win it.

“However we just couldn’t find the winner with Josh Why, Lee Pattison and Steve Welch all having chances but unable to put one away.

“All in all it was two points dropped really but take nothing away from Cranborne because they worked extremely hard throughout.”

The result leaves the Chickens sixth in the table, six points adrift of the top three.

Welch added: “When you give teams like that an early goal it gives them something to hold on to.

“We are still not settled at the back and you can see the confidence in that area is not great.

“At the moment we need to score two goals to win a game and it is something we need to work on – we will get there.”

Chickens: Boore, Lambert, Burton, D Welch, S Welch, Peck, Miles, Stewart, Connor (Beads 60), Pattison, Why. Sub not used: Tarnawski.