VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: OAKWOOD A vs NL RAIDERS A
"This was further proof to the indefatigable Oakwood spirit of Oakwood. DK and myself were immensely proud of all the boys.
Commenting on the decision, Blank told JC Sport: "In my many years of amateur football I've never seen anything like what happened when the referee sent off Jonny Blain after less than a minute. It was a huge, huge call. Jonny had rushed out of the box and was deemed to handle the ball deliberately. Martin gave the decision honestly and with consideration, but we felt it was incredibly harsh.
"The real coup for us that Dan Cohen had turned up to watch and Kristall had had the foresight to name him on the bench as our 16th man. We were so lucky to be able to call on such a great keeper 45 seconds into such a big game. So while we felt hard done by to be playing with 10, we could count our lucky stars that we weren’t hit with the double whammy of throwing an outfield player in net.
"So we had to play 90 minutes - plus the usual five minutes Raiders' injury time - with 10 men."
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Oakwood were "the better side in the first half," according to Blank. He added: "I genuinely believe Raiders were rattled by the fact we could call on DC. I can’t remember a single chance they had. On the flip-side, we were breaking forward effectively, with Sam Cantor causing the entire back four all sorts of problems."
The hosts forged ahead via the ever-dangerous Zack Collins. Dan Rose nearly had already come close on two occasions before Collins cut in from the left, beat three men and buried it into the far corner.
Oakwood saw the half out comfortably, with Raiders switching Liron Mannie from the left-hand side over to the right to get him more in the game.
In the second half the battle down the Raiders right between Liron and Lee Warner was absolutely magnificent to watch. The intensity and the fairness of the battle – it was top notch. Blank said: "We felt some of the Raiders players were going down too easily, especially when Kyle Bentwood got booked. They were trying to get another of our players sent off but fortunately Martin De La Fuente refereed those unseemly situations very well. But between Liron and Lee there was none of that gamesmanship, just two great players straining every sinew for their side. Liron gave everything but Warner refused to give in.
Oakwood looked comfortable at the back throughout but got caught out with one ball inside that was picked off. This allowed an extra Raiders midfielder to break into the box and Alex Moss buried the ball into the far corner in what was a great finish.
With 30 minutes left, Blank "was so proud of how we kept our heads, retained our composure and kept Raiders at bay. They knocked at the door but I can’t remember a clear-cut chance".
The closest either side came to scoring was Sam Cantor’s free-kick. It was a wonderful save from Jake Doffman – the ball looked destined for the corner. A winner would have been justice but it wasn’t to be.
Blank told JC Sport: "This was further proof to the indefatigable Oakwood spirit of Oakwood. DK and myself were immensely proud of all the boys.
"Overall we’re obviously disappointed to drop two points in a game we felt so confident of winning. I’m certain Raiders will realise what that game would have been like 11 v 11. But we will take the spirit shown in this game and do everything we can to go on a run now. Where it takes us, we will find out."
NLR boss Dan Shafron told JC Sport: "We were very poor for our standards and made extremely hard work of basic things. Too many parts of our game weren’t good enough.
"They scored from their only clear-cut opportunity which came from poor defending by us and we didn’t create enough chances ourselves. We had maybe two good opportunities to win the game late on but couldn’t put the ball in the net.
"I think it was all about who got the first goal. They got it and just defended their lead resiliently. If we got it, I’m sure we would have gone on to win the game but it wasn’t to be."
Commenting on the early red card, he added: "Regarding the sending off, from where I was standing it didn’t seem much and having watched the video back, it was very unfortunate for the Oakwood goalkeeper.
"We had a similar situation a few weeks ago, almost an identical scenario with Jake but we appreciate the referee only has a split moment to make a decision with no assistance and their decision is final.
"These things happen and Oakwood dealt with it very well. They restructured, sat very deep with everyone behind the ball and to their credit defended excellently and made it tough for us to break them down."
