Callum Glen’s Moneys visited Ascot Racecourse on Saturday in hope of getting back to winning ways after the previous weekends loss to Hanworth Villa.

The opening 15 mins was a pretty cagey affair as both teams seemingly struggled to find their stride. Moneys had had the best chance when Tayo Singerr shot over from a Simba Mlambo cross.

It was however Ascot who got their noses infront after 17 minutes through Fope Deru. Deru unleashed a left foot curling shot which Malachi Osei-Owusu in the Moneys goal, athletically tipped onto the post. However bad luck struck as it bounced back off the post, onto Malachi and into the goal.

Moneys reacted well to going behind and never looked out of the game. Moneys’ captain Tom Cain had a brilliant chance, followed by a long range effort from James Franklyn that was tipped over for a corner by Ascot goalkeeper, Kie Plumley. That corner was then swung in by Faris Khallouqi and was glanced across the keeper by none other than defender Tom Jeffes. Moneys were back level on 32 minutes and that is how it stayed going into half time.

Half Time – Ascot United 1-1 Moneyfields

Moneys came out of the stalls definitely the better in the opening exchanges of the second half. A brilliant set of quick 1-touch passes from Max into Franko and then into Simba, saw him power a shot towards goal, but again Plumley tipped it over. TJ even nearly replicated his first off goal off of that corner, but this time his flick went just over.

Just before the hour mark, Adam Payce replaced Simba Mlambo.

Ascot grew back into the game and it almost had a cup-tie feel about it, with the action going end to end as both teams were seeking that go-ahead goal. Malachi had made another fantastic diving save off to his left this time, before just after an hour, Ascot re-took the lead. A great passing move from Ascot ended with Lucias Vine drilling the ball low across Malachi into his net for 2-1.

Not too long after the goal, more changes were made as Kieran Alcock and Tayo Singerr were replaced by Ibrahim Busari and Rudi Blankson.

Around the 70 minute mark, probably the clearest of chances fell to Faris. Some ping pong with the ball had it land at Faris’ feet and he drilled the ball low past the keeper, but an Ascot defender was there covering to clearly it quite literally off the line. It probably felt as good as scoring a goal for the defender as momentum seemed to swing the way of Ascot after that.

James Franklyn picked up a yellow card on 77 minutes for a foul that stopped a counter attack. Then shortly after another change as Lawrence Cooper replaced debutant Sonny Parkes who joined in the week on a dual-reg from Woking.

On 88 minutes, Ascot sealed all 3 points with a chip by Andrio Brandao.

In added time, Tom Jeffes found himself joining Franko in the referees notebook with just a yellow for an attempt at stopping a counter attack.

Full Time – Ascot United 3-1 Moneyfields

A tough day at the office for Moneys, where plenty of chances were created, but only the one taken, and ultimately that was the difference between the two sides on the day. Moneys drop to 5th, having played 16 games with 27 points and just inside the play-off spots still.