The Dragons’ Reserve squad arrived at Concorde Stadium in good spirits after an unbeaten start to the season. However a tougher test was ahead, away to British Airways’ second team, senior reserve league toppers. They started tentatively with errors strewn across the back four and midfield in the opening moments. A long ball caught out the center halves and the striker ran in to put the home side one up. This seemed to wake up the Dragons and slowly but surely they began to retain possession and push forward. A deep cross found the young number 10 Louay Da Costa who’s air shot could have ended in embarrassment until he smashed the second attempt into the far corner. Kieran Cox and Ade Akerdolu were now in more dominant mood and provided the platform for Emmanuel Alexander and Goran Al Sourohi to control possession in midfield. However they struggled to create chances against a well marshalled BA back 4.
The second half was one dominated early by the referee, constantly punishing the away side with dangerous free kick awards. Keeper Joseph Muyanja was equal to each of them. They fell behind again on 65 minutes, Billy Maxwell caught on the ball in his own half led to a powerful drive which beat Muyanja. The coaches replaced the front two to give the BA defence a different kind of threat. Suddenly the west London boys were dominant and a terrific pass from Jack Lyons put Shegun Beckley clean through, he finished calmly and restored parity. With 5 minutes left they then pressed for the winner and after a Reiss Corr piledriver, Beckley smashed over the cross bar and he thought he had blown the chances of claiming all 3 points. Suddenly Maxwell burst onto the scene and delivered to Beckley who turned and scuffed a shot to the keeper, who, to the Dragons delight, proceeded to dive over the ball and let it trickle home. They saw out the final 2 minutes and enjoyed a really well earned and hard fought victory. FT 2-3