Ryman League Division One South
Whyteleafe 1 Chipstead 1
WHYTELEAFE and Chipstead played out an entertaining draw at Church Road tonight [Tuesday].
In a feisty local derby, that included a huge brawl, Dan Buckle opened the scoring with a rocket from 25-yards but Sam Clayton earned the home side a draw with his second half equaliser.
Played on wet artificial grass, the passing needed to be sharp as the ball quickly moved from end to end in the early exchanges, but without really testing either keeper.
And the opening goal came from nowhere with Dan Buckle firing past Sheikh Ceesay from distance to give the visitors the lead.
It looked like Leafe might have their equaliser after 16 minutes when the clinical Roscoe Dsane was put through on goal, but the Chipstead defence did just enough to allow Milan Stojsavljevic to save at the striker's feet.
New Chipstead signing Derek Tieku used his pace to his advantage just after the half hour mark but Ceesay did enough to put him off, with the ball ending up in the side netting.
But the ball was soon up the other end and after a dangerous ball in by Ryan Fowler, Steve Betancourt headed the ball out for a corner.
However, Chipstead were forced to make a change before the break, Betancourt taking a knock to the ankle and being replaced by Robert Webb.
The second half started at a similar pace with Tieku going close to robbing the ball from the feet of Ceesay within minutes of kick off.
With 55 minutes on the clock, things started to heat and a scuffle between Jensen Grant and Dan Buckle soon involved nearly every player on the pitch, but referee Simon Finnegan dealt with the situation sensibly.
The home side started to look more dangerous in the final third and not long after an over-weighted cross just evaded Elliott Thompson, then Leafe had their equaliser. With just over 20 minutes to play, substitute Sam Clayton skipped his way through the Chipstead defence before finding the back of the net.
With ten minutes to go, the Leafe crowd thought they had a winner when Greg Andrews free-kick ruffled the net, but picked the ball out of the side netting.
Both sides could have found a winner in the last few minutes with Chipstead having a penalty shout turned down and Leafe peppering Stojsavljevic's goal, but the score remained level.
