Eastbourne Town 4 Ashford Town 1
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
This was our first visit to Eastbourne Town FC, today’s hosts having been promoted as champions of the Sussex County League last season. But it wasn’t my first visit to the ground – The Saffrons – a well-known sporting venue which also used to host county cricket matches. I remember toddling off there in my youth, taking a train from Ashford, to see Kent play Sussex. One match that sticks in the mind included a savage century by Chris Cowdrey. I recall him bringing up his hundred by smashing the ball to the boundary. The ball went like a rocket, skimming along the green outfield. Once the generous applause had died down, I heard some old-timer, at the back, say: “Of course, his old man would have STROKED the ball to the boundary”. I felt sorry for the lad. What more could he do ?
I wonder if Mark Lovell ever feels the weight of his father’s shadow ? I wouldn’t put the Lovells in the same league as the Cowdrey Dynasty, but it’s true that Mark’s father, Steve, was a prolific striker for Gillingham, in the football league, as well as for Ashford, late in his career. Watching Mark play this season, I’ve often had the impression that he’s been over-shadowed enough by the excellent Paul Jones. One might compare it to seeing Tom Hanks resemble a piece of wood when on the same set as Sir Ian McKellern, (a proper actor). In every game I’ve seen, in which the pair have played, Paul Jones has looked comfortably the best striker on the pitch, with Mark barely noticeable.
But hang on a minute. Let’s look at the statistics - which never lie, of course (!?!). Let’s look at Mark’s excellent strike-rate of a goal every 178 minutes, which is second only to that of George Fenwick (a goal every 177 minutes), of the strikers who have played for Ashford in the past three seasons. Walid Matata isn’t that far behind, with a goal every 204 minutes in his Ashford career, but Jonah currently has the surprisingly modest return of a goal every 291 minutes, which is only slightly better than the strike-rate of midfielders Jimmy Bottle (304) and Danny Lye (308). So what does this tell us ? It certainly confirms that Lovesy knows where the goal is – and he is our joint-top goal-scorer this season, along with Walid, with seven goals, (although Mark has actually scored twelve times, including the five he scored for Dover). Another way of rationalising these figures is to point out that strikers tend to hunt in pairs, and Paul Jones has already acknowledged, in an interview, that he and Mark are developing a good playing relationship.
I must remember to try to use Eastbourne Town’s full name, given that there are no fewer than three teams in Eastbourne, the others being Eastbourne Borough, second in the Conference South, at the time of writing, and Eastbourne United Association, of the Sussex County League. Founded in 1881, Town is actually the oldest of the three. In fact, it is the oldest senior football club in Sussex. This creates a little coincidence, as Ashford’s next match will be against the oldest club in Kent - Cray Wanderers, (which is actually the second-oldest football club anywhere in the world, for that matter).
It’s been a fairly tough first season at Ryman League level for Eastbourne Town. At the start of today’s match, they were third from bottom, with 30 points from 31 games, having suffered their 15th league defeat of the season on Wednesday, at home to Chipstead – but, with Horsham YMCA seven points behind them, and bottom-placed Molesey a further nine points adrift, it seems unlikely that relegation will be an issue for them. With today’s three points lifting them up to fifth from bottom, they’re all but safe.
I’m actually quite pleased that we’ll be returning to The Saffrons next season, as I enjoyed my visit today. After a gruelling three-hour drive from Bedfordshire, it was a relief to find that there was a spacious bar available, with a kitchen that served proper food, and decent tea in china mugs. Our hosts should also be applauded for their excellent VFM – “That’s Value For Money”, as Jimmy Young used to say. Admission was only £5, the programme was £1 and we had two hot meals and a large mug of tea for £7. But the best thing about The Saffrons Bar today, though, was that it was awash with green & white-clad Ashford Town supporters, who swelled the attendance to a very respectable 228, and who, quite frankly, deserved a better performance from the playing staff this afternoon.
With this vast green area also accommodating hockey, cricket and croquet - (yes – croquet) – the footy pitch is at the Saffrons Road end of the complex. It’s probably unique in as much as it is the only football ground I have visited that has no seated accommodation at all for spectators. The only shelter to speak of is provided by a stand, which extends for the width of the pitch, that covers a narrow ribbon of terracing behind one goal. At the other end, there are cricket nets, whilst the sides of the pitch are bordered by a 6ft-high fence, which at least protected watchers from the strong, blustery wind today. The best feature of The Saffrons, however, is that it is easily the most picturesque ground in our division, having Eastbourne Town Hall, with its clock tower, the Law Courts and some beautiful and pricey-looking houses as a backdrop. I must say that, compared with the pallets and roll cages of Sittingbourne, and the huge fuel tanks of Ashford Town (Middx), it was like watching a game with the Taj Mahal in the background !
I’d like to describe the town centre of Eastbourne a little more, and give a fuller description of the chicken tikka curry I had for dinner – because it would delay having to mention the football. This was a puzzlingly poor performance by Ashford, and one that none of us had expected. The back four – normally very solid since the turn of the year – took turns in presenting Eastbourne Town with goals, with sloppy errors, (and the home side was actually quite impressive in punishing them each time). In spite of having plenty of possession, and applying plenty of pressure on the home goal, Ashford never caused Eastbourne’s goalie, Greg Nessling, to make a save during the match – when we did eventually score, it was a rubbish goal, and, on the only other occasion that Nessling was beaten, the ball struck an Eastbourne defender on the line. Jamie Riley also failed to make a save – oh, there was the one occasion, but the centre-forward nodded in the rebound.
It would be very tempting to write this off as just a “very bad day at the office”, during which the defence got all their errors out of their system in one go. I’m not so sure. What worries me is the similarity between today’s performance and a previous capitulation this year, at home to Walton & Hersham (which I didn’t see). What these two games had in common was the reshuffling of the defence, with Nicky Humphrey – excellent at right-back for the whole season – moving to centre-half, and Tony Browne coming in on the right. I fear the resulting shambles might not have been a coincidence.
The reason for today’s changes at the back was Lee Hockey’s absence, due to having an operation on his nose, which was broken at Burgess Hill. This meant that the back four (in a 4-4-2 formation), from right to left, read Browne, Humphrey, Ray (capt.) and Brathwaite. Jimmy Bottle was unavailable today, so Danny Lye retained the No.11 shirt, on the left side of midfield, with Anthony Hogg and Ryan Briggs in the centre, and Mitchell Sherwood on the right. With Paul Jones still out with a hamstring tear, and Rob Denness having now returned to Chatham Town, we’re left with just the two strikers in the first team squad – Walid Matata and Mark Lovell – which meant that Scott Penfold was called up from the Reserves to do some bench duty. It actually got better than that for young Scott, as Walid was a victim of train cancellations during his journey from London, so Ashford started with the front pairing of Penfold and Lovell – much to the delight of many of the travelling supporters, who have heard so much about the talent that is ripening nicely in the Reserves squad.
Scott was joined on the trip by Neil Manning, who has been impressing people with his performances in goal for the Ressies, with Sam Moore, who has previously acted as Jamie Riley’s under-study, playing today in the Reserves’ 1-2 defeat at home to Tunbridge Wells Reserves. Also on the Ashford bench were Aron Freeman, Nick Barnes and Walid Matata (who arrived just before kick-off). It was also good to see Paul Jones joining the lads on the bench, although there was no question of him being named as a sub. Jonah reckons that his hamstring has healed extremely well, and expects to be fit to return to action next Saturday, at home to the Met Police, with an outside chance that he might be OK to line up against Cray Wanderers on Tuesday. He was very generous in his praise for Club Physio Mo Alvi, who has done a great job in helping him back to fitness. The fact that Mo is a first class physiotherapist, and not just a man with a wet sponge, is one of many good things that the Club has going for it at the moment, and is one that is seldom mentioned.
Before Eastbourne scored, (in the 14th minute), things were looking OK. Ashford, playing in green & white, in deference to the home side’s strip of yellow shirts and royal blue shorts and sockies, passed the ball around, on an undulating and rather bumpy pitch, and had most of the possession during this period. Scott Penfold looked pretty much the part, on his debut – never coming across as a boy amongst men. Scott actually had a half-chance, as early as the second minute, when Mitch Sherwood fed a ball through to him, in the inside-right position. Scott’s cross-cum-shot went just over the bar, drawing an encouraging “oooooooo” from the noisy Ashford fans behind the goal.
So it was in the 14th minute that the St David’s Day massacre really began. Eastbourne’s opening goal was a swift and incisive blow. From Greg Nessling’s kick-out, the ball went straight to Gary Brockwell, in space, on the left flank. He cut inside, and drilled a right-foot shot into the far corner of the net. It found the seam of the net so precisely that it pinged straight out again, but the officials couldn’t help noticing that it had gone in ! I’ll hold my hands up, as I often do, and admit that I don’t know enough about football to judge the extent to which this was a brilliant piece of play by Brockwell, and the extent to which the full-back was at fault – but my instinct tells me that anyone with a coaching badge would point the finger at the Browne Dog, and say that he should’ve done better.
Eastbourne Town went 2-0 up after 20 minutes, (shortly after Mitch Sherwood was, rather harshly, I thought, booked for a late, but honest, tackle). This time, it was no surprise that it was the prolific Liam Baitup who got the goal. Baitup had scored 16 of his team’s 40 league goals, before today’s match, and looked an accomplished poacher this afternoon. (He was playing up front on his own this afternoon – so it was a bloody good job that Eastbourne didn’t play with two strikers !). The goal can really be attributed to a Nicky Humphrey gaff. Running back towards his own goal, trying to deal with a bouncing ball, Nicky chose the correct option in attempting to nod the ball back to Jamie Riley – but his header was woefully short, falling into the path of the ever-alert Baitup, who had no hesitation in smashing the ball into the net, with all the instinctive confidence of an in-form goal-scorer.
Humphrey did much better, two minutes later, when Simon Catt attempted to pounce on a long, lobbed ball, into the Ashford penalty area. Nicky got there ahead of him, and nodded the ball behind for a corner.
There were half-chances at both ends during the next ten minutes. First, Anthony Hogg had a weak shot, from outside the penalty area, which trickled wide, in the 26th minute; then Eastbourne’s Luke Denton pulled a shot well wide of goal, in the 29th minute. As the clock in the Town Hall chimed for 3.30pm, Ryan Briggs launched a long ball forward to Mark Lovell, in the inside-right channel, finding the ex-Dover striker in the penalty area – but the ball seemed to stick under Mark’s feet like a piece of chewing gum, and so ended his only note-worthy contribution of the afternoon.
The home side came a lot closer, in the 37th minute. Again, it was Gary Brockwell on the left wing, attacking Tony Browne, at pace. Brockwell unleashed a firm shot, which flew across the face of the Ashford goal. Jamie Riley watched the ball go past, but Liam Baitup probably wasn’t far away with an attempted diving header at the far post.
Ashford desperately needed a goal before half time, to get themselves into the game, and there was no shortage of attacking intent, with a sprinkling of corners and free-kicks. Tony Browne pushed forward, down the right, whenever possible. In the 39th minute, the Browne Dog led an attack, and his cross broke to Anthony Hogg, who pulled a shot, from outside the area, wide. In the 42nd minute, Daniel Brathwaite launched a long throw into the Eastbourne Town area, (in the absence of usual long-throw specialist Lee Hockey). The home defence failed to clear the ball, but Ashford also failed to get in a meaningful shot.
Shortly after, in the 43rd minute, the next defensive cock-up occurred, and it was once again an unforced error by an individual – this time it was Daniel Brathwaite. Daniel’s attempted upfield pass, from a couple of yards inside his own half, was charged down by Liam Baitup, who was suddenly all on his own, inside the Ashford area and behind the visitors’ defence. I began to text the message “3-0”, expecting Baitup to convert this one-on-one opportunity with ease, and it was probably the biggest surprise of the afternoon when he curled his effort just high and wide of the goal. So 2-0 at half time it was, but it should have been worse.
Steve Lovell’s response was to make a double-substitution at the start of the second half. He replaced Scott Penfold with Walid Matata, so ending Scott’s first-team adventure, and Anthony Hogg with Nick Barnes. (Hoggy came to Ashford from Sittingbourne with a considerable reputation, but I’ve yet to see him put in a telling performance). Barnesy took up a position on the right side of the midfield quartet, with Danny Lye moving into the centre and Mitch Sherwood switching to the left.
Ashford certainly made a bright, attacking start to the second period. Almost immediately, Mitch sent in a right-footed cross, from the left, and found Walid Matata, in the penalty area – but Walid’s shot was blocked, and went behind for a corner. Ryan Briggs delivered the cross, from the left, but Nessling made a good catch. In the 48th minute, Briggs took a corner on the right, but Walid Matata couldn’t quite rise high enough, and the ball merely skimmed off the top of his head.
Any hopes of an Ashford comeback were effectively snuffed out as early as the 51st minute, when a mistake by skipper Sean Ray enabled the home side to go 3-0 up, sapping any remaining morale in the process. Facing his own goal, and under pressure from Liam Baitup, Sean made what appeared to be an accomplished turn, which he often does so effectively – but this time Baitup robbed him of the ball, and squared it to John Piercy, on the edge of the area. Jamie Riley got plenty on Piercy’s low shot, but the ball forced its way under Jamie’s body, and into the net.
Two minutes later, Razor attempted to make amends for his error, when rising well to meet Ryan Briggs’s corner, from the right, but his header went well over the bar. Then, in the 54th minute, we witnessed another great piece of skill from Baitup. Coming deep to collect a forward pass from his defence, and closely marked by Nicky Humphrey, Baitup actually stepped over the ball, with Nicky buying the freehold on the dummy, in full and up front. As the defender let out a heart-felt cry of anguish, John Piercy was away, down the left wing. He bore down on the Ashford goal, into the penalty area, creating a clear-cut chance for a left-foot shot, but instead attempted something elaborate with his right, and poked the ball wide.
On the hour mark, a foul on Ryan Briggs gave the visitors an opportunity with a free-kick, a little way outside the penalty area. Nick Barnes went for goal with this, but his shot was deflected off the Eastbourne wall, and went behind for a corner. Again it was Ryan Briggs with the kick, which was headed clear, but only as far as Mitch Sherwood, on the edge of the area, whose well-struck shot beat Greg Nessling, but hit a yellow-shirted defender, on the line. The rebound popped up into the ‘keeper’s hands – which rather confirmed that it wasn’t going to be Ashford’s day today. Just a minute later, Ashford had another free-kick, just outside the area – a little closer to goal than the previous one – and this was taken by Ryan Briggs. This was actually a good effort by Ryan, but went just over the bar, meaning that the midfielder is still yet to open his account for Ashford.
We then had a lighter moment, in the 62nd minute. With Aron Freeman preparing to come on as Ashford’s third, and final, substitute, the “11” number board was held aloft. Mitch Sherwood dutifully trooped off towards the touchline, and was almost within hand-shaking distance of Freeman when he realised that he was wearing the No.7 shirt this afternoon ! So it was Danny Lye who was replaced, with Aron making a very welcome return to the side, after his groin injury and operation. He took up a position on the left of midfield, with Mitch going over to the left and Nick Barnes switching to the centre.
Aron always looks a quality player on the ball, but it wasn’t long before he was involved in yet another embarrassing mix-up at the back for Ashford. He and Daniel Brathwaite rather got in each other’s way, on the left edge of the penalty area, when in possession, and the ball broke to John Piercy. Piercy’s shot was actually saved by Jamie Riley, but the ball popped up in the air, and the prowling Liam Baitup was there to head it home, from close range. Unbelievably, it was now 4-0 to the team just one place above the relegation zone.
However, there was still one positive to be drawn out, even in this dark hour – the fair-sized knot of Ashford supporters behind the goal continued to sing. I suppose it’s possible to point to alcohol as being chiefly responsible for this unquenchable spirit, but I also reckon it’s a sure sign that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can dampen the spirits of the Town’s fans in this new world of boundless hope and optimism.
Eastbourne made their first substitution, in the 72nd minute, when Nima Cham was sent on in place of Simon Catt. Nicky Humphrey was yellow-carded for a foul in the centre circle, in the 79th minute, as Ashford’s players generally started to get tetchy, and argumentative with Referee “Ruth” Rendell – and then we got a consolation goal, in the 81st minute. Today, it seems, it was inevitable that this was going to be a crap goal. Aron Freeman won a corner, on the left, and Ryan Briggs swung a cross in, right under Greg Nessling’s crossbar. Walid Matata and Nicky Humphrey somehow managed to bundle the ball over the line, with Nicky just about getting the final touch, and being credited with his second goal of the season. This was the signal for Eastbourne’s John Piercy to be replaced by Peter Cooper – but this was hardly a panic measure. For the record, the home side made their final substitution, with a minute of normal time to go, when Liam Baitup made way for Steven Dallaway, but this was merely so that Baitup could receive some sort of ovation for his efforts.
Ryan Briggs had a couple of long-range shots – one in the 83rd minute, which went wide after a slight deflection, and one in the dying seconds, which he ballooned over the bar – and then the pain was over, as the ref blew the final whistle.
So it was a miserable March the 1st for Swansea-born Steve Lovell – and I’d better not grass him up by saying that he admitted to not knowing it was St David’s Day, as they’ll never let him back in to the Land of his Fathers ! Things might get more miserable for Steve if the lads play the same way against Cray Wanderers next Tuesday, as they’ll get the Mother of all shellackings. Cray extended their unbeaten run in the league to twenty games this afternoon, and are absolutely flying, playing some great football. Mr Lovell has been quoted as saying, on a couple of occasions recently, that he can see some team getting a good hiding soon. Another performance like the one we saw today, and it’ll be us ! (On the other hand, if our lads can play anywhere near as well as they did at Hayes Lane, earlier in the season, when we beat them 2-5, then it’s going to be a cracking match !).
There were few candidates for the Man of the Match medal among the Ashford team this afternoon, but it seemed a fairly straightforward decision to give it to Ryan Briggs. He at least showed some quality throughout the 90 minutes, running whatever show there was, in central midfield. More importantly, he gave his all, and was never tempted to hide. It’s actually quite tight for the Milton Keynes Bowl now. With four away trips still to come, there are now five players with two MoM awards in away games this season: Ryan Briggs, Jimmy Bottle, Nick Barnes, Paul Jones and Danny Lye. There are four men with one medal: Jamie Riley, Nicky Humphrey, Aron Freeman and Lee Hockey; (players who leave the Club before the end of the season, such as Rob Denness and Barry Gardner, become ineligible for The Bowl). There is a “tie breaker” already in place – in the event of a tie, the end-of-season award will go to the player appearing on the pitch for the most minutes, which puts Jimmy Bottle currently in pole position.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Ryan Briggs
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