Godalming Town 2 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
The third match of the 2008-9 season – the most eagerly-anticipated season since, well, since last season - took us to Godalming, in commuter-belt Surrey. So much hope. So much expectation.
Mind you, things felt a bit flat at half time down at Crowborough on Tuesday night – 2-0 down, and neither the Ashford fans, nor the Ashford players, could see where a goal was going to come from. The turning point in that game - and maybe, we thought at the time, the season - was our opening goal. From my distant, worm’s-eye view from the front of the stand, some 20 yards inside the Crowborough half, I could have sworn that it was Paul Jones who had forced the ball into the net, such was the determination and muscularity involved with that effort. Seconds later, I was surprised to discover that it was actually the diminutive Charlie Glyde who was the hero. Charlie is a slight figure – almost bird-like, compared to Jonah – but there was no denying him on this occasion.
Within twenty minutes, one goal became four, and Ashford’s lead never really looked threatened from that point, in spite of The Crows pulling a goal back, to make it a 3-4 scoreline. “All’s well that ends well”, and suddenly we were going to win the league again !
In case there are any anoraks in the house, Charlie Glyde has now performed the rare feat of scoring our first away goal, and our first goal in open play, two seasons running. Furthermore, with these two goals, in the 596 minutes he’s played in his two brief spells with the Club to date, Charlie’s goal-scoring rate is third only to that of Paul Jones and Mark Lovell, of the current squad of players.
So we found ourselves in fifth place in the table this morning, being one of only six teams to remain unbeaten after two matches. For the second time in as many meetings, (we came to Wey Court almost exactly two years ago, during Godalming Town’s debut season at this level), we found our hosts still looking for their first win of the season. Whilst they had managed a draw and a defeat from their opening two games this time, in 2006-7 they had mustered just the two points in six league matches, and were coming off an 8-1 shellacking away at Dulwich Hamlet.
Well, that didn’t stop them from beating us 3-0 on that occasion, so we weren’t going to be complacent today, were we ?
The good news was that, after a cool, wet Tuesday evening in Sussex, it was a very mild, mostly sunny, afternoon in Surrey. The bad news was that the M25 was absolutely chocker, meaning that we crawled all the way from the M1 to the A3. In spite of leaving Milton Keynes behind us a shade before 1pm, we managed to miss the first 35 minutes of the game, such is the current state of our road system – so my first match report since Good Friday actually turns out to be a report on half a game. (And, whilst I’m having a moan, I can’t believe that I’m being positive about it being “mild” in the middle of August !).
On arrival at the ground, having parked the car in the last feasible spot in Godalming Town’s tiny car park, I asked the lady with the cleavage on the turnstile for the score. “One-nil to us”, was the reply. No lightening of my mood yet, then. Walked up the sloping, tarmac path to pitch-side, to be greeted with a team sheet for both teams, and a lovely smile, from our Club Secretary. Mood much improved.
Quite an interesting line-up, with another change in formation. Steve Lovell went for a 4-5-1 today, with Paul Jones up front on his own, and our midfield rock, Ryan Briggs, being flanked by a youthful and pacy midfield – Charlie Glyde and Jimmy Bottle on his left, and James Humphreys (impressive on Tuesday) and Mitchell Sherwood on his right. With Lee Hockey still not fully fit, Steve once again paired Danny Lye with skipper Sean Ray in the centre of defence. Daniel Brathwaite, absent from Crowborough with a knock, returned at left-back, with Jimmy Elford at right-back and Jamie Riley in goal.
The substitutes’ bench included four players who were first-team regulars at Sittingbourne a little while ago: Lee Hockey, Bradley Spice, Andy Doerr and Anthony Hogg. Darren Ibrahim was present as substitute goalie. The one really notable absentee was Tony Browne, who didn’t make the sixteen. One man who did make the bench, though, was Alan Orsbourne, who filled in today as Sponge Man – this is the 50th role that Alan has performed for the Club.
So what do we think of having Paul Jones on his own up front ? I suppose the Manager needs to experiment a bit, now that the unfortunate injury to Mark Lovell, in the first game of the season, has put an end to the familiar Jones-Lovell partnership for the time being. (One wag rather unkindly referred to this partnership as “Jonah and The Whale” last season, but it’s no secret that, of all the strikers we’ve had at the Club in recent months, Paul prefers to play alongside Mark). My almost complete lack of football knowledge means that I’m not qualified to make a judgment on whether this a good system or not, but I noticed, in the ten minutes of the first half that I did manage to see, that Jimmy Bottle and Mitch Sherwood were pushing forward whenever possible, so it wasn’t necessarily a negative formation.
Other first impressions ? Well, I don’t like the new home strip. It’s the design made famous by Hibernian: bright emerald green shirts, white sleeves, white shorts and white socks with a few green hoops. I don’t mind us being like Hibs – but we’re also dressed the same as Whyteleafe this season, which is a different thing altogether. (We were in our home strip today because Godalming play in yellow and green, à la Norwich City, which is identical to Ashford’s new away strip, which was unveiled at Crowborough during the week). I was also struck by the excellent appearance of the pitch – it was like a lawn – but it was apparently a bit bumpier and bubblier than it looked.
What did I manage to find out about the bits I missed ? (I’ll catch up with the highlights on “Match of the Day”, tonight). Apparently, Ashford looked impressive in the first 15 minutes or so, but Godalming scored their goal in the 13th minute, and it sounds like it went downhill from there. From what I saw of the first half, our lads were trying to pass the ball around and play football, but there was plenty of giving the ball away.
There were a couple of occasions before half time when the home side could have gone further ahead. In the 41st minute, everyone seemed to stop in the Ashford defence – a “Magic Boomerang” moment – as a long, looping cross came over from the left. It found Richard Brightwell, beyond the far post, but the Gs’ No.8 rather froze himself, and side-footed the ball straight at Jamie Riley. On the second occasion, Ashford were not so lucky, as Godalming scored again, in the 45th minute, to take a 2-0 lead into the break. Some quick, short passing by the home side on the edge of the Ashford area put them through on goal, in a dangerous position, but Danny Lye came swiftly across with a saving clearance. The result was a corner, which was swung high, into the area. Kenny Ojukwu (that’s 56 points in Scrabble) rose, unchallenged, to head the ball down, and into the net.
As Referee Lavelle blew for half time, the realisation dawned that we’d now failed to register a first-half goal in three attempts – and we’d conceded the first goal in all three games to date, which is a stupid habit that we need to break as soon as possible.
Before moving on to the second half, there is one important announcement to make. (Ahem). In all the grounds we’ve visited following Ashford Town, from Banbury to Dover, and from Grantham to the Isle of Wight, this is the first place where there has been hot water, soap and soft towels in the Ladies’ Toilet. (I sincerely hope you all know that I’m indebted to Mrs Milton Keynes Correspondent for this snippet of information !). And this isn’t an entirely flippant remark. It reflects extremely well on Godalming FC, and they deserve a lot of credit for this. (Something else for Ashford Town to aspire to).
Nobody can say that Steve Lovell lets the grass grow under his feet, or that he’s afraid to change the system if it’s not working. After making a double-substitution in the 40th minute at Crowborough, Steve made two changes at half time. Lee Hockey replaced Danny Lye at the back, whilst Bradley Spice came on in place of Charlie Glyde, as Ashford reverted to a 4-4-2 set-up – and I hate to say it, but Bradley seemed to be as ineffective today as he was on Tuesday, (but it’s early days in his Ashford career).
Lee Hockey’s first act, in the opening seconds of the half, was to commit a foul in the centre circle – which shows that he hasn’t forgotten his job – but it was Godalming who were the first team to settle and press forward. In the opening minute of the half, Adam Haddad picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area, jinked to the right to beat Jimmy Elford, but then shot well wide. Seconds later, Ryan Briggs took a free-kick on the left, and looped it high, towards Sean Ray; Razor got up well, but was unable to make a clean contact, and the ball plopped, one bounce, into the arms of goalkeeper Matt Mann. The Ashford skipper was soon back in defence, snuffing out a Godalming attack, at the expense of a corner. This came to nothing, and Mitchell Sherwood picked the ball up in the right-back position, and launched a long, cross-field ball to Jimmy Bottle, in space. Jimmy held the ball up, and his eventual cross found Sherwood, who had charged on, down the right. Mitch squared the ball to Paul Jones, but Jonah’s sliced shot went high and wide.
Mitchell was on the ball again, in the 51st minute, and switched the ball left to
Jimmy Bottle, who again was in plenty of space, over on the left. Jimmy’s long cross to the far post found Mitch, whose angled shot went just past the post.
Ashford had plenty of possession in the second half, and passed the ball around well, but never threatened to make things click in the final third of the field. What we currently lack up front – and in most areas, come to think about it – is a potent aerial presence, (with Sean Ray being the one glorious exception), and there were plenty of occasions when promising positions came to nothing after they failed to find an Ashford head. A Ryan Briggs free-kick in the 54th minute failed to beat the first defender, and then, soon after, a long throw from long-throw specialist Lee Hockey only just failed to find Sean Ray, in the centre.
As more crosses and free-kicks, mostly from the left flank, were passed straight to the Godalming ‘keeper, Ashford finally managed a shot on target, in the 58th minute; Daniel Brathwaite played a one-two with young James Humphreys, but his shot was fairly comfortably saved by Mann.
Godalming made a couple of substitutions at about this time: James Mariner came on for Wes Hall, (who had bowled with great pace with the new ball), in the 56th minute, whilst Liam Pestle replaced Adam Haddad, three minutes later.
As the hour mark came and went, there was still little sign that Ashford would turn their decent share of possession into a goal, and a good passing movement ended, in the 65th minute, with Jimmy Bottle crossing the ball straight to the ‘keeper, again. In the 68th minute, a cross by Jimmy Elford, who didn’t do a lot wrong this afternoon, into the Godalming penalty area was headed clear; then a Ryan Briggs corner, on the right, was headed clear ……….. and then another was headed clear in the same way.
In the 71st minute, Godalming Manager Chuck Martini – I used the joke about his name sounding like it had come from a Leonard Rossiter vermouth commercial, two years ago, so I won’t regurgitate it now – made his final substitution, sending Bernard Asante on in place of Kenny Ojukwu. Two minutes later, Steve Lovell threw the dice for the final time, introducing Andy Doerr for Jimmy Bottle, making it a three-man attack.
But it made no difference, and Godalming always looked the more likely team to score next. In the 77th minute, Asante, with Jimmy Elford at his back, turned and shot, but his firm effort was comfortably saved by Jamie Riley, falling to his right. A minute later, two corners from the Gs’ Richard Brightwell came to nothing, but then, in the 80th minute, Ryan Briggs was slightly embarrassed for pace during a swift Godalming counter-attack down the right wing. The resulting cross found Brahim Eloumani on the left side of the Ashford penalty area, but he shot just wide.
As time ebbed away, Ashford continued to press forward. A deep Ryan Briggs cross, from a corner on the right, in the 81st minute, was bravely punched clear by Matt Mann, as the big Ashford defenders came steaming in. Two minutes later, a Briggo free-kick, from the left, was headed clear. In the 85th minute, seconds after Sean Ray had got away, scot free, with the most blatant block you’re ever likely to see, a good, long-range shot from Briggs was well caught by Mann, who saw it all the way. Two minutes later, Bradley Spice spread the ball wide to Daniel Brathwaite, who crossed the ball straight to the ‘keeper. Daniel soon had another chance to deliver the ball into the centre, and, with a turn and cross, which was a great piece of skill, he narrowly failed to find the head of Sean Ray. The ball fell to Mitch Sherwood, at the far post, but the ball was bundled behind for a corner – which was cleared.
During the final five minutes, Ray played virtually as a (fourth) centre-forward, but it was to no avail. In fact, with victory assured, Godalming had chances to score a few more goals in injury time, but an extension of their lead would probably have flattered them. With 91 minutes showing on the electronic scoreboard, the ball was poked past the Ashford back line, which was now very high up the pitch, into the path of Bernard Asante, who stabbed the ball past Jamie Riley, but also wide of the post. Asante was again put through on goal, just seconds later, but he rather panicked and snatched at the opportunity, and put the ball well wide. However, the best chance of the lot came in the 94th minute. With Jamie Riley going across to cover his near post, Brahim Eloumani pulled the ball back to substitute Liam Pestle, who somehow managed to miss the empty net, from about ten yards.
So the final score was 2-0, in front of a crowd of 104, a good number of whom were supporting the green & white. Probably the most worrying aspect of today’s game was the fact that an Ashford goal was hard to imagine, unless it was going to come from a Sean Ray header. We looked potent going forward during that four-goal twenty-minute spell at Crowborough – but it’s the other 250 minutes without a goal in open play that concerns me ! There was a bit of a consensus among the faithful after the game that we’re really missing Mark Lovell – whale or no whale ! He was the forward in goal-scoring form during pre-season – but, more than that, we badly need someone who can win the odd ball in the air, and hold the ball up, in the forward line.
Man of the Second Half
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Jimmy Elford
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