Merstham v Ashford Town. Ryman Division One South. 28th of October 2008.

Merstham 1 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

I don’t like to begin match reports with a meteorological bulletin – as there are currently more important issues to discuss – but we’ve already had a wide range of weather conditions in which to watch footy this season. For four consecutive away games, we’ve lounged in the sun at Imber Court, sheltered from a bitingly cold westerly in Great Wakering, sunbathed again at Hayes Lane and then, last night, frozen our balls off at the Moatside, Merstham. In fact, as we got into the car at 5pm yesterday, it was snowing in Milton Keynes. Not sleeting – snowing, with the largest snowflakes I’ve seen for a long time.

There was a constant mix of rain, snow and sleet for the outward and return journeys to Merstham, a small town that is squeezed into the angle between the M25 and M23 motorways, to the South of “La Périférique”. Worst hit by the elements was the Hertfordshire area, where the snow had clearly started to lay in the fields as we passed through on the way home. I later discovered that the scheduled match at Boreham Wood had been postponed because of “snow / flooded pitch”, whilst the game at Cheshunt was abandoned after 75 minutes.

Strangely, it stayed dry for the duration of our game – it was just bloody freezing. There was also little to warm our heart on the field, as this was a poor game of football – simply because both sides performed poorly, with errors from individuals all over the pitch. Merstham might have had an excuse of sorts, as their line-up was, according to one of their fans, a little depleted – they were certainly without their skipper, Craig Vernon – but Steve Lovell appeared to have the strongest side available to him. Josh Willis, who we must consider to be Ashford’s first-choice goalkeeper, (on the grounds that he has only missed games, since his debut, when he has been unavailable for some reason), was in goal. In a simple, 4-4-2 formation, we had Jimmy Elford at right-back, Daniel Brathwaite in his birth-position of left-back, and a central defensive pairing of captain Sean Ray and Folkestone Invicta refugee Craig Wilkins. Danny Lye returned in central defence, alongside the hard-working Ryan Briggs – with Anthony Hogg, who had been widely slated for his performance on Saturday, nowhere to be seen, (which may or may not be significant). As has become the norm recently, it was Tony Browne on the right side of midfield – playing wide, and well upfield – but Charlie Glyde started on the left, in place of the out-of-form Mitchell Sherwood. It’s been a strange season for Mitch – he started off with seven goals in the first seven games, but has failed to score since, and he was certainly due for a rest. Up front, there was Paul Jones and Claude Seanla – as good a pairing as any team could hope for at this level, but they failed to make an impression yesterday evening.

In fact, this was a 0-0 draw in all bar the scoreline – the home side sneaked off with the massive reward of all three points thanks to a defensive aberration by Jimmy Elford in the second half, which spoilt an otherwise very solid performance from Ashford’s back five. Nevertheless, this slight injustice shouldn’t mask the fact that we failed to make any impression on a Merstham side that was clearly not at its best. The Moatsiders are no mugs – they started the game in eighth place, one above us, and are enjoying their first season at this level of the pyramid thanks to a dominant performance in becoming Champions of the Combined Counties League in 2007-8 – but, to use a tired old expression, “we need to be beating these teams”, if we have ambitions to make the play-offs.

Merstham FC is one of a number of clubs that has risen to Step 4 status during the recent expansion of the base of the non-league football pyramid. Moatside is a tidy little ground, which is rather hemmed in on all sides of a square patch of land within a residential area whose streets and pavements provide just about the only car parking facility. There is an attractive, red-roofed clubhouse, and a new-looking stand with black and amber seats, on one side of the ground, and a dinky little standing-only stand behind one goal, and a much larger structure, with a roof extending for the width of the pitch, behind the other. They don’t get huge crowds here; the average so far this season is 146, and that includes last night’s attendance of 102. This is comfortably the smallest of the season for them, and it would have been very thin indeed if it had not been for another healthy turn-out of Ashford supporters.

The traveling fans did their level best to lift the team, with plenty of vocal support from behind the goal, but their efforts were unrewarded. Actually, there was no question of a lack of effort on the pitch being the issue. I can’t think of any of the lads who started not appearing to give 100% - and the three substitutes used by Steve Lovell entered the contest too late to make an impression. It was a lack of quality, or a lack of know-how, that was our undoing. As I’ve previously suggested, it was in Merstham’s half of the field that we were lacking, as the defence mostly looked secure, with Craig Wilkins, in his second game since signing from beleagured Folkestone, looking a class act on the ball. The only real moment of uncertainty at the back came in the second minute, when Josh Willis hesitated when coming out to intercept a long through-ball. This indecision allowed Kevin Lock to nip in between Josh and Daniel Brathwaite, getting to the ball before the ‘keeper, but his lob went just wide of the angle between post and bar. Josh’s momentum caused him to collide with the Merstham striker, just outside the area, but this resulted in nothing worse than a free-kick which came to nothing.

Both teams started at a fast pace, but both also favoured the early long ball during the opening quarter of an hour – so there was no attempt to blind each other with science last night. Unsurprisingly, given Ashford’s lack of real aerial presence up front, this resulted in few chances being created for the visitors, who turned out in their home strip of green & white, à la Hibernian, in contrast to Merstham’s amber & black striped shirts, black shorts and amber sockies. The other tactic employed by Ashford was to try to exploit Tony Browne’s pace down the right. There’s no doubt that the Brown Dog is a tremendous athlete, but he’s not a natural right-winger, and largely failed to provide the service required. The one occasion when he did succeed in putting in a dangerous cross, was in the fourth minute. A long-range one-two with Paul Jones provided him with some space down the right flank, and his cross found Claude Seanla, well beyond the far post. Claude attempted an ambitious volley, which would have been the Goal of the Season if it had gone in, but the ball went high and wide, and (not for the last time yesterday evening) ended up in somebody’s garden.

Danny Lye made a difference in midfield, on his return from injury. Although he probably tired a little, before being substituted in the 80th minute, he showed the ability to win the ball, both in the air and on the ground. In the 15th minute, as the Moatsiders looked to come forward, Danny won the ball with an excellent tackle, mid-way inside the home side’s half. He turned and carried it infield, and sent in a firm, left-footed shot; this was straight at ‘keeper Ian Chatfield, but the effort certainly injected some urgency into the team’s performance.

By this time, the game had settled down a little, and Ashford, in particular, were starting to pass the ball around. However, there was still no way through or around the Merstham defence, and, in the 31st minute, after two successive corners had come to nothing, the Moatsiders counter-attacked. This resulted in a hard shot being sent in from the right wing, but Josh did well to beat the ball away with his fists, Spanish goalie style.

The only other incident of note to report from the first half was a free-kick in a dangerous position just outside the penalty area for the home side. This came about when Kwabena Agyei – the spellchecker goes mad ! – latched onto a through-ball just ahead of Josh Willis, who had raced out of his area in an attempt to intercept. Agyei poked the ball past the ‘keeper, whose momentum caused him to collide with the big striker, resulting in a yellow card for Josh. On another day, the colour of the card might have been red, but I think the (Kentish) referee got this one right, (as he did most things last night), as there was no intention to commit a foul. This provided Merstham with the best opportunity of the half for either side, but it came to nothing, so the teams trooped in at the interval with the score at 0-0.

Merstham made one change at half time – Leon Wallace replaced Michael Morgan. I assume that this was due to injury, since Morgan looked to be the one man in stripes who might trouble the Ashford defence, showing a willingness to move forward with the ball. Something else that I noticed at the start of the second half was that there was one entry to be made to The Pink Report – and I’m ashamed to say that the man to put on report was one of ours. I don’t know how to put this, so I might as well come straight out with it – Daniel Brathwaite was wearing gloves. In fact, he was also wearing a dark blue, long-sleeved T-shirt under his footy shirt. It might be OK in the Premiership, but it’s not acceptable at this level, Daniel. I’ll keep you all posted on Daniel’s future conduct.

There continued to be very little created by either side, in the second half, with the most likely source of a goal appearing to be from a corner – if only because both sides had a whole succession of them. Merstham had three corners in succession, in the 51st minute – first from the left, then from the right and then from the left again. All three were taken by Kevin Lock - so there was no chance of him getting cold on a chill evening – but Ashford were strong in the centre of defence, and repelled each assault on the six-yard box. Merstham came closest with the third of these corners, which found Chris Boulter beyond the far post, but the tall centre-back hoofed the ball wide – into somebody’s garden.

Ashford’s main threat from corners was supplied by Charlie Glyde, who whipped in some dangerous left-footed crosses from the right. In the 54th minute, Charlie supplied a similar cross from a free-kick, from near the right touchline. This found Claude Seanla, in the penalty area, but Claude’s first-time shot was blocked. The ball fell to Paul Jones, but Jonah blasted wide from close range. We had another chance a minute later, when Danny Lye managed to get into the penalty area and on the end of a Daniel Brathwaite cross, but his glancing header went wide of the far post. (Actually, how often this season have we seen an Ashford Town midfielder have an attempt on goal, from inside the opposition’s penalty area, in open play ?!).

Both of our strikers worked hard tonight, but with nothing coming off for them, and, although I’ve seen reports that Paul Jones and Claude Seanla are beginning to develop an understanding, I didn’t see much evidence of that last night – in fact, to my untrained eye, they seemed to be playing too far apart. Paul was just a little ring-rusty, following his short break from the game to get married and go on honeymoon, but looked the more likely of the two to break the deadlock. In the 59th minute, he ran onto a through-ball from Ryan Briggs, in the inside-right channel, but planted his shot, from about twelve yards out, into the side-netting. Then, in the 61st minute, he led a break out of defence, in a move that also involved Tony Browne and Claude Seanla. This ended with the Merstham defence conceding a corner, on the right, and this was one of those that Charlie Glyde curled into the box, right under Ian Chatfield’s cross-bar. The tactic was obvious – to take advantage of Sean Ray’s powerful presence, in a dangerous area – so Steve Lovell can’t be accused of being shy about trying to “win ugly” ! On this occasion, Sean got on the end of the cross, but his downward header was blocked on the line, and cleared. Razor is still looking for his first goal of the season, having scored three goals last season.

A minute later, it all went wrong. Jimmy Elford, who had otherwise had a good game, put an attempted back-pass into the path of Kwabena Agyei, who calmly slotted the ball past Josh Willis, and into the far corner of the net. It was the moment that robbed us of the consolation of earning a point from a tepid, but fairly solid, performance. It was also the moment that sent us plunging to 14th place in the league table, with the two teams immediately behind us having games in hand, and that lifted Merstham up to fifth, which, on the balance of the results they have achieved so far this season, they thoroughly deserve.

Ashford tried hard to force an equaliser – and there were more corners – but never looked like beating the pink-shirted Ian Chatfield. Ryan Briggs attempted a long-range shot at him, in the 70th minute, and Tony Browne sent in a good, low shot, in the 76th minute, after Paul Jones had set the ball up for him, but Chatfield didn’t have to move far to make the save on both occasions. It was actually the home side that came closest to scoring a second goal, and this was an attempt of real quality by Kevin Lock. He moved with the ball through the midfield area, in the 77th minute, and hammered a shot, from just outside the area, which crashed against Josh Willis’s crossbar.

When they came, Steve Lovell’s substitutions appeared to be too late for any impact to be made. In the 80th minute, there was the double-substitution of James Humphries and Mitchell Sherwood for Danny Lye and Charlie Glyde, in a straight swap, in both cases; then, four minutes later, there was the replacement of full-back Jimmy Elford with a third striker in Andy Doerr. (Lee Hockey and Jamie Riley were the unused substitutes). The subs did, however, combine in the 85th minute, when James Humphries won the ball in the Merstham half, and found Andy Doerr – he then squared the ball to Claude Seanla, but Claude’s shot was deflected wide. It should also be said that Mitch Sherwood did make one telling run, down the left wing, with 90 minutes on the clock. He managed to put in a good cross, but this was headed behind, for a corner. The corner was taken short, to James Humphries, whose cross to the far post found Andy Doerr, who headed the ball down and into the danger zone. A goalmouth scramble followed, but no Ashford player was able to get a clear shot at goal.

Referee Wilde managed to find five minutes of stoppage time from somewhere, but we probably wouldn’t have scored if we’d had another fifteen. In my opinion, the illness has entered a new phase. Initially, Ashford’s problem was clearly one of a lack of consistency, but our recent record of one win in the last eight league games indicates that we’re now into a full-blown slump. In our four most recent matches, we’ve collected just two points, and the solitary goal has been the one handed to us on a plate by a comical gaff from an opposition goalie. We’re now 14 matches into a season in which we’ve managed just four league wins – so the play-offs are looking a long way off at the moment.

It was a hard job deciding on a Man of the Match. It was really a toss-up between the three defenders who hadn’t made a cock-up for Merstham’s goal – in fact, if there was a consolation to be had from the evening’s events, it was that Ashford looked to be pretty secure at the back, so that’s something to build upon. We went for Craig Wilkins, who looked classy and composed in everything he did. I should imagine that he’d come across as a commanding figure in a good team – the trouble is ………….

Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Craig Wilkins