Folkestone Invicta 1 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
Boxing Day, 2009. A Local Derby against Folkestone; a top v bottom clash; another chance to somehow quarry out a precious point or three, in an effort to keep ourselves in the Ryman League – but, above all else, it was a game of football, at a time when it has seemed that the weather has all but put the season temporarily on hold. With The Homelands having been waterlogged, then frozen, and then covered by four inches of snow, home matches have been especially hard to come by – we’ve played one home game since the 24th of October – so we’re having to do it the hard way, at the moment, by playing all our games away from home.
Judging by the weather forecast, which predicts the arrival of another cold snap next week – just in time to postpone two crucial home games, against Ramsgate and Folkestone – this week-end might prove to have been a small window of opportunity to get a game in ! There was never really a doubt about today’s match going ahead. Temperatures were predicted to be a relatively temperate 9ºC, with the overnight minimum being 6ºC. The only “cloud” on the horizon was the forecast of heavy showers at some stage during the afternoon. As it turned out, we didn’t see a drop of rain on the journey down from Milton Keynes until we’d got as far as the Leeds Castle turning, on the M20 – but it was pretty wet and miserable for most of the game.
The rain came down at its hardest just as the teams were about to kick off – having been light, but steady, as the teams warmed up on the pitch before the match. As they got things underway, attacking the Cricket Club end, Ashford lined up with a team that showed just one change from the one that started at Leatherhead a fortnight ago; and this was Matt Newman in for the absent Ross Morley. That meant that Steve Lovell picked the same back five for the fifth match in succession – Darren Ibrahim in goal, Carl Harrold at right-back, Gravesend loanee Steve Springett at left-back, and Laurence Harvey and Lee Hockey in central defence. The four-man midfield, in a 4-4-2 formation, consisted of captain Danny Lye, Ryan Briggs, Matt Newman and Mitchell Sherwood, who was stationed on the left for the duration of the match. Kevin Swaisland again partnered Mark Lovell up front.
There was an interesting name on the subs bench – Tom Murphy. I can tell you precisely nothing about Tom – except that he’s a striker, as he took up a position up front when he made his Ashford debut, in the second half. Also on the bench were goalkeeper Dan Mason, Ronnie Dolan, Dan Scorer and Nick Smith. (No defensive cover there, then !). Currently known to be on the injury list are Paul Jones, Toby Ashmore, Scott Chalmers-Stevens and Joe Fuller (who nevertheless joined in with the kick-about at half time), which leaves Bryan Pearce and Ross Morley as the main unexplained absentees.
With the wet Cheriton Road surface appearing to be very slippery, the home side soon settled into a methodical passing game, with Ashford, in contrast, seeking to release the ball early to the front two. It was Folkestone who had the first chance of the game, in the second minute, with a Jimmy Jackson free-kick, after Mitch Sherwood was penalised for a foul. The experienced Jackson curled the ball over a two-man wall, but his cross was headed clear, for a corner. The Ashford defence again cleared the danger, but the ball fell to Jackson, just outside the penalty area, who sent in a weak shot which went just past the post.
Laurence Harvey showed a lot of self-confidence when he went on a run through the Folkestone half, in the fifth minute, but planted a shot into the side-netting. Both Laurence and his partner in central defence, Lee Hockey, were to give a good account of themselves this afternoon. Three minutes later, the ball was at the other end, with Invicta full-back Josh Vincent crossing the ball dangerously across the face of the Ashford goal – but no-one in an amber shirt was able to apply the vital touch. In the tenth minute, a Mitch Sherwood cross was charged down for a corner, on the left; this was taken by Ryan Briggs, and Danny Lye got up well to meet the ball with his head, but his effort went wide.
So it was fairly end-to-end stuff in the opening minutes, played out in front of a crowd of 522, most of whom were taking advantage of the shelter beneath the stands on three sides of the ground – the exceptions in the first half being two ladies, clad in green, who gamely squatted under a large, green & white umbrella, at the end exposed to the elements, behind the goal defended by Folkestone ‘keeper Jack Delo. (Other than for this feat of endurance, the travelling Ashford contingent was barely noticeable, as all of the singing and chanting today came from the home crowd – which meant that we had to endure the taunts about next season’s Kent League campaign, and the usual stuff about being pikeys, etc).
Goalkeeper Delo had little to do in the first 20 minutes, other than intercept a few through-balls – and Darren Ibrahim was mostly concerned with clearing a succession of backpasses – but the visitors had a real chance in the 21st minute. Delo appeared to have a hopeful lob over the Folkestone back line, from Ryan Briggs, well covered, but the game Kevin Swaisland nipped in just ahead of the goalie, and poked the ball past him – but it also went wide of the post.
In the 23rd minute, after some scrappy play in midfield, a through-ball sent Folkestone’s Simon Austin through on goal – but Laurence Harvey saved the situation with a superb tackle, that would be a candidate for Tackle of the Season, if there were such a thing. Three minutes later, Austin sent in a low shot, which was straight at Darren Ibrahim, so was an easy take for the ‘keeper. A minute after that, the same player found himself through on goal, and clear of the Ashford defence, as he ran onto a long ball from the Folkestone back line. Austin carried the ball to the corner of the Ashford six-yard box, before being thwarted by another great saving tackle – this time from Lee Hockey.
In the 33rd minute, the ball broke to Ashford deep inside the Folkestone half, and, suddenly, Kevin Swaisland was put through on goal – but he took rather too long to sort out his feet, and a smothering tackle came in, at the expense of an Ashford corner. As this was on the right-hand side of the pitch, Steve Springett came across to take it, and Jack Delo had to show his quality for the first time this afternoon when he came out to make a clean catch.
Things then started to go a little wrong for Ashford, when, first Lee Hockey felt very aggrieved at being penalised for what he considered to be a very good tackle, then Kevin Swaisland received a stern talking-to from Referee Nolan Wilde, for catching a defender late, after losing control of the ball. Steve Springett then wasn’t so lucky; Josh Vincent did well to get around him, down the right flank, and Steve earnt himself a yellow card for a trip which Vincent made the most of, with a swallow dive with tuck and pike.
Things then went from a little wrong to a lot worse, when Folkestone took the lead, in the 40th minute. Darren Ibrahim managed to get a good fist to a Jimmy Jackson cross, but was only able to clear as far as the edge of his penalty area. The ball was headed back into the danger area, and centre-half Frankie Chappell nodded the ball just under the bar, and into the net, before the Ashford defence could clear.
So it was 1-0 to Folkestone Invicta at half time – and the sinking feeling we had was born of the fact that Ashford had not really looked like scoring during the first 45 minutes, (not for the first time this season, by any means), so it already looked like being an unproductive afternoon.
The rain had ceased by the time the second half started, and the terracing at the unsheltered end of the ground was now fairly well populated with Folkestone supporters. Ashford competed hard, in the difficult conditions, all over the pitch, but, when in possession, there was just a hint of cluelessness about their work – a sense of “What are we going to do now ?”; (with apologies to my hero, the late Spike Milligan). Our build-up and passing was very slow and ponderous, in comparison with that of the league leaders, and there wasn’t a great deal of movement up front to stimulate a pass from the midfield.
The difference between the two teams was illustrated very well in the 57th minute, when, after a fairly even ten minutes or so, in terms of possession, a slick Folkestone move quickly put Darren Smith through on goal. Fortunately for Ashford, Darren Ibrahim was one man who was on top of this game today, and he did well to save Smith’s low, firm shot, with his legs. The rebound went straight back to the Folkestone No.7, but he put his follow-up effort wide.
The home side got behind the Ashford defence again, in the 64th minute. Lee Hockey and James Everitt found themselves under a high clearance from the Folkestone defence. Lee made a bit of a mess of this, allowing Everitt to get goal-side of him. His reaction was to flatten the Folkestone forward, and, as the last man, there must have been a fair probability of a red card being waved in his direction, but the ball broke to Darren Smith, in a clear scoring position, with a one-on-one with the ‘keeper, so the referee played a good advantage. Smith opened up his body, preparing to curl the ball into the corner of the net, but Darren spread himself and made another excellent save. So it was a reprieve for the team, but Lee Hockey wasn’t so lucky – when the ball eventually went out of play, Referee Wilde took time out to show him a yellow card.
In the 65th minute, Steve Lovell – who spent almost the entire match standing with Hugo Langton just inside the playing area, because there was a huge puddle right in front of the “Away” dug-out – made a double-substitution, when he replaced Matt Newman and Ryan Briggs with Ronnie Dolan and new boy Tom Murphy. (This means that Briggo has now failed to play the full 90 minutes in seven of his last twelve appearances). Murphy, a young, blond, fresh-faced striker, went to partner Kevin Swaisland up front – very much Beauty & The Beast, from where I was standing - with Mark Lovell dropping back into the midfield.
A feature of Steve Lovell’s substitutions this season has been that the men being introduced have most often looked better than the ones they’ve replaced – which either says a lot about the latent talent we have at the Club, or is an indictment of Steve’s blind faith in the senior players that he tends to start games with, depending on your point of view – and this change was no exception. Almost immediately, Ronnie Dolan picked the ball up inside the Folkestone half; Tom Murphy made a diagonal run behind the home side’s defence; Ronnie saw the run, and slipped a pass through, to put Tom in on goal. Unfortunately, the youngster was off-side – but it was the brightest thing that Ashford had done all afternoon.
In the 69th minute, a sliced, right-footed clearance by Steve Springett gave Folkestone a corner, on the left. This was taken short, enabling a curling, in-swinging cross to be aimed right under the Ashford cross-bar, and Laurence Harvey did extremely well to head the ball away, almost from off the goal line; but the danger hadn’t gone away. The ball came back again, in the shape of a high, looping cross to the far post. Darren Ibrahim came for it, and missed it, and a Folkestone player lurking behind him headed across the face of goal, somehow missing the target.
As the game moved into the final quarter, it was all Folkestone pressure, with an Ashford equaliser looking to be no more than a remote possibility. In the 76th minute, Darren Smith took a corner on the left. This was headed clear by Lee Hockey, but Smith immediately had another opportunity to swing the ball in. This time, he fizzed in a flatter cross, which was met with a superb glancing header by Simon Austin, which sent the ball heading for the far corner of the net, but Darren Ibrahim went flying across to palm the ball away. This was probably the best of a number of good saves that Darren made this afternoon. On this occasion, he appeared to wind himself as he fell, but, after some TLC from the lovely Rachel Long, he was OK to continue.
Folkestone Manager Neil Cugley, (an Ashford Town legend, lest we forget), sent Jimmy Dryden on, for a cameo appearance, in the 81st minute, in an attempt to sew up the points. (Dryden hasn’t actually started a game since mid-October). Steve Lovell then made his final substitution, replacing the hard-working, but ineffective, Kevin Swaisland with Nick Smith, up front; a quick, argumentative little ‘un, for a strong, but slow, big ‘un. With three minutes of normal time remaining, Neil Cugley replaced Simon Austin with Pete Williams.
It was in these dying minutes of the game that Ashford finally came to life, and made the Folkestone defence think that we might score. In the 89th minute, Mitch Sherwood picked the ball up, about 22 yards from goal, and, with nothing to lose from having a pop, hit a low, well-struck shot which woke Jack Delo up, forcing him into making a very good save at the foot of his right-hand post. It was clear to everyone in the ground bar the officials that this should have been a corner, but the referee awarded a goal-kick, in spite of the disbelieving protests from the Ashford players.
The visitors continued to press during the four minutes of added time, and, in the 91st minute, Nick Smith, who, as usual, had injected some life into the side as soon as he had come on, aimed a shot, on the turn, towards the far post, but it was always going wide. A minute later, at the other end, Jimmy Dryden had an opportunity to finally put the three points to bed; a long cross from the right flank found him at the far post, but he somehow managed to fluff the chance, from about a yard out, steering the ball across the face of goal.
With the game well into the 94th minute, Tom Murphy had a chance to make a name for himself, when he had the ball, in the inside left position, well inside the Folkestone penalty area. His effort was blocked, as was Nick Smith’s, from the rebound, and the visitors were simply unable to get in a clean shot in the melée. When the final whistle was finally blown, there were several Folkestone players with arms aloft, which rather underlined the fact that they had been given a brief scare, but it was all very late in the day for Ashford, and an equaliser would have provided them with a point that they had not really deserved – in spite of having fought hard, through the mud and the rain, for the whole 90 minutes.
It turned out to be a very good day for Folkestone, as they were the only side in the top ten of Ryman Division One South this morning to collect the three points, so they are now seven points clear of Worthing at the top, with a game in hand. Ashford, on the other hand, now find themselves six points away from survival in this division, albeit with three (home) games in hand, after Chipstead won 0-3 at Merstham, and Whitstable got a point at Ramsgate. Things are starting to look pretty ominous now – that’s now eleven games without a win, and we’ve failed to score in six of the last seven matches. It’s The Rams who are Ashford’s next opponents at The Homelands, on Tuesday, followed by the “return” against Folkestone next Saturday – weather and pitch permitting, of course.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Darren Ibrahim
Sunday 27 December 2009
Sunday 13 December 2009
Leatherhead v Ashford Town. Ryman Division One South. 12th of December 2009.
Leatherhead 2 Ashford Town 0
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
I am reluctant to begin a report with an obituary, but I really feel that I should give a mention to the demise of King’s Lynn FC during the week. This isn’t the first club, non-league or otherwise, to go to the wall in recent times, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it makes it that much more poignant when it’s a club that we’ve played league games against in the not too distant past. I’m not one to read over my past match reports very often – it’s sad enough that I write them ! – but I couldn’t resist looking back at the report on our last meeting with The Linnets. This was in the 2002-3 season, the last season that we were in the Southern League, before joining the Ryman, and was during the Thorogood era.
We had a cracking side out that day, (by current standards, at least). There was a three-man strike-force of Adrian Stone, Dave Hassett and Lee McRobert, with Lee Mac dropping off the front two. Sam Saunders ran the show from central midfield, with Simon Elliott on his left, and a 16 year-old Barry Gardner on the right. In the absence of Club Captain Matt Bower, through injury, Ian Gibbs was skipper, and played in central defence alongside Aaron O’Leary. Paul O’Brien was at left-back, Martin Anderson at right-back and John Whitehouse in goal. We had some quality players in those days.
The result was a 1-0 win for King’s Lynn, in front of a crowd of 757. The club was to rise as high as the Conference North – but, alas, it is now just a statistic. Another ex-football club.
The moral of the King’s Lynn tale might be that, however bad we think the situation is with Ashford Town, there are other sets of football fans for whom the situation is a whole lot worse – at least we have a team to go along and support. However, it is also true to say that things for our Club have rarely been worse. We began today’s game at the bottom of Ryman Division One South – and that’s a division at the eighth level of English football, which is a desperate state of affairs for a club that used to be a stalwart member of the Southern League in the days when it was roughly the equivalent of today’s Conference Premier. Added to the embarrassment of our league position, we have a pitch that is currently unplayable – and the ground-share agreement we have with Maidstone United, which is almost certainly the main contributing factor to the state of the pitch, has reportedly yielded no rental payment from Maidstone to date. No income from our tenants – no income from our own home games. Makes you wonder how close we are to the nightmare scenario of players not being paid, doesn’t it ?
No matter. Where there’s life, there’s hope, and we still have a team, so off we went to Leatherhead, for our second visit to Fetcham Grove of the season, (following our FA Cup tie, in September). One thing we are very short of, though, is strikers. Paul Jones continues to be absent, with his “undercarriage” problem, and the sight of Joe Fuller in the bar, in his track-suit, just 20 minutes before the game confirmed that he was still on the injury list – with an on-going foot problem. Nick Smith was absent through illness, which left Mark Lovell without a credible strike partner – the solution was for Kent County League striker Kevin Swaisland to effectively come out of semi-retirement. So that was it up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland, and no forward options on the bench.
Darren Ibrahim continued in goal, and I was pleased to see that young Laurence Harvey was given another chance in the centre of defence, alongside Lee Hockey; Carl Harrold was at right-back, and Steve Springett, whose second month-long loan spell is nearing its end, was at left-back. Steve Lovell kept faith with his most experienced trio of midfielders: Danny Lye (the captain), Ryan Briggs and Mitch Sherwood. Ross Morley, returning from a suspension served for something he did in Sunday League footy, was on the right, with Sherwood on the left. With Laurence Harvey retaining his place in the side, Bryan Pearce had to be satisfied with a place on the bench again, alongside Ronnie Dolan, Dan Scorer, Matt Newman and goalkeeper Dan Mason.
The feature of our earlier visit for the cup game – which the home side won 2-0 – was that it was such a hot afternoon, that we abandoned our first-half pitch on the grassy bank behind the dug-outs, and sought shade beneath the low, green, corrugated roof of the main stand, at half time. Well, we were blessed with decent weather once again in Leatherhead. The low, lukewarm sun maintained the temperature at a fairly cool 7ºC, but it was dry, and with only a gentle breeze, so it seemed like mid-summer, compared with the wind and the torrential rain that we’ve been having recently. I was also warmed from within by a pretty good chili con carne – and a pint of “Kent’s Best” ale – in The Running Horse, (Leatherhead’s oldest pub); but it was a fighting performance on the pitch from the lads that we really needed.
What was crucial was that Ashford should be solid at the back to start with, so that they could get a foot-hold in the game. Unfortunately, after a fairly uneventful opening six minutes, which mostly featured Leatherhead possession, that was then all thrown away by a distinctly unfunny comedy routine from Darren Ibrahim. After first fumbling, and then juggling, a routine take, Darren advanced towards the edge of his penalty area, and attempted to throw the ball out to his left-back. The ball hit the head of a near-by Ashford defender, and ricocheted to big Leon Simpson, who was just a couple of yards outside the penalty area. With the Ashford ‘keeper not at home, Simpson lobbed the ball towards the unguarded net. As Darren desperately chased back, the ball hit the post, rebounded off his shin and then popped into the net. Simpson shamelessly claimed the goal – and, at 6ft 10in, who’s going to argue with him ? – but this was undoubtedly an Ibrahim own goal.
This was a shame, as, this aberration apart, Darren didn’t put a foot wrong; his handling was decisive, and he made a few decent saves. However, it was an incident that changed the whole complexion of the game very early on, and, with little happening up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland achieved precisely nothing all afternoon – it was already hard to see how Ashford would get back into the game.
The visitors’ first bridgehead in the Leatherhead half came in the ninth minute, in the form of a corner, but Ryan Briggs’ corner, intended to find Mark Lovell on the edge of the penalty area, failed to reach its destination. In the 13th minute, Ashford were on the back foot, when a Laurence Harvey foul on Tommy Hutchings gave the home side a free-kick, just to the left of the penalty area – but this came to nothing.
Ashford’s reprieve was short-lived, however, and Leatherhead went 2-0 ahead in the 20th minute. This was actually a very well-taken goal, and came from a long, curling cross by Kev Terry, from the right wing. The low trajectory of the cross, behind the Ashford defence, was difficult to defend, and Darren Ibrahim was given little chance, as Leon Simpson extended a long leg and guided the ball into the net.
It continued to be all Leatherhead in the first half, with crosses raining into the Ashford penalty area. In the 23rd minute, a cross from the left flank found the prolific Tommy Hutchings, who was fresh from a hat-trick at Chipstead in The Tanners’ previous match; Hutchings got in a good shot, but this was straight at goal-keeper Ibrahim, who nevertheless made a good, low save. Just two minutes later, as the sun, which had been causing us on the bank on the far side to shield our eyes, finally sank below the trees, a high cross was sent in, again from the left. Leon Simpson rose above the Ashford defence with ease, (unsurprisingly), and aimed a firm header towards the top corner of the net, but this was well caught by Darren Ibrahim, diving spectacularly to his right.
Ashford didn’t put together their first recognisable passing movement until the 36th minute. This involved Steve Springett, Mitch Sherwood and Kevin Swaisland, down the left flank. The promising move ended with Ryan Briggs shooting low and wide, from outside the penalty area, but the fact that it might have been the first twitching sign of Ashford getting into the game was not lost on the small knot of a dozen or so travelling supporters, who offered up an encouraging burst of applause. Unfortunately, our boys never really threatened to build on this.
The end of the first half became rather niggly, and this mood was rather set by a totally unnecessary foul by Danny Lye on Mark Simmonds, in the 42nd minute – basically, the Ashford skipper hacked at Simmonds’ left calf, about a second after he had passed the ball. Mr Tranter, the Referee, who I thought generally had a very good game, was right on the spot, and showed Lye the only yellow card of the afternoon.
As there was clearly nothing to lose, Steve Lovell made two changes in personnel for the second half. Just as in our previous game – the 3-0 defeat at Whitstable – Steve introduced the youngsters when defeat appeared to be the only other option. The experienced Ryan Briggs was taken off, Ross Morley was moved to the centre of midfield, Mitchell Sherwood switched wings to replace him on the right and Dan Scorer came off the bench to take up a position wide on the left. There was also a change in formation, with Ashford leaving three at the back. That meant making Carl Harrold, who had done nothing wrong in the first half, the tactical sacrifice, as Matt Newman took up a position in the centre of a five-man midfield.
In truth, Ashford looked better in the second half. We had more possession, and were able to hold our own in midfield – but, with a two-goal lead, Leatherhead, who had changed into their slippers at half time, were quite content to hang onto the lead, comfortably keeping the visitors at arm’s length. Ashford’s only threat came from a number of Lee Hockey long throws – I’ve no argument with this as a tactic, as we are in no position to strive for pretty football, but, more often than not, it was a Leather head that got to the ball first, as we lacked a real presence in the opposition’s penalty area. Matt Newman looked to be the best we had in midfield during the second period, but, too often, he and others looked up, with the ball at their feet, to be frustrated by a lack of movement, and a lack of options, upfield.
With the floodlights on, and the leafless trees, beyond the low main stand, silhouetted against the darkening grey sky, Steve Springett did show his quality, with a promising run, in the 62nd minute. This took Geordie all the way from the half-way line to a couple of yards off The Tanners’ by-line, but he was eventually worried out of it by the home defence, and hope petered out and became a goal-kick. This was the signal for Leatherhead Manager Mick Sullivan to make the first of three leisurely substitutions, replacing Rico Morris with right-winger Josh Smith. The extra width created did cause Ashford’s three-man defence some additional problems, but they stood firm, and Darren Ibrahim continued to look competent in all that he was asked to do. All four were probably helped by the better protection they were provided with by the midfield, and the fact that Leatherhead had by now slipped down a couple of gears.
Sullivan made his substitutions at regular intervals – Dominic O’Shea in place of Leon Simpson, the bean pole that we previously encountered at Merstham this season, in the 69th minute, and Hassan Nyang for Kev Terry, in the 77th minute. The third of these changes coincided with Steve Lovell’s final throw of the dice, when he replaced captain Danny Lye with Ronnie Dolan – but it made no difference, with rugby union-style territorial gains being the only sign of success. The resulting Lee Hockey long throws continued to have a magnetic attraction to green-shirted defenders – the exception came in the 87th minute, when the gallant Kevin Swaisland pulled away from his marker and directed a downward header at goal, but this went well wide of the near post.
It was one of those games in which it was very hard to pick out a Man of the Match for Ashford (!). In the end, we were reduced to eliminating those who were most undeserving of the accolade – I’m afraid that Mitch Sherwood was the first name on this list, as he had a particularly poor game, giving the ball away almost as soon as he had received it – the starting midfield and forward-line then rapidly came to mind ! In spite of his early balls-up, Darren Ibrahim wouldn’t have been a ridiculous choice, for his performance over the 90 minutes. Steve Springett once again looked very comfortable and composed at left-back, as did Laurence Harvey (again !), in the centre of the defence – but Lee Hockey shaded it on this occasion.
The day’s worst pain, I’m afraid, didn’t arrive until early evening, when I had the opportunity to find out the other results in Ryman Division One South – both Whitstable and Chipstead had won this afternoon, so we are now four points adrift at the bottom of the table. We have three games in hand of the two teams above us, but that means very little when we aren’t coming close to winning matches. The current winless streak now stands at ten games, (and two months); with the next five matches being against Croydon Athletic, Folkestone (twice), Ramsgate and Worthing, it’s not difficult to see how things are likely to get a whole lot worse going into the New Year.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Lee Hockey
from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
I am reluctant to begin a report with an obituary, but I really feel that I should give a mention to the demise of King’s Lynn FC during the week. This isn’t the first club, non-league or otherwise, to go to the wall in recent times, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it makes it that much more poignant when it’s a club that we’ve played league games against in the not too distant past. I’m not one to read over my past match reports very often – it’s sad enough that I write them ! – but I couldn’t resist looking back at the report on our last meeting with The Linnets. This was in the 2002-3 season, the last season that we were in the Southern League, before joining the Ryman, and was during the Thorogood era.
We had a cracking side out that day, (by current standards, at least). There was a three-man strike-force of Adrian Stone, Dave Hassett and Lee McRobert, with Lee Mac dropping off the front two. Sam Saunders ran the show from central midfield, with Simon Elliott on his left, and a 16 year-old Barry Gardner on the right. In the absence of Club Captain Matt Bower, through injury, Ian Gibbs was skipper, and played in central defence alongside Aaron O’Leary. Paul O’Brien was at left-back, Martin Anderson at right-back and John Whitehouse in goal. We had some quality players in those days.
The result was a 1-0 win for King’s Lynn, in front of a crowd of 757. The club was to rise as high as the Conference North – but, alas, it is now just a statistic. Another ex-football club.
The moral of the King’s Lynn tale might be that, however bad we think the situation is with Ashford Town, there are other sets of football fans for whom the situation is a whole lot worse – at least we have a team to go along and support. However, it is also true to say that things for our Club have rarely been worse. We began today’s game at the bottom of Ryman Division One South – and that’s a division at the eighth level of English football, which is a desperate state of affairs for a club that used to be a stalwart member of the Southern League in the days when it was roughly the equivalent of today’s Conference Premier. Added to the embarrassment of our league position, we have a pitch that is currently unplayable – and the ground-share agreement we have with Maidstone United, which is almost certainly the main contributing factor to the state of the pitch, has reportedly yielded no rental payment from Maidstone to date. No income from our tenants – no income from our own home games. Makes you wonder how close we are to the nightmare scenario of players not being paid, doesn’t it ?
No matter. Where there’s life, there’s hope, and we still have a team, so off we went to Leatherhead, for our second visit to Fetcham Grove of the season, (following our FA Cup tie, in September). One thing we are very short of, though, is strikers. Paul Jones continues to be absent, with his “undercarriage” problem, and the sight of Joe Fuller in the bar, in his track-suit, just 20 minutes before the game confirmed that he was still on the injury list – with an on-going foot problem. Nick Smith was absent through illness, which left Mark Lovell without a credible strike partner – the solution was for Kent County League striker Kevin Swaisland to effectively come out of semi-retirement. So that was it up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland, and no forward options on the bench.
Darren Ibrahim continued in goal, and I was pleased to see that young Laurence Harvey was given another chance in the centre of defence, alongside Lee Hockey; Carl Harrold was at right-back, and Steve Springett, whose second month-long loan spell is nearing its end, was at left-back. Steve Lovell kept faith with his most experienced trio of midfielders: Danny Lye (the captain), Ryan Briggs and Mitch Sherwood. Ross Morley, returning from a suspension served for something he did in Sunday League footy, was on the right, with Sherwood on the left. With Laurence Harvey retaining his place in the side, Bryan Pearce had to be satisfied with a place on the bench again, alongside Ronnie Dolan, Dan Scorer, Matt Newman and goalkeeper Dan Mason.
The feature of our earlier visit for the cup game – which the home side won 2-0 – was that it was such a hot afternoon, that we abandoned our first-half pitch on the grassy bank behind the dug-outs, and sought shade beneath the low, green, corrugated roof of the main stand, at half time. Well, we were blessed with decent weather once again in Leatherhead. The low, lukewarm sun maintained the temperature at a fairly cool 7ºC, but it was dry, and with only a gentle breeze, so it seemed like mid-summer, compared with the wind and the torrential rain that we’ve been having recently. I was also warmed from within by a pretty good chili con carne – and a pint of “Kent’s Best” ale – in The Running Horse, (Leatherhead’s oldest pub); but it was a fighting performance on the pitch from the lads that we really needed.
What was crucial was that Ashford should be solid at the back to start with, so that they could get a foot-hold in the game. Unfortunately, after a fairly uneventful opening six minutes, which mostly featured Leatherhead possession, that was then all thrown away by a distinctly unfunny comedy routine from Darren Ibrahim. After first fumbling, and then juggling, a routine take, Darren advanced towards the edge of his penalty area, and attempted to throw the ball out to his left-back. The ball hit the head of a near-by Ashford defender, and ricocheted to big Leon Simpson, who was just a couple of yards outside the penalty area. With the Ashford ‘keeper not at home, Simpson lobbed the ball towards the unguarded net. As Darren desperately chased back, the ball hit the post, rebounded off his shin and then popped into the net. Simpson shamelessly claimed the goal – and, at 6ft 10in, who’s going to argue with him ? – but this was undoubtedly an Ibrahim own goal.
This was a shame, as, this aberration apart, Darren didn’t put a foot wrong; his handling was decisive, and he made a few decent saves. However, it was an incident that changed the whole complexion of the game very early on, and, with little happening up front – Mark Lovell and Kevin Swaisland achieved precisely nothing all afternoon – it was already hard to see how Ashford would get back into the game.
The visitors’ first bridgehead in the Leatherhead half came in the ninth minute, in the form of a corner, but Ryan Briggs’ corner, intended to find Mark Lovell on the edge of the penalty area, failed to reach its destination. In the 13th minute, Ashford were on the back foot, when a Laurence Harvey foul on Tommy Hutchings gave the home side a free-kick, just to the left of the penalty area – but this came to nothing.
Ashford’s reprieve was short-lived, however, and Leatherhead went 2-0 ahead in the 20th minute. This was actually a very well-taken goal, and came from a long, curling cross by Kev Terry, from the right wing. The low trajectory of the cross, behind the Ashford defence, was difficult to defend, and Darren Ibrahim was given little chance, as Leon Simpson extended a long leg and guided the ball into the net.
It continued to be all Leatherhead in the first half, with crosses raining into the Ashford penalty area. In the 23rd minute, a cross from the left flank found the prolific Tommy Hutchings, who was fresh from a hat-trick at Chipstead in The Tanners’ previous match; Hutchings got in a good shot, but this was straight at goal-keeper Ibrahim, who nevertheless made a good, low save. Just two minutes later, as the sun, which had been causing us on the bank on the far side to shield our eyes, finally sank below the trees, a high cross was sent in, again from the left. Leon Simpson rose above the Ashford defence with ease, (unsurprisingly), and aimed a firm header towards the top corner of the net, but this was well caught by Darren Ibrahim, diving spectacularly to his right.
Ashford didn’t put together their first recognisable passing movement until the 36th minute. This involved Steve Springett, Mitch Sherwood and Kevin Swaisland, down the left flank. The promising move ended with Ryan Briggs shooting low and wide, from outside the penalty area, but the fact that it might have been the first twitching sign of Ashford getting into the game was not lost on the small knot of a dozen or so travelling supporters, who offered up an encouraging burst of applause. Unfortunately, our boys never really threatened to build on this.
The end of the first half became rather niggly, and this mood was rather set by a totally unnecessary foul by Danny Lye on Mark Simmonds, in the 42nd minute – basically, the Ashford skipper hacked at Simmonds’ left calf, about a second after he had passed the ball. Mr Tranter, the Referee, who I thought generally had a very good game, was right on the spot, and showed Lye the only yellow card of the afternoon.
As there was clearly nothing to lose, Steve Lovell made two changes in personnel for the second half. Just as in our previous game – the 3-0 defeat at Whitstable – Steve introduced the youngsters when defeat appeared to be the only other option. The experienced Ryan Briggs was taken off, Ross Morley was moved to the centre of midfield, Mitchell Sherwood switched wings to replace him on the right and Dan Scorer came off the bench to take up a position wide on the left. There was also a change in formation, with Ashford leaving three at the back. That meant making Carl Harrold, who had done nothing wrong in the first half, the tactical sacrifice, as Matt Newman took up a position in the centre of a five-man midfield.
In truth, Ashford looked better in the second half. We had more possession, and were able to hold our own in midfield – but, with a two-goal lead, Leatherhead, who had changed into their slippers at half time, were quite content to hang onto the lead, comfortably keeping the visitors at arm’s length. Ashford’s only threat came from a number of Lee Hockey long throws – I’ve no argument with this as a tactic, as we are in no position to strive for pretty football, but, more often than not, it was a Leather head that got to the ball first, as we lacked a real presence in the opposition’s penalty area. Matt Newman looked to be the best we had in midfield during the second period, but, too often, he and others looked up, with the ball at their feet, to be frustrated by a lack of movement, and a lack of options, upfield.
With the floodlights on, and the leafless trees, beyond the low main stand, silhouetted against the darkening grey sky, Steve Springett did show his quality, with a promising run, in the 62nd minute. This took Geordie all the way from the half-way line to a couple of yards off The Tanners’ by-line, but he was eventually worried out of it by the home defence, and hope petered out and became a goal-kick. This was the signal for Leatherhead Manager Mick Sullivan to make the first of three leisurely substitutions, replacing Rico Morris with right-winger Josh Smith. The extra width created did cause Ashford’s three-man defence some additional problems, but they stood firm, and Darren Ibrahim continued to look competent in all that he was asked to do. All four were probably helped by the better protection they were provided with by the midfield, and the fact that Leatherhead had by now slipped down a couple of gears.
Sullivan made his substitutions at regular intervals – Dominic O’Shea in place of Leon Simpson, the bean pole that we previously encountered at Merstham this season, in the 69th minute, and Hassan Nyang for Kev Terry, in the 77th minute. The third of these changes coincided with Steve Lovell’s final throw of the dice, when he replaced captain Danny Lye with Ronnie Dolan – but it made no difference, with rugby union-style territorial gains being the only sign of success. The resulting Lee Hockey long throws continued to have a magnetic attraction to green-shirted defenders – the exception came in the 87th minute, when the gallant Kevin Swaisland pulled away from his marker and directed a downward header at goal, but this went well wide of the near post.
It was one of those games in which it was very hard to pick out a Man of the Match for Ashford (!). In the end, we were reduced to eliminating those who were most undeserving of the accolade – I’m afraid that Mitch Sherwood was the first name on this list, as he had a particularly poor game, giving the ball away almost as soon as he had received it – the starting midfield and forward-line then rapidly came to mind ! In spite of his early balls-up, Darren Ibrahim wouldn’t have been a ridiculous choice, for his performance over the 90 minutes. Steve Springett once again looked very comfortable and composed at left-back, as did Laurence Harvey (again !), in the centre of the defence – but Lee Hockey shaded it on this occasion.
The day’s worst pain, I’m afraid, didn’t arrive until early evening, when I had the opportunity to find out the other results in Ryman Division One South – both Whitstable and Chipstead had won this afternoon, so we are now four points adrift at the bottom of the table. We have three games in hand of the two teams above us, but that means very little when we aren’t coming close to winning matches. The current winless streak now stands at ten games, (and two months); with the next five matches being against Croydon Athletic, Folkestone (twice), Ramsgate and Worthing, it’s not difficult to see how things are likely to get a whole lot worse going into the New Year.
Man of the Match
(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)
Lee Hockey
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