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
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