CHATHAM TOWN 1 ASHFORD TOWN 1
From Your Milton Keynes Correspondent
This will have to be another brief one,
I’m afraid – although it’s Bank Holiday Monday, it’s still effectively
mid-week, as I have to be at work tomorrow. (I have to go to Thetford – my life
is so glamourous !) Not that there was
much to report on, as this was a thoroughly uninspiring, end-of-season
encounter, and, in all honesty, a fairly tepid performance by the lads. Chatham
looked poor, and we should’ve buried them, but we didn’t, so didn’t really
deserve more than a draw. More to the point, it was a chance for Tim Thorogood
to do some further juggling and shuffling with his playing staff, which is what
he’s been doing for the past few weeks. This is understandable, given that
we’ve been assured of a mid-table position for months now, and the list of
injuries and suspensions has been growing steadily.
Today, the team lined up in what was
effectively a 3-4-3 formation. The back three was familiar and experienced
enough : White, Mortley and Gibbs (the captain). The continued absence of
established midfielders, though – try Bower, Ross (I), Elliott, Gardner (J) and
Saunders, for starters – has meant Tim having to use quite a lot of imagination
with his pairings in central midfield. For this game, it was the turn of Kevin
Skinner and Dean Hill, both of them young lads who have graduated from the
reserves in recent weeks, but Dean Hill has so far impressed as a promising
left-back. Whilst Skinner now looks pretty comfortable in the first team
set-up, and had a pretty solid 90 minutes, Hill never looked happy in this new
role – he also had a bit of an off-day, as his touch and control often let him
down, on what was an awkward, hard, bumpy pitch. The midfield was completed by
Barry Gardiner, on the right, and Paul O’Brien, who certainly spent more time
on the left of midfield than in the left-back position. It was good to see
Ashford playing with the Three Amigos up front – McRobert, Hassett and Stone. I
won’t mention the goalkeeper, as he’s the one player we have who could make the
grade at a far higher level, so I daren’t talk him up too much. Those who’ve
been touting him as our Player of the Season, and I wouldn’t argue about that
too much, know who he is !
The sub.s bench was interesting, though,
as this included a couple of those experienced midfielders coming back from
injury – Ian Ross and James Gardner – and a couple of youngsters from the
reserves, Craig Mannering and Gary Clarke, who were later to get a run out with
the first team. There was also a place on the bench for Aaron O’Leary, who was
presumably merely having a well-earned rest.
The game began with a little bit of
pantomime. After about five minutes, Stuart White demolished the corner flag,
and there was quite a lengthy delay whilst a replacement was found. Then,
before the game could restart, Kevin Fewell, in the Chatham goal, realised that
his green top actually clashed with our lads’ shirts (or, more accurately, was
a pretty good match !). This was absolutely certain to happen sooner or later,
so better that it should happen towards the end of the season, when nobody was
taking much notice. Needless to say, his change of shirt caused further delay.
Ashford took the lead with their first
attack of the match, after ten minutes. Dave Hassett spread the ball wide to
Paul O’Brien, on the left, and O.B. floated a left-footed cross into the
Chatham area. Adrian Stone rose, unmarked and unchallenged, to head the ball
into the corner of the net.
G-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-L
!! A-d-r-i-a-a-a-a-a-n-h-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
!!
It was a well-taken goal, but it was a
fairly deliberate build-up, and the home defence should feel thoroughly ashamed
of their marking. Nevertheless, it was 1-0 to the boys, and goal number 20 this
season for Adrianho.
The 3-4-3 formation was rather messed up,
after 25 minutes, when Ashford collected their customary red card. Soon after
Cha’am’s Simon Austin had been yellow carded for flattening Paul O’Brien with a
late challenge, the linesman on the far side called the referee over, to report
something after an outburst of general dissent at his decision, from about half
of the Ashford team. After some debate, the result was that Barry Gardiner was
sent off. Now I don’t wish to defend the (very common) practice of hurling
verbal abuse at the officials, but it’s very rare that you see a player get a
straight red card for “verbals”. Unfortunately, it has now happened to us twice
in recent times, as the now-injured Simon Elliott got an early bath for
something very similar, against Salisbury, a few weeks ago. So a harsh lesson
for the 16 year-old, and just what the Club didn’t want, with us already being
in hot water with the League over disciplinary matters.
So the midfield four became a trio, but
Ashford held the home side comfortably until the break – the Chats could muster
nothing more than a few long-range shots, one of which was brilliantly saved by
John W*********, who may or may not have been in goal, diving to his right.
There was some reorganisation required
for the second half: Lee Mac went into central midfield, with Kevin Skinner
moving out to the right, leaving the two lads up front. This lasted until the
hour mark, when Dave Hassett was replaced by the youthful-looking Gary Clarke,
the youngster moving into the centre, with Macca going up front with Adrianho.
Gary actually had a half-chance, having
been on the field for only two minutes. Lee McRobert crossed the ball from the
left, and it was rather running away from Clarke as, over-stretching, he
managed only to put in a tame shot.
Whilst Chatham had more possession, and
did more pressing, in the first half of the second period, they didn’t really
look like scoring – nor did Ashford really threaten to go further ahead – in
what was a flat match that had “end-of-season” written all over it. The
brightest spark for Ashford, though, was certainly Adrian Stone, who looked
much stronger than he has done in the past, and robustly kept possession of the
ball. He also had a few of those Brazilian moments. After 67 minutes, he took
the ball to the corner flag, closely followed by two defenders, and looked for
all the world as if he was trying to win a corner or a throw-in. Instead,
Adrianho turned and nut-megged one of his opponents, and was free, dribbling
the ball along the by-line. He cut the ball back to Lee McRobert, whose firm,
left-foot shot went straight at the ‘keeper.
A minute later, the spotlight was on
Adrian again. This time it was because he disputed the linesman’s decision –
the same linesman who was involved in Barry Gardiner’s sending off. This time,
the referee, who had again been called over by his assistant, issued just a
yellow card.
The 69th minute saw the
welcome return of Ian Ross, replacing Paul O’Brien, to central midfield,
following his recent broken arm – this allowed Dean Hill to move back to his
more accustomed role of left-back. Although Dean didn’t appear to be at fault
at all, it was from the Ashford left that the Chatham equaliser came, after 74
minutes. I reckon this was a fairly flukey goal, one of the Chatham substitutes
chipping a cross from the by-line, which went over our goalie’s head and
rebounded back along the line from the far post. Although JW did his best to
keep the ball out, our hero was unable to prevent it from going over the line.
It probably wouldn’t have counted at King’s Lynn, but I’m afraid it was good
enough to bring the home side level. (Scouts sniffing around on this site
should note that our ‘keeper – whatever his name is – is not unbeatable !)
The surprise was that, in a fairly
innocuous match, which never really got nasty, players from both sides seemed
to be doing their best to collect as many cards as they could. The same Chatham
sub who’ll be credited with their goal received a yellow one, just a minute
later, for what looked to be a very nasty challenge on Lee Mac, and Adrianho
seemed determined to obtain a red one, continuing to be argumentative with the
officials, and getting involved in niggles with the opposition. Wisely, Tim
took him off, after 81 minutes, replacing him with another youngster, Craig
Mannering.
Soon afterwards, Chatham’s big f***er of
a centre-forward, Glenn Cook, got a yellow for elbowing Peter Mortley in the
face, and after 84 minutes, Ian Gibbs got booked for obviously and deliberately
tripping Gary Tilley, after the No.11 had got clean away from him. After 86
minutes, it looked like the card-count would increase further, when Lee
McRobert went down clutching his left cheek-bone, but the referee was satisfied
with giving the culprit a lecture.
So a point each, and not much footy to
talk about. Two games left, then. Roll on next season.
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