ARCHIVE: Grantham Town v Ashford Town. Doc Martens Division 1 East. 2000-1 season.

GRANTHAM TOWN   6       ASHFORD TOWN      1

From your Milton Keynes correspondent

So it’s happened yet again at Ashford Town - we’ve lost a good manager, and a promising first team squad has wandered off with him.

It was looking pretty optimistic when I filed my previous match report, on the Witney game, when Tommy Sampson’s team came away with a 3-1 win, to continue a good run of results. It’s all changed now, though - we’re back to Square One. In fact, it’s worse than that : Square One can only begin in the summer, when the rebuilding process begins. In the mean time, the Club’s faced with the dour prospect of fulfilling what’s left of this season’s fixtures, with basically a pool of young boys from the reserves, and one or two players drafted in from the Kent League, to draw upon. The inclusion of Peter “Ashford ‘til I die” McRobert in the starting line-up on Easter Monday - at the age of nearly FIFTY - confirmed the Dads’ Army nature of the current squad. Just the old men and young boys left, in the village, to protect the women and children !  Of course, there are many silly jokes that I can make at this stage (which would probably be based around Corporal Jones, zimmer frames etc.), but I’d rather pay tribute to Peter for his loyalty to the Club and his indomitable spirit in turning out at such an age. I wonder if he’s the oldest player to play for Ashford Town ?!  Of course, he breaks his own appearance record for the Club - technically, this is now his 23rd season as an Ashford player !

 Not surprisingly, then, the new era, under a bloke called Tim Thorogood, hasn’t started too well in terms of results : played 9, drawn 2, lost 7. But let’s not be too negative here. Let’s not dismiss lightly what Mr Thorogood HAS done for the Club. He’s paid off all those debts !  I know that we’ve never been able to actually SEE these debts, so they’re never at the forefront of a supporter’s mind, but they’ve certainly been a millstone around the Club’s neck for several years now. Obviously, what all fans want is a successful team on the field, but anyone who thinks that there’s not a close link between what happens on and off the pitch is deluding themself.

One current problem which Mr Thorogood will be hoping to see sort itself out is the falling attendence levels at The Homelands - in fact, they’ve been in free-fall since his arrival : 180 against Corby on Grand National Day, 159 against the Isle of Wight, and then a distressing 108 on Thursday against Burnham. Of course, he’ll be hoping that the crowds will flock back come the new season, but there is a history of non-league clubs losing their support once they go to an out-of-town location. Just ask the people at Witney Town, which has this week been put on the market !

I wonder if that crowd of 108 is the lowest attendance ever for a league game at Ashford - or whether the 180 that turned up for the Corby game might be the lowest for a Saturday league game ?!  This crowd would have been almost claustrophobic at Corby, though. They have recorded the lowest league gate so far this season - only 29, a few weeks back !  Speaking of records, there was one in particular that I thought might be broken during the course of this week - the dreaded biggest-ever defeat !  Currently, the biggest hammering Ashford Town has ever suffered is 8-0, at the hands of Crawley Town in 1964 (I was but a lad !). With a sequence of matches against the likes of Hastings, Chelmsford, Rothwell and Grantham, all within the space of eight days, and with the Home Guard on patrol, I was fearing the worst !  So far, though, our brave lads have been keeping the scores “respectable” - Chelmsford came pretty close to the record rout on Easter Monday, beating us 6-0, but the other lot could both score only three each.

So what about Grantham Town ?  Obviously a big club in non-league circles - once managed by Martin O’Neill (yes, THE Martin O’Neill !), and probably only paying a brief visit to our level of the pyramid. With promotion straight back to the Premier Division still just a possibility, there was definitely the prospect of a major shellacking - maybe we’d even see something akin to the Retreat from Moscow by 4.30pm !  Nevertheless, bravely on we would march, and I was looking forward to the trip to Lincolnshire.

In fact, I’d been looking forward to this match all season, mainly because I knew that Grantham had a lovely facility up there, with a proper, modern footy stadium. A cut above some of the cow sheds that pass for stands at some grounds at this level. I had a look via the Grantham Town web-site’s “Stadium Tour”, and it’s clearly the best ground in our division this year. We certainly won’t get this sort of luxury when we’re in the Kent League. (Sorry, that just sort of slipped out !).

It’s also nice to go to these grounds that have plenty of car parking spaces, and are easy to get to. Grantham is right on the A1, so, from Milton Keynes, all we need to do is to skirt around the South side of Bedford, on the new by-pass, join the A1 at Wyboston, and then it’s straight up the road from there. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of looking at a road atlas, and thought that it would be quicker to go up the M1 as far as Nottingham, and then cut across on the A52. That meant that I did something that I’ve never done before - I arrived late for a footy match !  Leaving the house at 1.20pm, we eventually shambled through the turnstiles at 3.05pm. If this were the Daily Telegraph I’d be sacked !.

I asked the first person I came across what the score was : “One - nil to Grantham”, was the reply.

“No surprise there, then !”, I said, still hacked off and embarrassed at having missed the start.

I made my way to the touchline to see that the game had already fallen into an inevitable pattern - Grantham, in their Newcastle United strip, in possession, in the Ashford half. In fact, everyone was in the Ashford half, and that was just about how it stayed for the next 40 minutes. Not that our heroes had decided to adopt totally negative tactics - Steve Smith and an overweight Scott McRobert stayed up front, meaning that the home side had to leave three back for most of the time. It’s just that, every time the Ashford defence cleared its lines, Grantham won the ball and came back with another attack. (Of course, you would expect our hosts to be fairly tight at the back - the town that gave us the inventor of Thatcherism was surely not going to give much away !). It was also immediately obvious that, as feared, this really was men against boys - Grantham were clearly bigger, and stronger, and faster, and more experienced than our lads.

Just as inevitably, Ashford’s new goalie, Dan Noden, was the immediate focus of attention, if only because the ball was constantly going in his direction. I’d seen him described in an opposition’s web-site recently as being “fat and s***e” (I’ve added my own asterisks here, as I know that Steve Monk would edit it out anyway - let’s just say that the word rhymes with “fight”, and isn’t very complimentary !). Now I’m not one to judge a book by its cover, or to make unkind remarks about someone’s physical appearance, but there’s nothing like a tubby goalkeeper for making a team look like a pub side, and that, I’m afraid, was the first impression that I got. (In case Daniel’s Mum’s reading this, I should say that he actually had a reasonable game, so please read on, Mrs Noden).

So it was all Grantham, but it wasn’t until the 15th minute that the home side actually created another clear-cut chance. Their play-maker in midfield, Lee Marshall, was put clean through on goal, with only Noden to beat, but Dan came out and saved with his feet. A minute later, though, the ‘keeper was not so impressive, as he came for a cross and failed to collect, only for Grantham No.9 Ranshaw to head wide - he should’ve done better. Two minutes later, the same player was again off-target, heading just over from a corner, and then, soon after, found himself unmarked in the penalty area, only to tap the ball tamely to Noden in the Ashford goal.

And so the attacks rained in, one after another. At one stage it looked a bit like the film “Zulu”, except that the young boys holding the fort were wearing green shirts, instead of red tunics. In truth, if the home side had been a bit sharper in front of goal, then they could have been well on their way to that record score, so it was probably something of a (small) moral victory for Ashford’s youngsters that, after 20 minutes, the score was still only 1-0, with the home supporters starting to get on the team’s back a little for not adding to the total.

But The Greens nearly gave them some help after 22 minutes, when Paul Hobbs and Aaron O’Leary started to faff around with the ball along the back line - O’Leary got caught in possession, and the defence was lucky to scramble the ball behind for a corner. The cross from the corner was headed clear by Dave Peachey, who’d looked very promising in an occasional striking role under Tommy Sampson, but who was today employed on the right side of midfield, not straying far from the right touchline.

Grantham soon came back, though, and, after 27 minutes, it was Lee Marshall who again found himself in space in the Ashford area, but his curled shot was rather tame, and, in any case, went just wide.

The breakthrough came again for the home side on the 33 minute mark. Aaron O’Leary, playing as an orthodox left-back in the first half (having looked impressive in central midfield at Stamford early on in the season), was easily done for power and pace on his outside (which rather summed up the difference between the two sides) - the cross from the by-line was virtually rolled along the Ashford goal line, and right-back Paul Hobbs, running back, could do nothing but drill the ball into the corner of his own net.

Three minutes later, Grantham extended the lead to 3-0, a more accurate reflection of their superiority in the first half, when ex-league striker Gary Bull latched onto a through ball lobbed over the Ashford defence. With only the ‘keeper to beat, Bull slotted the ball home with a great deal of ease, giving the impression that he could have scored in his sleep.

And guess what ?!  After 38 minutes, we won a corner !  The move leading to the corner was started by young defender Tom Binks, who looked the one class act in the Ashford side - always balanced and composed, and looking like he knew where he should be at any given time. The cross came in from the left, and, although Mario Ziccardi in the Grantham goal failed to collect, the ball was headed clear. (Sorry for the anti-climax, but I can only report what happens !). 

A minute before half-time, and the ball was again in the Ashford penalty area, with Grantham centre-forward Ranshaw. He twisted and turned to make some space, and eventually laid the ball off to Bull, whose shot curled just past the top-left angle of the goal - Dan Noden could only stand and watch.

So 3-0 at half-time, and a chance to look around the South Kesteven Stadium, a local authority owned venue that has excellent athletics facilities, as well as a footy pitch. There are two sizeable stands, one on each side. The main stand, which houses the boardroom and dressing rooms, provides two tiers of seating; on the other side, there’s an all-standing stand, which is where the core of the Grantham fans gathers. Being open at both ends, and having an eight-lane athletics track around the pitch, I can imagine that it gets a bit wind-swept and parky in the winter, so it’s probably just as well that it was a fine, mild afternoon (especially as I’d contrived to leave my coat at home !). With a crowd of 361 in (a disappointing figure for the hosts, but just 8 short of our highest home gate this season), the stadium looked fairly empty, but the home supporters created quite a good atmosphere. (On the subject of atmosphere, we were sat next to probably the only man in the country to still own one of those old-fashioned football rattles - now how unlucky is that ?!).

Grantham trotted out, in a neat line, ready to begin the second half - it was some time before our boys emerged, but they eventually wandered out from the dressing room area. Ashford immediately made two substitutions (Peter McRobert doing the honours with the numbers boards, and looking, as he had done throughout the match, to be the man in charge on the bench) : youngsters Holt and Anderson replacing McRobert Jnr and Peter Magri.

Ashford came more into the game in the early part of the second half - the Grantham fans gave their team some stick for, as they thought, taking their foot off the pedal a bit, but surely the Ashford lads deserved some credit. In fact, we had the first real chance of the half, a shot from our No.11 (I don’t know who it was, but it certainly wasn’t Scott Thomas, as it said in the programme) being deflected for a corner. Steve Smith took the kick on the left-hand side, right-footed, but ‘keeper Ziccardi took a comfortable catch. (OK, so it was no big deal in the context of the game, or of the season, but I’m trying to give the impression that there was a contest going on out there !).

A minute later there was a rather strange incident. Gary Bull picked the ball up mid-way inside the Ashford half, and dribbled the ball all the way out to the far touch-line, where he appeared to be fouled by an Ashford defender. The linesman on the far side flagged, and everyone stopped - the ref. allowed play to continue, so Bull continued his run, almost unopposed, as far as the six-yard box, but his shot, from an acute angle, was saved by Noden, low down at the foot of the near post.

After 53 minutes, Ashford were again on the attack. No. 9 Steve Smith collected the ball just outside the Grantham penalty area, from a firm pass from the far touch-line, held the ball up, made space, turned and shot just wide of the home goal. It didn’t cause too much alarm among the home supporters, but it was typical of Smith’s hard-working contribution throughout the match. Steve returned to The Homelands following Tommy Sampson’s resignation, at the end of February, having walked out on the Club a few weeks into the season to join Sheppey, in the Kent League. He’s clearly felt that he’s been given too few chances in the first team, by a succession of Ashford managers - it remains to be seen whether he’ll have a role to play in the future under the new regime.

The boys had one or two little sniffs at goal during this period - a weak shot straight at the goalie from Smith, after 56 minutes, and a free-kick on the right-hand corner of the Grantham penalty area two minutes later - but “normal service” was resumed in the 62nd minute. The home side made a break, with Gary Bull and balding substitute Dave Taylor, which had the Ashford defence all at sea. Eventually, though, they managed to scramble the ball away to the left edge of the box, only for a cross to come in, which Taylor headed neatly into the net, from close range. It was a clinical finish which suggested that Taylor had been scoring goals all his life, and Noden, who had been getting stick from the home crowd all match, again had no chance.

Half-way through the half, Ashford made the sixth, and final, substitution of the game. Dave Peachey, who had looked fairly ineffective in his midfield role, having impressed as a striker all season, made way for Jonathan Thorogood. (That’s certainly what it sounded like over the loadspeaker. Don’t ask me if he’s any relation, as I don’t know !).

Seventy minutes gone, and Grantham, four goals to the good, came forward once again with Dave Taylor. He was stopped in his tracks by an obvious trip, on the edge of the area, by an Ashford defender, but the referee - standing all of two yards away - gave nothing more than a corner. The corner kick, swung in from the right, found a Grantham head deep in the penalty area - the ball was then flicked on by a second Grantham head, before Noden rose well to tip the ball over the bar.

Five minutes later, the Ashford defence committed another foul on the edge of the area - this time, the free-kick was given. Tom Binks was the guilty party, challenging from behind, but taking the man before the ball. With the green wall in place, the kick was squared to Lee Marshall, whose low, hard shot somehow deflected off an Ashford boot and spun over the bar for a corner. That was lucky, as the ball could have gone anywhere, but the boys’ let-off was short-lived, as Dave Taylor scored from the resulting corner, with another crisp, accurate header into the corner of the net. 5-0 !

By now, the game had reverted to the one-way traffic that those of us who could bear to look had witnessed in the first half, but it must be said that all of the Ashford players kept on trying throughout. Grantham, too, kept on pressing, clearly seeing the opportunity to improve their goal difference, just in case the Isle of Wight make a mess of the games they have in hand of them.

Taylor really should have increased the difference by one, and claimed a personal hat-trick for himself, when he burst into the six-yard area after 78 minutes, but he pulled his shot across the face of goal. He had another near thing a minute later - a corner found him unmarked on the edge of the six yard box, in a central position, but his shot, straight at the ‘keeper, was parried by Noden. Gary Bull, following up, tried to sneak the loose ball into the goal from an acute angle, but hit the post.

With six minutes of normal time left, Ashford again conceded a free-kick on the edge of the area, for a “foot up” offence - which seemed a fair enough decision. Three Grantham players took plenty of time to discuss elaborate plans for what they were going to do with this set-piece. In the end, though, they must have confused themselves, as a delicate chip fell into an empty space, nowhere near a striped shirt, and the ball was easily cleared.

Whilst the game was played in a good spirit throughout, there was, out of the blue, one flash-point after 86 minutes. This involved a squaring-up session between Paul Hobbs and Dave Taylor on the far side. Nothing too serious - probably the sort of thing that Roy Keane does every time he sees his Granny - but there was obviously something upsetting the pair of them. It looked like some coloured cards were going to be flashed around, but, after a lengthy lecture, the pair shook hands, and the ref. was able to keep his own “clean sheet”.

The sixth Grantham goal came out of almost nothing - and, although I’ve been going out of my way to be nice to Daniel Noden in this report, I’m afraid I have to say that this was one that really should have been saved. Basically, the ball sat up for Lee Marshall mid-way into the Ashford half - Marshall volleyed it, and, although he caught it fairly cleanly, Noden should have done better than merely deflect the ball into the corner of the net.

So an anxious look at my watch - three minutes to go, and the “Gingerbreads” needed just two goals to equal Crawley’s feat of scoring eight goals against us !  But it was Ashford who were on the attack a minute later, and we won a free-kick for an innocuous sort of a challenge on the left, a few yards from the corner flag. Steve Smith came across to take it, and must’ve thought he was Gary McAllister (except a foot shorter, and with a full head of hair) !  Seeing that the Grantham ‘keeper was out of position, expecting a cross, Smith curled the ball around the near post, into the net, with Ziccardi able only to get a finger-tip to the ball, en route. Nothing more than a consolation goal, of course, but a deserved one, in view of the effort that the team had put in over the 90 minutes, in spite of being thoroughly out-gunned and out-classed. It also means, of course, that Steve Smith has now scored four of the five goals (the other one being a Tom Binks penalty) that Ashford have managed since the departure of Tommy Sampson and his team, so that is certainly something for the new regime to think about !

The goal obviously gave the boys some encouragement, as they came forward looking for a second, but 6-1 was to be the final score. It was nice, though, to see Aaron O’Leary sprinting over to take a throw-in in the dying seconds !

So the expected shellacking did in fact materialise, although our brave lads stuck to the task of damage limitation pretty well. In the context of the season, Grantham Town had improved their goal difference considerably, just as their promotion rivals, Chelmsford and the IoW, had also done recently, but I reckon they’ve a bit too much to do this year. So I expect, and hope, that we’ll be making the trip to Grantham again next season. I just hope, as we all do, that we’ll be able to put out a proper first team, so that next time we can give them a run for their money.