ARCHIVE: Horsham v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. April 2005.

Horsham            5       Ashford Town   0

from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

“So it is before the walls of Horsham that we are to meet our fate.”

“How did it come to this ?”

This is a report that needs no build-up in terms of the importance of the game. It’s quite simply the biggest game in Ashford Town FC’s history. Or is it? Certainly, if Dorking win at Whyteleafe today, then the team third-bottom of the league needs to beat the team third from top to avoid our first ever relegation to the Kent League – if Dorking don’t win at Whyteleafe, then Ashford’s trip to Horsham will be purely an academic exercise, since we’ll be safe and the home side is already guaranteed a place in the Ryman league Division 1’s inaugural play-offs.

It was with these mixed emotions that I began the now familiar trek down the M1. Ashford’s destiny is, in theory, in our own hands, as a win would ensure safety, but it was always far more likely that our fate would be decided by whatever happened to the team just a few miles up the A24 from Horsham.

It is probably appropriate that the last game of the season should be at Queen Street, since we’ve been in Queer Street for most of the season, almost making 21^st position our own. The ground is situated in the midst of the town, just off one of the main streets. As well as a largish stand, there is a good depth and length of covered terracing on one side, and there is every indication that Horsham would not be out of place in terms of ground capacity or facilities in the Ryman Premier, should they achieve promotion. The pitch was classic non-league – with a substantial slope from one side to the other, and a less pronounced slope from end to end – but looked in remarkably good condition for the time of year.

On a warm, sunny day, Tim Thorogood sent out the same starting eleven that performed so well against the Metropolitan Police in last week’s 0-0 draw, (so it’s hard to explain why the performance was so different !). This was the now familiar line-up of: Whitehouse, Adlington, O’Brien, Cumberbatch, Blackman, Gardner, Bower (capt.), Achoko, Henry, Jones and Joby Thorogood. The substitutes were also the same as last week: Bradshaw, Ritrovato, Holmes, Ross and Seitsonen. It was the usual 4-4-2 formation, with Barry Gardner generally pushing up as the forward-most midfielder. With Horsham in yellow shirts – their colours are officially amber shirts and socks, with “Lincoln Green” shorts – Ashford turned out, once again, in their home strip.

Willed on by easily the largest contingent of travelling supporters of the season, Ashford immediately showed their intent to go for a win this afternoon, and the first three minutes were played in Horsham’s half. The home side soon responded, however, and Lee Blackman was forced into conceding corners in the fourth and fifth minutes.

Things started to go pear-shaped when we suddenly went two goals down – as they often do !  The first goal, in the twelfth minute, actually followed a short period of Ashford pressure. With plenty of players committed up-field, the normally reliable Paul O’Brien lost the ball just inside the Hornets’ half, and we were back-peddling and struggling straight away. Jamie Taylor fed the ball wide to John Westcott; John Westcott crossed the ball in from the right, for Taylor, who had dashed into the penalty area, to nod past John Whitehouse. It was that simple !

A minute later, Horsham were on the attack once again. The ball was chipped beyond the Ashford defence, for Taylor to run on to; he got to the ball just before the advancing John Whitehouse, and toe-poked it past the ‘keeper, into the net. Two goals in two minutes, and already the plan to go all out for victory was in tatters – Plan B, to let Whyteleafe get us off the hook, was about to be put into operation.

Whatever the tactics or the intentions, what followed was an embarassingly inept performance, largely devoid of spirit, from a group of players that had performed so well in preceeding weeks to eke out good results against teams in the top third of the division. I’m not here to offer excuses or explanations, but my take on it is that, with those two quick goals, the rigours of a long season suddenly caught up with the boys. The game certainly turned into the most one-sided game that I’ve witnessed for many years – in the same category as the 6-1 shellacking we suffered at Grantham when Tim first took over, when he was left with a rag-bag Dad’s Army of a team consisting of the very old and the very young. It’s not that Ashford didn’t try to get into the game, because they did – it’s more a case that nothing they attempted was effective, and the home side used the remainder of the game for target practice, prior to the more important play-offs.

Ashford put together a promising move in the 15^th minute. This ended up with the ball being played wide to Barry Gardner, with plenty of space ahead of him, but his first touch took him wide, giving him a difficult angle, and Mark Fox in the Horsham goal was easily able to come out and block. I think that most Ashford fans are agreed that Barry’s best position is here, on the right side of midfield, where he is forward enough to threaten the opposition. Unfortunately, Tim Thorogood’s comment, during the fourth game of the season, away to Leatherhead, that Barry “couldn’t finish a bag of crisps”, sprang to mind on several occasions this afternoon – this explains why Barry doesn’t score more goals than he does.

It wasn’t long before Horsham were stroking the ball around the park – buoyed by the two-goal lead. After 17 minutes, Westcott, who was a constant threat with his service from the right side of midfield, sent in an angled cross to the edge of the six-yard box. Gary Charman stooped low to head the ball, after it had bounced, but his effort went comfortably over the bar.

Halfway through the first half, there was activity on the Ashford bench, with Tony Ritrovato getting ready to come on. Whilst he was having a last comb of the hair, there was a nasty clash of heads, off the ball, involving Lee Blackman and Lee Carney. This held up play for fully three minutes. Eventually, Blackman was replaced by Ritrovato, but this was going to happen anyway, and had nothing to do with the clash of heads – Lee was actually quite ill, and had reportedly thrown up just before the match. This condition can be described in many different, graphic ways; driving the porcelain bus, laying a pavement pizza, enjoying oneself in reverse, giving it the technicolour yawn and talking to God on the big white telephone are just a few examples. The point, though, is that it had been a gamble to start with Lee, but, given the necessity to go all out for a win today, it was a gamble that Tim T had felt he had to take.

No sign of an Ashford chance during the first half hour – just the usual sight of poor old Joby scuttling around like Toulouse-Lautrec, competing for high balls and barely getting up to chest height against his taller markers – but the first morsel of good news of the afternoon arrived in the 31^st minute: Whyteleafe had taken the lead against Dorking ! 

In the 34^th minute, there was the rare sight of Paul Jones with the ball at his feet and facing the opposition’s goal – not waist-deep with markers, for once. His lay-off, right, to Barry Gardner was over-hit, though, and Barry did well to get a cross in from the by-line, just preventing the ball from going out of play. Goalkeeper Fox just managed to gather the ball at the near post, in spite of Joby’s efforts to worry him out of it.

Ashford were at least organised at the back, with the offside trap working well, and this was keeping the boys in the game. There were also one or two half-chances: Eddie Achoko had a speculative shot from about 25 yards, in the 36^th minute, that went tamely wide of the post, and then, three minutes later, Joby won a free-kick a little way inside the Horsham half. This was taken quickly, to Paul Jones, who once again tried to play in Barry Gardner, who at times looked like he was playing as a third striker. Fox was quickly out of his goal, and managed to deflect the ball behind for a corner – this was taken by Paul O’Brien, but was easily cleared. In the 40^th minute, Paul Jones, coming deep, was again the provider for Barry Gardner, with a first-time lob for Barry to chase. Although the Supporters’ Player of the Year had plenty of time and space, he had few options, and merely blasted the ball wide. (The image of a bag of crisps flashed into my mind once again).

Although there was never any indication that Ashford might threaten to score the three goals required to seize salvation, they had at least established some sort of foot-hold in the game, and might still have made a game of it if they’d manged to score before half time; unfortunately, it was the home side that scored the next goal. With 41 minutes on the clock, the ball was spread wide to Jamie Taylor, on the left edge of the Ashford penalty area. He was easily able to turn Tony Ritrovato, and, in spite of Ritrovato having a little pull at his shirt, took the ball into the area and slammed it into the net for an embarrassingly simple goal. More to the point, Taylor’s 28^th goal of the season completed a first-half hat-trick. So 3-0, and John Whitehouse still had not made a save.

The half-time whistle couldn’t come quickly enough for Ashford Town, and a rare loss of control, in the 44^th minute, from Marc Cumberbatch in defence almost led to a fourth goal – Lee Carney really could have walked the ball into the net, but instead his shot sailed over the bar, but must have got a deflection, as a corner was awarded. This was cleared, but a minute later Horsham had another corner, after John Whitehouse made a good diving save to stop a long-range shot, deflected via Tom Adlington, from creeping inside his left-hand post. Again, the resulting cross was cleared.

With news filtering in from South London that Whyteleafe had extended their lead to 2-0, it was Ashford’s turn to win a corner, but, once again, we appeared to be at our most vulnerable when pressing forward. From the corner, Horsham broke out of defence, and soon had a three-against-one situation, with Tom Adlington looking like he was cast in the role of one of those girls in those porn films (which I’ve never seen). Fortunately for Tommy, the Horsham forwards failed to press their advantage, and Ashford eventually managed to get men behind the ball, before Adlington conceded a free-kick for a late tackle on the edge of the area. To make matters worse, Ashford’s only ex-Horsham player got a yellow card for the offence, from referee Paul Faulkner, who had also been in charge of our game away to Banstead Athletic. John Westcott took responsibility for taking the free-kick, but his shot curled just over the bar.

Half time came as a merciful relief.

Ashford came out for the second half with plenty of spark, hoping to get back into the game with an early goal. In the first minute of the second period, Jonah fed the ball to Matt Bower, whose diagonal ball to the right side of Horsham’a defensive line found Joby, but The Hobbit was offside. A minute later, Matty, who struggled for form throughout the game, went on a solo run through the middle, beating two players, but finishing up with a flick with the outside of his right foot which never looked like succeeeding, and the ball was easily gathered by ‘keeper Fox.

This mini-revival was snuffed out by the fourth Horsham goal, which came as early as the 49^th minute. Lee Carney and John Westcott combined well down the right flank, and the subsequent cross cannoned off an Ashford defender’s arm (I think it was Marc Cumberbatch) for what looked like a regulation corner. The hyper-active Lino on the near side was flagging like mad, and his signal led the referee to award a harsh penalty. There was no doubt about who was going to take the kick – Jamie Taylor stepped up, and smashed the ball high and hard into the middle of the goal, and, although John Whitehouse got both palms to the ball, the power of the shot was such that he could do nothing more than parry the ball into the roof of the net. Goal number 29 for Taylor for the season, and his fourth of the game (in case you’d lost count !).

At the time of this fourth goal, news also wafted across that Whyteleafe had now taken what was almost certainly going to be an unassailable 3-0 lead. This created a very strange mix of emotions. The most important issue, of course, was that we were saved. We’d performed The Great Escape. From being seven and eight points adrift a few weeks ago, we’d somehow managed to avoid the embarrassment of relegation to the Kent League. Yet there was still embarrassment at the way our boys were performing out there, and relying on the efforts of others is surely the most inglorious way in which to achieve an objective – like an army in disarray, fleeing the field of battle, only to find out that the war had been won by an ally on a battlefield elsewhere.

The Ashford players surely must have known of the situation at Whyteleafe, and, with it becoming increasingly obvious that the game at Queen Street was of no relevance, the match became more and more one-sided during the remaining 41 minutes. There were signs of our boys becoming increasingly jaded and disillusioned. In the 51^st minute, Horsham’s John Westcott took a corner, short, to Carlo Castrechino; the full-back’s cross was mis-hit for a goal-kick, but the point was that no Ashford defender was alive to the possibility of the kick being taken short, and Castrechino could have walked the ball into a dangerous position.

Two minutes later, Horsham were indulging themselves in their training ground party-pieces, and attempted a one-two in the Ashford area. Tony Ritrovato intercepted, but thumped a clumsy back-pass to the already-advancing John Whitehouse; the ball ricocheted off John’s shins, and could have gone anywhere. (If Barry Gardner and Shaun Bradshaw could hit a shot like Tony Ritrovato can hit a back-pass, we’d score twice as many goals !).

In the 55^th minute, Tom Adlington managed to get caught in possession by Gary Charman, but Eddie Achoko came across to cover, putting the ball behind for a corner. Whilst the corner was dealt with comfortably enough, a minute later, Horsham were again attacking on Tommy Adlington’s side of the field. When the in-swinging cross came in, Charman stole in to head the ball into the corner of the net – this was his 17^th goal of the season, but this still only made him the Hornets’ fourth-highest scorer. Of greater importance was the fact that this was his 100^th goal, in his 302^nd appearance, for Horsham. He must have been delighted to achieve this milestone in the final scheduled game of the season, and duly celebrated with the home fans behind the goal by pulling his shirt over his head – enthusiasm was dampened by the collection of a yellow card for this strange, but harmless, celebration.

During the aftermath of the fifth goal, Tim Thorogood made a substitution, putting Shaun Bradshaw on for Sol Henry (who continues to disappoint, in spite of his obvious skill on the ball) – this meant that Joby could drop back into midfield, on the left, with Bradshaw joining Paul Jones up front.

Before Shaun saw the ball, there was more action at the other end, with the Ashford defensive line (for once, admittedly) all over the place. Appeals for offside were in vain, but Paul O’Brien saved the day by putting the ball behind for a corner.

With the home side now using the match for a bit of gentle practice, Ashford did manage a breakaway in the 61^st minute. Barry Gardner carried the ball through the centre of the midfield, and had both Paul Jones and Shaun Bradshaw poised on the shoulder of their marker, ready for the through-ball. When things are going like clockwork, and the team is buzzing, the decision as to when to trigger that pass must come naturally and instinctively. Unfortunately, nothing seems to flow naturally with the Ashford side at present, and Barry certainly delayed his pass for too long. When he eventually found Paul Jones, Jonah was wide on the right – he squared the ball to Matt Bower, but the skipper’s shot was a buttock-clenchingly embarrassing miss-hit, which spiralled all of five yards from his right foot. The crowd of 350, in summer festival mood, was beginning to warm to the theme of miss-kicks and miss-placed passes from the visitors, and began to enjoy the comedy.

In the 64^th minute, Florian Mateos easily turned Tony Ritrovato, on the edge of the Ashford area, but his shot went straight at John Whitehouse. A minute later, Mateos found himself in space in the Ashford area, and squared the ball to Jamie Taylor, who was seeking his fifth goal, but Taylor’s shot was blocked.

There was more slap-stick entertainment for the home supporters in the 66^th minute, when Eddie Achoko missed the ball completely when attempting a clearance, and the ball ran behind for another corner. Again, it was Mateos who ended up having a shot, but this time his effort dribbled tamely to John Whitehouse. Ashford counter-attacked immediately, and, with some time and space in midfield (where he’d dropped off to), Paul Jones was able to slot a through-ball behind the Horsham defence for Shaun Bradshaw; the substitute managed to get to the ball before the defender, but slotted the ball wide of the goal as the goalkeeper came out.

Perhaps the home side relaxed their grip a little, with the game well and truly sewn up and the play-offs looming, as there were chances for a consolation goal for Ashford Town. In the 69^th minute, a Paul O’Brien free-kick on the right – it was good to see O’B in charge of most of the corners and free-kicks – was floated into the area, but no-one was able to apply the decisive touch, the ball going behind for a goal-kick. Four minutes later, Shaun Bradshaw had another attempt at goal, but this was a tame, off-target shot from outside the area.

In the 79^th minute, after the Hornets had replaced Tom Graves with Eddie French, Joby Thorogood, who had looked much more effective since dropping back, after the arrival of Bradshaw, burst clear in midfield. Once again, it was a question of timing the through-ball for the forward runners who were poised level with the Horsham back-line. Not for the first time, the execution lacked quality, and Joby’s ball for Barry Gardner was over-hit.

Two minutes later, after Horsham’s second substitution had seen Wes Lopez replace Gary Charman – probably so that Charman could get his ovation from the crowd – Florian Mateos turned Tony Ritrovato with ease, yet again, and Tony could do nothing but have a nibble at his ankles. This gave Horsham a free-kick on the edge of the area, but they were unable to convert the opportunity. Horsham continued to apply the pressure on the Ashford defence, in search of a sixth goal which would probably not have flattered them. In the 86^th minute, this pressure resulted in Jamie Taylor, who was looking for his own fifth, shooting on the turn from about ten yards out, but his shot went just wide of the post.

A minute later, Joby – now in his provider’s role – sent in a cross from the left. This should have been an easy clearance for Andy Walker, but he badly sliced his nine-iron, and the ball just spun wide of Fox’s far post. Paul O’Brien again supplied the resulting corner, and Marc Cumberbatch got up well to meet the cross, but his header went just over the bar – but at last a recognisable aerial threat from a corner !

In spite of his improved performance since dropping back to midfield, Joby was eventually subbed, in the 89^th minute; this was another token run out for Ian Ross – his second since his broken leg nightmare on the Isle of Wight last season – but it did bring easily the biggest cheer of the afternoon from the bitterly disappointed band of travelling Ashford supporters. (There have been suggestions that the cheering was for Joby going off, but I like to give human nature the benefit of the doubt, and take it that this was more a warm reception for the appearance of a very popular player, whom we hope to see playing a full part for Ashford Town next season). Whilst last week, against the Police, Rossi didn’t actually touch the ball, this time he played a handful of short, first-time passes – the second-biggest cheer was for his first touch ! - and assisted in the bundling over of Jamie Taylor in the 91^st minute.

After just two minutes of injury time, the nightmare on Queen Street was over. I thought it was a nice touch for a group of the Ashford players to go over and thank a section of the Ashford fans who had bothered to come and support the team this afternoon. It was later claimed that they had actually gone over to apologise, but this was still a nice, spontaneous gesture. It had certainly been just about the worst performance that I’ve ever seen from an Ashford team, but we have to acknowledge that these are the same players that had recently dug out good results against teams battling for play-off places – i.e. Tooting, Leatherhead, the Met. Police. There were seven valuable points gained in these matches, and you could argue that these results did far more to save the Club from relegation than Whyteleafe’s defeat of Dorking.

The result from Whyteleafe was eventually a 3-1 win for the home side, so Dorking were relegated, instead of us. Mission accomplished ?  Not really. The not-unreasonable aspiration for the season had been at least a play-off place, so the season cannot be regarded as being anything but a miserable failure. (And, in fairness, nobody associated with the Club’s management is suggesting anything to the contrary). Of course, it could have been a much, much worse outcome. Consider the fate of our old rivals Erith & Belvedere. They were, by coincidence, in an almost identical situation to us, in the Southern League Eastern Division, on Saturday morning. They also lost their final game of the season, but, whereas we had a let-off with our relegation rivals also losing, the Deres must have been horrified to learn that Great Wakering Rovers had managed a 0-1 win at Chatham !  So Erith & Belvedere go down to the Kent League next year, whilst we survive by the margin of a single point !

Although it was the Marquis De Sade who gave his name to the word “Sadism”, I will show that Your Milton Keynes Correspondent is no stranger to the concept, by having a final look back at the season – although consenting adults need not read it if they don’t think they can cope !

In terms of our finishing position, 20^th in Ryman Division 1 is a big drop on our 12^th in the Doc Martens (East) last season – in fact it is roughly equivalent to 27^th in last season’s division – and this after we’d established ourselves in mid-table in that league for the past four seasons. We can put our decline into perspective by noting that we have finished below both Newport (Isle of Wight) and Fleet Town – both regular whipping boys in our division in previous seasons.

Attendances have also collapsed. We had run up a sequence of three successive seasons of increasing the average home gate: this was 253, 256, 271 and 284, from seasons 2000-1 to 2003-4, inclusive. This season the average gate has been 243, even with the four-figure bonanza we had with the AFC Wimbledon game. The median gate is often a better indicator of the underlying trend – since it eliminates the freakishly high and freakishly low gates – and this had been pretty steady during the same previous four seasons: 266, 244, 267, 269. The fact that this season’s median was down to 213 confirms what we already know – that the Club has lost a substantial number of its core supporters. The aggregate total for cup games, of course, was almost a complete wipe-out, totaling just 139, for the home Kent Senior Cup tie against Sittingbourne, whereas it was 1,299 last season.

Sorry to be miserable, but there it is.

Next year, of course, we can look forward to some good local derby crowds, (i.e not a large number of little local derbies, which we would have had if Dorking had won at Whyteleafe !), with Tonbridge Angels, Dover Athletic and Hastings United all in our division next season. Depending on how the geographical boundaries are drawn next year, we might also have the benefit of playing Ramsgate, Bromley, Chatham, Dartford, Cray Wanderers and Sittingbourne. There are also whispers that one of my favourite players might be coming back to Ashford for next season, so there’s plenty to look forward to.