ARCHIVE: Maidstone United v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 2006-7 season.

Maidstone United      3       Ashford Town   2

from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

This turned out to be a pretty depressing evening all round. At the top of the list of reasons to be uncheerful was the horrible injury to Gary Clarke. He went down like he’d been shot, midway through the first half, and with no other player near him. Apparently, something went “pop” in his left knee, and down he went. Once the ambulance eventually arrived, he was given gas and a morphine drip, for the pain, and the talk at half time was of cruciate ligaments and the possibility of a break in there somewhere. I’m not qualified to speculate on this, but it all appears to be very ominous, and I fear that it’ll be a long road back for Gary. The term “gutted” is much over-used in relation to sport, but we were there, at Chatham, when Gary made his début for Ashford, as a 16 year-old - let’s hope that things turn out to be not as serious as they appear.

There was also little solace to be gained from tonight’s result or performance, as the defeat confirms our status as second-bottom of the league, and our reinforced and reshaped team was flattered by the scoreline - we were second-best for the majority of the game, and Maidstone should have done the job more comfortably.

All of this was a great shame, as tonight’s fixture was another eagerly anticipated match – the return of local rivals Maidstone United, who have been elevated to the Ryman League as double-winning champions of the Kent League last season. I was also looking forward to being part of a proper crowd this evening – the attendance was actually 326 – after the experience of gates of 45 (at Waltham Forest) and 101 (at The Homelands) in the previous two matches. This was the second of what will be three visits to Bourne Park, Sittingbourne, before Christmas (my heart has wings !). The Stones are ground-sharing here, pending the building of a new stadium in Maidstone, which is expected to be completed in time for the start of next season, and the match against Sittingbourne, earlier in the season, was abandoned in the first half, due to floodlight failure, and that match is due to be replayed later this year.

Although it’s always nice to have these local derbies, tonight’s game was always going to provide the lads with quite a test, as Maidstone are a useful side. I don’t think that there was ever any doubt about our hosts making the grade at this level - certainly not judging from the example set by previous recent Kent League graduates, such as Cray Wanderers, Chatham and Ramsgate. Sure enough, The Stones began tonight’s game in 11^th position in the league, with three wins, three draws and three defeats from nine games. (Ashford were demoted to 21^st place in the table after the previous evening’s results, namely Godalming Town’s 3-1 victory over Cray Wanderers, the Met Police’s 3-3 draw with Sittingbourne, Tooting & Mitcham’s 2-1 defeat of Dartford and Walton Casuals’ 4-2 win at home to Horsham YMCA – surely there must be some conspiracy !). Maidstone certainly promised to be a different kettle of fish to our opponents in our previous three games, who hadn’t won a match so far this season – until they played us. (It has to be said, however, that Waltham Forest looked to be a far better side than their form figures had suggested, and they sort of confirmed this impression with a 1-3 away victory in a league match last Saturday).

Ashford didn’t have a game last Saturday, which gave our battered and battle-weary troops a welcome break. There has also been the very welcome news that the Club has bolstered the squad with three loan signings, each for a month. One of these, Drew Watkins, is described as an attacking, right-sided defender – this makes perfect sense, given that Tommy Adlington finished the previous match with his head in a sling, and has a one-match suspension coming up (the League Cup game against Cray, next Tuesday), for his sending off against Waltham Forest. Drew comes to us from Tonbridge Angels. The other two loanees are both forwards – Adam O’Neill, from Tonbridge Angels, and Luke Coleman, from Gravesend & Northfleet. This now gives us more strikers than Swan Vesta, but, with five goals from seven league matches so far this season, it’s hard to question the wisdom of this move.

We were speculating on whether it would be Richard Sinden or George Fenwick to make way for a loan striker, and it turned out that they both did, as Tim Thorogood and John Cumberbatch opted for O’Neill and Coleman as a brand new attack, with George and Sinders both on the bench. (This was a little bit rough on Sinders, as I reckon he’s the best striker at the Club, and George has so far knocked in five goals in the equivalent of just over nine games, in all competitions). Luke Coleman looked very competent, and announced his arrival with a well-taken goal after only two minutes; he has no single attribute of size, strength or pace, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Adam O’Neill made less of an impression. Although it’s a bit early to be judgemental, he looked a bit lightweight, and is not much taller than Richard Sinden, and he was substituted after 65 minutes. I notice, from the Tonbridge Angels web-site, that he’s failed to score in 15 starts and three substitute appearances for them so far.

It was no surprise that Drew Watkins, the “right-sided defender”, started, given Tommy Adlington’s present circumstances. There’s no need to describe Drew in detail here, as any Ashford fans bothering to attend Saturday’s game at home to Corinthian-Casuals will spot him immediately – he oozes class in the way in which he moves, and in his demeanour when he has the ball. Think of a right-footed Zenden. Mind you, although he is billed as a defender, and was wearing the No.2 shirt, his role appeared to be totally different to Tommy’s orthodox right-back role. He also came across to me as being more than a wing-back this evening, as I barely saw him do any defending – he was really deployed as a right-sided midfield player, with Joby Thorogood mostly pushing forward as a third striker, in what was quite an enterprising 3-4-3 formation. I have to say that, whatever the outcome of the game, this system was by no means unsuccessful. It gave us plenty of attacking options, Joby seemed to be quite comfy in his role, and, soon after witnessing some of the best defenders in the world go to pieces when asked to play three at the back in Zagreb, I have to say that our back three – Marc Cumberbatch, Dan Tanner and Ian Ross – looked fairly comfortable in open play.

To complete the list of personnel, the three other midfielders were Simon Glover, the captain, on the left, with Anthony Allman and Gary Clarke in the middle. Simon Overland was in goal, with Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, Joffy Thorogood and Joe Hitchings joining George Fenwick and Richard Sinden on the bench. Tommy Adlington was in attendance, looking very butch with a cut, about an inch long, just above his left eye-brow. It actually didn’t require stitching, and I reckon I’ve had worse cuts shaving, but it was decided by The Management not to risk him. Incidentally, I can exclusively reveal that Tommy is to grow a fringe, in an attempt to hide the inevitable scar – we’d like to wish him all the best with his new image. The news is less good about Barry Crawford’s ankle injury – he’s had a bit of a set-back with this, and won’t be able to even train properly for at least two weeks, so faces a little while longer on the side-lines. There was no sign of Morts, but Ports was in attendance – he was wearing one of the new, navy blue Club track-suits, so that’s at least an encouraging sign.

As previously mentioned, Ashford, and Luke Coleman in particular, got off to an excellent start, with a goal in the second minute. Even as we were taking our (padded) seats in the main stand, a ball from the right found Luke unmarked in the Maidstone penalty area – he had time to steady himself and thump the ball past ‘keeper Pat Mullin, into the far corner of the net. There was a suggestion after the game that none of the other strikers at the Club would have scored in this situation – of course, it’s something that we’ll never know, but it’s probably not a bad shout.

The Ashford lead lasted for only ten minutes, though, and the equaliser really originated from a poor clearance from Marc Cumberbatch, from his own six-yard line, as he only got the ball as far as Jimmy Strouts, on the edge of the area. Strouts hoiked the ball back into the danger area, and Lyndon Rowland was there to head past Simon Overland.

It was just a minute later that, with the ball wide on the right-hand side of the pitch, an Ashford player went down in the centre circle. When it was obvious that he was in a great deal of pain, and once we’d worked out, by elimination, that it was Gary Clarke, we all sensed that it must be serious – Gary’s built like a tank, and is not one to make a fuss about receiving a knock, and I can rarely remember seeing him lying on the ground injured. Mo Alvi, our Physio, who himself had his football career curtailed at a young age by injury, put Gary’s leg in a splint whilst the stretcher was found. Gary spent the remainder of the half on the floor of the Referee’s room, and was administered pain relief once the paramedics had arrived. He was carted off to Medway Hospital, accompanied by our intrepid Secretary, whilst the second half was in progress. (The “Ryman League Good Hospitals Guide”, by Elaine Orsbourne, is due to be published in the New Year).

Play eventually restarted after a delay of some five minutes, with Kenny Jarrett-Elliott coming on and taking up a position on the left side of midfield, with Simon Glover switching to the centre. There was, however, no change to Ashford’s basic shape, with Kenny tucking in, and the main forward thrust continuing to be down the right-hand side.

But slightly more thrust came from the home side during the first 45 minutes, and, on the half-hour mark, they had a throw-in, well up-field, as a result of a good tackle by Dan Tanner. This was taken, short, by Jason Barton, and Dan Tanner was again there, putting the cross which came in from the right behind for a corner. Simon Overland came out to claim the cross from the corner, and promptly dropped the ball, but recovered in time to prevent any mishap.

Five minutes later, the Maidstone defence carelessly gave the ball away, to Anthony Allman, who slipped the ball forward into the path of Joby Thorogood. Unfortunately, Joby didn’t have his shooting boots on tonight, and this was one of several shots that he hit wide of the target, pulling the ball across the face of goal. Actually, this chance coincided with a good period of Ashford pressure, as, soon after, we had two corners in quick succession, one from each side, and both taken by Anthony Allman, but both were cleared by The Stones’ defence. The short spell of ascendancy ended when Kenny Jarrett-Elliott’s cross, from the left, was aimed far too close to the Maidstone ‘keeper.

With 41 minutes on the clock – but with the expectation of a considerable amount of injury time – the home side was awarded a hotly-disputed free-kick, for hand-ball against Drew Watkins. This resulted in a long cross, to the far post, which Dan Tanner headed behind, for a corner. Dan’s defensive partner, Marc Cumberbatch, then managed to get enough head to the cross which came in from the corner to clear the danger.

Two minutes later, Maidstone were forced into making a substitution, with Errison Ahwan replacing Jimmy Strouts, presumably due to injury. Soon after, with the arrival of the ambulance providing something of a side-show, Ian Ross was penalised for a push on Lyndon Rowland. The free-kick was taken by Sam Tydeman, crossing the ball into the Ashford area; Simon Overland was challenged for the ball in the air, and appeared to be beaten, but Referee Ian Crouch blew his whistle for a foul, just as Marc Cumberbatch was athletically hoiking the ball off the line.

With 46 minutes on the clock, Dan Tanner had a problem dealing with a bouncing ball, running back towards his own goal, and was beaten to it by Lyndon Rowland. Rowland found Simon Austin, to his left, and in the penalty area; Austin’s shot beat Simon Overland, but Dan had managed to recover, and cleared the ball off the line. Soon after, Kenny Jarrett-Elliott went down, and stayed down, after a challenge, and it was John Cumberbatch who came on with the first aid kit, with Mo Alvi still attending to Gary Clarke. (If this report is reading a little like an episode of “Emergency Ward 10”, which roughly translates as “Holby City”, for younger readers, then that’s because that’s the way it felt at times).

By the same token, if the report is coming across as The Dan Tanner Show, then that’s because he was very much in the thick of things as Ashford rather hung on up to half time. In the 48^th minute, he was tussling with Simon Austin, trying to let the ball run out for a goal-kick, but must have inadvertently touched the ball, as the result of his efforts was a corner – this was headed clear by Rossi. Seconds later, a high, entirely speculative lob from defence by Ryan Royston fell awkwardly behind Dan and in front of Simon Overland, who didn’t seem sure as to whether he should come out or stay back and await the back-pass. As it turned out, Nathan Paul managed to nip in between the two, but could only toe-poke the ball wide of the goal.

It’s a mystery to me why Simon, who’s such an obviously talented goalkeeper, lacks confidence. Standing at 6’ 6”, he should be more commanding than he actually is, and, although he’s capable of some brilliant saves, his ball handling is not always 100% secure. He also has an on-going issue with his kicking, and, with 52 minutes on the clock, he kicked the ball straight to Nathan Paul. The Maidstone No.2 fed the ball forward for Simon Austin, but Ian Ross was there to put the ball behind for a corner. This was taken long, aiming for Mario McNish, the footballing artist formerly known as Mario Celaire, who headed the ball wide of the post, but only after a touch from an Ashford defender. The resulting corner, from the opposite side, the left, was this time well claimed by Simon Overland, and Ashford must have been quite relieved to have survived until half time on level terms.

There was almost a goal right at the start of the second half, when Dan Tanner did Simon Overland no favours with a high, lobbed back-pass to his ‘keeper. This might have been a fairly bizarre own-goal, to rival the cock-up in Zagreb, as the ball was dipping just under the Ashford cross-bar, but Simon actually did rather well to head the ball, almost from off his line, over the bar, for a corner. This was taken by Simon Austin, whose cross was headed up in the air by Ian Ross – Kenny Jarrett-Elliott completed the clearance, acrobatically hooking the ball away, saving another corner, in the process.

Five minutes into the second half, Drew Watkins was again penalised for hand-ball. Simon Austin again took the dead-ball kick, aiming for McNish – the attempted back-header by Super Mario (as the Stones fans no doubt call him) was blocked, and the ball broke to Errison Ahwan, who blasted the ball way over the bar, from the edge of the area.

It appeared that an Ashford goal was most likely to originate from the right-hand side of the field, and, in the 54^th minute, Drew Watkins fed the ball forward to Luke Coleman, just inside the Maidstone half. This move was, alas, ended when Luke was challenged from behind – there was another cry of pain, a prostrate body in the centre-circle, and John Cumberbatch was again in action with the doctor’s bag. It was at about this time that news came through, on the Bush Telegraph, that Gary was being loaded into the ambulance.

The next goal-scoring chance was created by Maidstone, with a corner on the right. This was crossed long, beyond the far post, and was headed clear by Dan Tanner, as the last defender. The ball was slung across into the area once again, and Ahwan got up with a header on goal; this was straight at Simon Overland, but Simon took it well. A minute later, Simon Austin had possession on the edge of the Ashford area. Although he was surrounded by three green-shirted defenders, he managed to wriggle enough room for a shot on goal, and this time Simon Overland was forced into making a good save.

Maidstone were by now well on top, and fully deserved to take the lead, but did so with what I thought was a very soft penalty, in the 59^th minute. The richly talented Mario McNish, who is nominally a centre-half, but can, and does, play anywhere on the pitch, dribbled the ball into the Ashford penalty area, closely attended by Marc Cumberbatch and Drew Watkins. I’m quite sure that Mario had no intention of doing anything other than fall over as soon as any contact was made, and, sure enough, he got a touch, down he went and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. It’s a scenario that is repeated in the modern game, at all levels, probably every day of the week – and any player, and any referee, would have probably done a similar thing. I’m not saying that we were cheated in any way, but it was a penalty that was certainly “played for”, as Mario was looking for the grass as soon as he entered the penalty area. What is not in doubt is that the penalty was expertly stuck away by Simon Austin, thumping the ball into the corner of the net, and The Stones were good value for their 2-1 lead.

Ashford tried to respond, in the 62^nd minute. A clearance from the Maidstone defence went straight to Anthony Allman, who found Adam O’Neill, unmarked in the penalty area, with a good, long cross. O’Neill had time to control the ball, but could do no more than poke the ball straight at ‘keeper Pat Mullin. This was to be Adam’s final chance to score on his Ashford début, as he was replaced by George Fenwick, three minutes later. In the 64^th minute, there was more attacking threat from the home side, as Nathan Paul burst into the Ashford area, but Marc Cumberbatch came across with a saving tackle.

In the 69^th minute, The Stones gave the ball away, and it was Drew Watkins who brought the ball out from defence. This instigated a good, flowing move down the right-hand side, involving Watkins, George Fenwick and Joby Thorogood. This ended with Simon Glover’s attempted cross, from inside the Maidstone penalty area, being blocked, for a corner. In the 73^rd minute, shortly after the impressive Nathan Paul had been replaced by Aaron Lacy for Maidstone, Drew Watkins managed to put Luke Coleman through on goal, with a measured pass, but the lino’s flag went up for off-side.

With 75 minutes on the clock, an equally good ball was played, this time by the home side, through to Simon Austin. Dan Tanner came across with what was very nearly a good, covering tackle, but he arrived just after the ball had gone, and was a little unlucky to be shown the yellow card. Austin stood over the ball at the resulting free-kick, but left it to Errison Ahwan, who blasted the ball well wide of goal, almost into the palletts in the factory yards on the far side.

Ashford did try hard, in search of the equaliser, but the ball would not sit for a clear-cut chance. As usual, Anthony Allman was the man who attempted to run things from the middle of the park, but things didn’t quite come off for him tonight. Drew Watkins also continued to set things in motion from the right side of midfield, but, again, with no end-product. Ashford’s frustration was probably summed up in the 80^th minute, when Ian Ross tried a desperate-looking shot from about ten yards inside the Maidstone area, which went well wide of goal.

With Maidstone’s final substitution seeing Simon Austin replaced by Nick Hegley, the home side took a deserved 3-1 lead, in the 84^th minute, which effectively wrapped up the points. Yet another tackle by Dan Tanner gave The Stones a corner, on the left. This was crossed deep, to the far post, and was headed down by a Maidstone head at the back of a group of four or five players. This effort on goal was actually well saved by Simon Overland, diving low, to his left, at the far post, but Errison Ahwan was there to pop in the rebound, for his first goal for the club.

Maidstone might have extended their lead, in the 86^th minute, when Nick Hegley found himself with a clear chance in the Ashford penalty area, but Dan Tanner was there with a saving tackle. Two minutes later, George Fenwick put Joby Thorogood through on goal with a delicate little lob, but Joby shot well wide of the far post. There was clearly no touch from the defender, but a corner was nevertheless given. Ashford won’t complain about any little crumbs of luck at the moment, and they took full advantage of this little break. Anthony Allman took the corner, on the left, and Joby Thorogood did well to get his header in, on target; this was well saved by Pat Mullin, but, in a near carbon copy of Maidstone’s third goal, George Fenwick was there to put the rebound in, from close range.

Strangely, Maidstone appeared to go to pieces at the back for the last few minutes of the game, with gaps suddenly appearing, and were in danger of throwing away a game that they had previously been well in control of. In the 91^st minute, an Ashford break saw Luke Coleman lay the ball off to Joby Thorogood, which set The Hobbit clean through on goal, but this was probably the worst of Joby’s misses on the night, as he appeared to pass the ball well wide of the goal – a clear sign of a striker lacking in confidence. Two minutes later, after Simon Glover was very late with a tackle on Jason Barton, and was maybe a little lucky that the colour of the card shown to him was only yellow, Ashford had one last opportunity to steal a point that would have been contrary to the overall balance of play. This time it was George Fenwick who put Joby through on goal, but he again shot wide.

Man of the Match

(to go towards the Milton Keynes Bowl)

Dan Tanner