Metropolitan Police 2 Ashford Town 1
from Your Milton Keynes
Correspondent
I’m
pleased to be able to report on the first game of a new season. It’s an
occasion when most clubs’ fans, players and officials set out with a sense of
optimism – “If you can’t be optimistic at the start of the season, then …….” –
but the mood at The Homelands ain’t exactly bullish at present. This might have
something to do with the fact that, after slumping last season to easily the
worst league position the Club has ever achieved, avoiding relegation to the
Kent League by one point, we’ve promptly lost just about all the quality
players we had: Whitehouse, Gardner, Bower, Jones, O’Brien, Evans, Blackman. Marc
Cumberbatch is the one notable exception !
Efforts to rebuild the squad with new, quality players
were scuppered when the bailiffs moved in during the Summer, and threatened the
very existence of the Club – but, to use one of Tim Thorogood’s expressions,
“That’s football, and we move on”. The problem is that Tim yet again starts a
campaign with one leg tied behind his back, going to war with a mixture of last
season’s under-achievers, a handful of last year’s promising ressies and 14 or
15 young trialists.
Our fate this season will probably depend to a large
extent on the coaching skills that John Cumberbatch, now Joint Manager, can
bring to the management team. On the bright side, whilst our main problem last
year was an appalling lack of continuity, there’s no reason why that should be
the case this season. Ominously, though, John has started to play down
expectations at a very early stage, warning that our young and inexperienced
squad will take time to find their feet. Maybe it’s because he’s seen the
fixture list ! After today’s very tough
opening against The Met, three of the next five league games are against teams
that came down from the Premier Division last year!
This is probably our last trip to Imber Court for a
league match, since the further reorganisation of the non-league pyramid for
next season means that there will be six divisions at our level, instead of
four, so we’re likely to lose most of these South-West London fixtures and be
placed in a division made up of Kent, Sussex and South-East London clubs.
The first task on arriving at the ground was to get to
grips with the team line-up, as there were bound to be one or two new faces –
actually, there were seven new names, with Tom Adlington and Joby Thorogood
being the only survivors from the 16-man squad attending the corresponding
fixture last season. Jani Seitsonen is now our first-choice goal-keeper, now
that John Whitehouse has joined the ex-Ashford colony at Tunbridge Wells. With
Tom Ad at No.2, we have a new No.3, in Kennickson Jarret-Elliott, a recent
arrival with, apparently, a reputation for being a class act at this level
almost as long as his name. Alongside Marc Cumberbatch in central midfield we
now have Lynvall Duncan, who has been the subject of good reports from
pre-season friendlies. Up front we had Joby Thorogood and Shaun Bradshaw, with the
midfield four being, from right to left, John-Paull Collier, Richard Boorman,
Eddie Achoko and Ian Ross. John-Paull, who really does spell his name like
that, is an 18 year-old who has previously played for Erith & Belvedere. I
don’t have much information on Richard Boorman, but he’s a strong-looking lad,
who had a reasonable game. (Joffy Thorogood was at the ground, but was unable
to play, having picked up an injury during the final pre-season friendly, on
Monday). Ian Ross, as the new Club Captain, wore the skipper’s arm band – the
automatic choice as captain, of course, fitness permitting. On the bench we had
some more unfamiliar names in Jazhel Bonaparte and Mark Banks, alongside
Solomon Henry, Terry McCann and reserve ‘keeper Sean Glover.
Thankfully, the lads with the longest names all have
more manageable shortened versions: for Jarret-Elliott, John-Paul and Jazhel
Bonaparte, read Kenny, J-P and Jazzy, respectively.
Both teams started at a good tempo, with our boys
looking encouragingly sharp – and we nearly made a dream start. After only two
minutes, Marc Cumberbatch found himself completely unmarked at a corner, but
was unable to prevent his header from going over the bar. The Boys in Blue also
had a couple of half-chances early on. In the fifth minute, big centre-forward
Rob Haworth – who probably never gets called “Rita” - had a snap-shot from long
range which went over the bar, then good inter-play between Haworth and Kevin
Cooper, after 14 minutes, ended with a shot from Haworth that needed a save
from Jani Seitsonen at the near post.
A minute later, the Met Police, playing in all blue,
as a contrast to Ashford’s all yellow strip, took the lead. The Ashford defence
failed to clear their lines, and conceded a corner. The resulting cross was deep
to the corner of the 6-yard box, and Dave Newman managed to hoike the ball back
into the centre – Kevin Cooper headed the ball into the net from almost under
the bar. This was a shame, as the goal came slightly against the run of play.
Ashford tried to respond in the 18th
minute, with a flowing move down the left: Eddie Achoko to Ian Ross, to Joby
Thorogood. Joby cut inside, but his weak shot went well wide, from about 20
yards out. After 21 minutes, however, Joby made amends by becoming our top scorer
for the season. A corner on the left was taken by J-P Collier. Again, the
Police defence failed to pick up Marc Cumberbatch, who headed the ball towards
the far post, and Joby stooped low – even for him – to turn the ball into the
net with his head. One all !
Kenny Jarret-Elliott had a few shaky moments during
the game – not that we’ll be too hard on him on his debut ! – and the first of
these came in the 28th minute. A low cross came in from the left,
and Kenny’s attempt at a clearance went straight to Rob Haworth, but Jani
Seitsonen was easily able to save his weak shot at goal. A minute later, Jani
had a little more to do, when Kevin Cooper ran onto a through-ball from Craig
Brown, into the Ashford area; this time it was a firmer shot that Seitsonen saved,
turning the ball behind for a corner.
It was encouraging that, whilst the home side’s
attacks tended to start with an almightly hoof upfield from goalkeeper Stuart
MacKenzie, Ashford tried to pass the ball around, and a good move put Joby
through on goal in the 36th minute. Unfortunately, (and not for the
first time), Joby’s finishing was found wanting, as his shot went tamely wide.
There was a booking for either side at about this
time. The Blues’ Dave Newman was the first to be cautioned, for a late tackle
on J-P in the 32nd minute, whilst Shaun Bradshaw was booked after
committing a foul in the 39th minute, but I’m pretty sure that the
card was shown for his protest at the decision.
There were some heartening signs of an understanding
developing between our two front men – such as in the 42nd minute,
when Shaun flicked the ball on to release Joby down the right. Joby was hustled
off the ball by the home defence, but managed to win a corner. This was taken
by Ian Ross, on the right, but MacKenzie came out to catch comfortably. Two
minutes later, Joby tried to be the provider for Shaun – approaching the Police
area from the left, he squared the ball to Bradshaw in the area, but Shaun’s
left-foot shot was saved by MacKenzie, diving to his right, on the line.
So the boys went in at half time all square, and
thoroughly deserved to be level. The main questions for the second half were
whether Ashford’s young team would tire in the later stages of the game, and
whether the home side would improve on its fairly sluggish first-half
performance.
The second of those questions was answered
immediately, as, straight from the kick-off, The Met spread the ball long, out
to the right wing. Craig Brown crossed the ball high into the centre, but Leon
Johnson’s header went over the bar. Obviously there had been some words spoken
in the home dressing room – the Blues management might also have picked up on
the fact that Jani doesn’t command his 6-yard box as well as he might.
Five minutes after the break, Ashford had their first
free-kick in a dangerous position – Joby, with his back to goal, had been
flattened by a defender. Skipper Ian Ross took responsibility for the kick,
taking it early, hoping to catch the ‘keeper napping, but MacKenzie made a
comfortable save. Three minutes later, Eddie Achoko – who seems to be an
improved player, compared to last year – struck a good shot from a long way
out, but MacKenzie was again not troubled to make a save.
The boys continued to match the home side up to the
hour mark, but then started to get sloppy and lose possession, and as a
consequence the home side gradually started to get on top. In the 61st
minute, The Met really should have taken the lead. A long, cross-field ball
found Leon Johnson on the left; he had all the time in the world to square the
ball to Kevin Cooper, who, from ten yards out, placed his kick to Jani’s right.
Our Finnish goalie – who’s actually a South London
boy – saved on the line with his foot, and Rob Haworth, following up, managed
to fluff the chance by standing on the ball !
Ashford’s reprieve lasted only three minutes – a deep cross from
left-to-right was side-footed in, on the volley, by Craig Brown, and the Police
were ahead. Inevitably, a question has to be raised about the whereabouts of our
left-back, but it’s early days, and there’s plenty of time to get the defence
sorted out.
Having gone behind, we never really looked likely to
get back on level terms, although, in the 66th minute, Shaun
Bradshaw and Joby Thorogood linked up well, Shaun playing Joby in with a
diagonal pass. Our No.9 cut inside, putting the ball onto his weaker left foot,
and, off balance, he could do no more than scuff the ball tamely wide.
In an effort to force home the advantage, Police
Manager Jim Cooper made a double substitution – Jon Daly and John Hampshire
being sent on in place of Paul Sears and Ian Batten. Tim Thorogood responded,
two minutes later, by replacing J-P Collier with Soly Henry, in his first
first, and only, substitution.
This did nothing to change the pattern of the game,
though, as the home side maintained its grip. In the 70th minute,
The Met won a corner on the right, after Rossi managed to block a cross. This
was taken by Leon Johnson, whose cross was met by substitute Daly, with a powerful
header – Jani made a good save, catching the ball cleanly, but, if the header
had been placed a yard either side of him, it would have been 3-1. In the 82nd
minute, shortly after Rob Tarrant had replaced Rob Haworth, John Hampshire
chipped a ball through to Craig Brown, who once again beat the off-side trap,
but he pulled his shot across the face of goal.
There were some counter-attacks at the other end, but
Mackenzie in the Blues’ goal was never seriously tested. In the 84th
minute, Joby Thorogood ran onto a through-ball from Richard Boorman, but his
first-time shot was pretty weak. Shortly after, Joby ran onto a through-ball
from Sol Henry, but was flagged off-side. After our comeback with two late
goals in the friendly on Monday night, there was always the hope that we could
emulate the feat, and the boys never gave up, but it wasn’t to be. Ashford’s
final chance, in the 91st minute – shortly after Jani Seitsonen had
done well to save a curling shot from Rob Tarrant – fell to Tom Adlington, with
a chance to cross from the right, but his effort turned out to be little more
than a back-pass to the home goal-keeper.
So a flying start to the season for the Metropolitan
Police, and something at last for their Club President, Sir Ian Blair, to smile
about this week ! I personally couldn’t
raise a smile until I got into the bar, to discover that, whilst we started
last season with a 5-1 defeat away to AFC Wimbledon, today it was Folkestone’s
turn to get a first-day thrashing at the hands of The Dons – this time it was
4-1 !
In spite of going away empty handed – which, let’s
face it, was what most of us expected – there was a lot of encouragement that
John and Tim could take from this performance. Our young team matched The Met
for an hour, and there was no hint that the two teams had finished 16 places
apart at the end of last season. It was a fairly solid team performance, with
no individual really standing out, but nobody really had a bad game.
There was, though, a pretty strong consensus among the
few away supporters in the stand, and in the bar, after the game: we need more
power up front, preferably from someone who’s big enough and strong enough to
be a target man. (And, of course, a 25-goals-a-season man would be nice !).
Joby and Shaun linked well on occasions today, but both would be more effective
if they had a big man to play off !
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