ARCHIVE: Whyteleafe v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 2004-5 season.

Whyteleafe         3       Ashford Town   0

from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

We have a club with something of a split personality at the moment. Whilst things have rarely been so good off the field, it must be said that, on the field, Ashford Town FC is at its lowest ever ebb.

[ Lowest so far, that is. I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a Croydon fan at half-time when we played down at their place earlier this month. He asked me if I had been an Ashford fan all my life. “Well, no, because I’m not dead yet” was my reply – which seemed to make perfect sense at the time. I suppose the same applies in the context of a football club. ]

It’s difficult to know how much worse it could get, though. Not only are we three leagues below the Conference, for the first time in our history, but we’ve somehow contrived to spend some time at the bottom of a league where attendances in double figures are not uncommon. Our own home attendances are averaging 210 at the moment – well down on last season’s average of 284 – but there are still only four or five clubs in our division who will beat that. We’ve since managed to shoot up to 19^th, but the fact remains that we’ve won only two games since April in all competitions, including friendlies, and we’ve already dipped out of three cup competitions at the first hurdle – the home Kent Senior Cup tie against Sittingbourne could be our only home cup match of the season. Oh, and most of our decent players have either left, or are on the injury list.

Contrast that lot with the health of the Club off the field. With the now infamous John Gurney at arm’s length, most of the Club’s debts now paid off and the whole show now being run properly, we must be one of the most financially sound clubs in non-league football. Not only that, but there are good income streams coming in. The cash from the ground-sharing arrangement with Margate is like off-shore oil to us (only temporary), the function facilities at The Homelands provide a good income and there is talk of bits of new money coming into the Club. It’s for these reasons that there are still some of us who believe that better times must be just around the corner, but it all seems to require endless patience.

But wait. Cometh the hour, cometh the man !  We now have a high-profile Manager on the bridge. Former Queen’s Park Rangers, Spurs and England player Terry Fenwick has taken on the job, with a position as Director to confirm his commitment. This can only be good news for the Club. As well as having had a glittering playing career, Terry has more than proved himself as a Manager, at Crystal Palace, Spurs and Barcelona – he’s also shown that he still has an appetite for the game more recently, with short spells at Leeds United and Middlesbrough.

Terry won’t need to learn to speak Catalán for this task, but he has to realise that this is not a negligible job that he’s taken on. Ashford is a town of over 65,000 people – if you include the rural district, which extends right down to Romney Marsh, the population is pushing 100,000. El Tel needs to know that he carries with him the hopes and dreams of, oh, literally dozens of people.

Fortunately, the fixture list has offered our new leader the chance to make some headway. Whyteleafe are also struggling at the wrong end of the table, and lost 0-5 to Horsham last week. After that we’re at home to Banstead on Tuesday, and they’re one place below us, and also struggling for form. Every chance of some return from the next two games, then. Unfortunately, Whyteleafe and Banstead will also be fancying their chances – and with some justification !

I’d never heard of Whyteleafe – either the place or the football team – before they had a good run in the FA Cup a few years back. Remember cup runs ?!  Needless to say, as with all the games I’ll see this season, it’s a place I’ve never been to before. But, as expected, the ground was situated in a fairly leafy part of Surrey. It’s quite a neat little stadium, freshly painted in green and white. Surrounded by trees on three sides, the ground has its main stand behind one of the goals; a smaller concrete stand with seats for club directors is on the half-way line, on the opposite side to the dug-outs. The pitch looked in good condition, and had a characteristic non-league slope.

One thing I forgot to mention when pronouncing that most of our decent players are either gone or missing, is that we actually acquired one or two decent players from our mugging of Southall FC. (That was straight from the George W Bush School of Mergers and Take-overs – but who cares ?). The player I’m thinking of in particular is Byron Glasgow (ex-Reading), who has the class and the knowledge to really lead the midfield. Unfortunately, he picked up an injury at Tooting on Tuesday, so was missing today. Also watching from the stand were the much-missed trio of Matt Bower (who scored for the reserves in mid-week), Paul O’Brien and Paul Jones; Aaron O’Leary, who also turned out for the ressies on Wednesday, was also missing, and there was still no sign of Lee Blackman.

It was good to see John Whitehouse back between the sticks, with Will Toal having done a sound job in John’s absence. (If the reports of this French goalie in the reserves – Karl Levielle – are correct, we could almost say that our three best players are all goalkeepers !). Barry Gardner continued his partnership in central defence with Steve MacKenzie; Tom Adlington was at No.2 (a more natural position for him than centre-half), but there was a new lad at left-back: Chris Barrett. Chris is a product of Frank Gill’s scouting and recruitment skills, and looked the part. He’s tall and athletic, and seems comfortable with the ball at his feet.

I was also pleased to see Joby in a central striking role, rather than being wasted wide. He was partnered by the bulky and immobile (but obviously talented) Andre Robinson, who wore the captain’s arm-band today. Robinson tended to be furthest forward, so the idea was probably to use his strength, so that Joby might profit from some knock-downs. I might as well list the midfield, but they were largely irrelevant, as they tended to have balls punted over their head like mortars, and they barely featured in the match. In the middle we had John Mighty and another new boy, Dean Clement, with the Dussard brothers playing wide – Erron on the right, and Leon on the left. On the bench we had Chris Holmes, Joffy, Tom Evans, Marvin Elliott and Toal, the substitute goalie.

One thing I must say, before I start on the bad news, was that the weather played a blinder. After some filthy weather during the week, today was bright, sunny and mild. Unfortunately, if the scoreline and other eye-witness accounts have not already told the story, I have to report that this was a clueless performance by Ashford Town. There aren’t many weaker teams left in our division to test ourselves against, but we failed to create anything of note, and this unexceptional lot ultimately played us off the park.

The ball was in the Ashford net as early as the 12^th minute, but we were saved by the referee’s whistle. A Whyteleafe free-kick from near the corner flag was cleared, but a second cross came in from an almost identical position, curling into the far post, under John Whitehouse’s cross-bar. The ball was somehow bundled into the net, but the referee must have seen a foul on the goalkeeper.

The home side, playing in Celtic colours of green and white hoops, white shorts and white socks, kept a tight line at the back, and had the off-side trap working well from an early stage. Their main threat appeared, early on, to be from crosses, particularly from Chris Head, on the left. Ashford, in contrast, played their own brand of one-touch football.

I should explain this term. When Arsenal and Brazil play one-touch football it consists of short, incisive passes, and is beautiful to watch. The non-league version of one-touch football is played by poor players who feel ill at ease on the ball – they treat the ball like a hot potato, and hoof it away as soon as they get it. Passes are mainly long and hopeful, and the result is most often to give the ball away to the opposition. Now I’m not suggesting that it’s a tactic that the team discusses beforehand: “make sure you boot the ball as far as you can, whenever you can, boys”. It’s probably more a symptom of a lack of confidence, and, I’m afraid, a lack of quality in the playing staff that Terry currently has at his disposal. I think it’s probably fair to say that there was never a moment when the boys really got the ball down and tried to knock it around.

Back to the tale of woe. The next scare came after 16 minutes, when a header from Whyteleafe’s Gareth Graham, who has recently returned to Church Road, thumped against the foot of the post. A corner was awarded, so it seems reasonable to give John Whitehouse credit for making a save. John also got a good fist to the resulting corner.

The first recognisable chance for the yellow-shirted visitors was on 23 minutes. Leafe ‘keeper James Wastell had to come out to deal with a through-ball from Mighty John, and, finding himself outside his area, had to head clear, under pressure from Joby. With the goal unattended, Erron Dussard tried a first-time lob – a good idea, but his attempt went wide.

There’s no doubt that the home side had the better of the first half, but the Ashford defence held firm. Steve Mackenzie kept good tabs on the Whyteleafe centre-forward, and the off-side trap worked to good effect on occasions. Young Barry is looking comfortable at the back, but I get the impression that he’s sometimes too much of a footballer for that position, and is inclined occasionally to get caught in possession.

The best move, and the biggest round of applause, of the half came five minutes before the interval, and it featured Leafe’s Player-Manager, Stuart Massey. Fat ?  Yes. Bald ?  Yes. Ugly ?  I’m terribly sorry, but he stood out as the best player on the pitch this afternoon. A mazy run from Massey took him well into the Ashford penalty area, and he had the presence of mind to chip a cross to Lewis Taylor, on the right. Taylor caught the ball sweetly, on the volley, but blasted it just over the bar.

It must be said that Ashford came out for the second half with more purpose, and had a good little spell for about seven minutes. We actually won a corner after 48 minutes, and, shortly after, Erron Dussard had a shot on target from just outside the area, but ‘keeper Wastell was comfortably behind it. In the 50^th minute, Andre Robinson collected the ball on the edge of the area, and a neat turn took him into the Whyteleafe box, but his effort was smothered by the home defence.

After this brief revival, however, the rest of the game was mainly one-way traffic. On 55 minutes, the Whyteleafe boss took a corner on the right, and played it short – à la Tottenham Hotspur, which must have seemed a bit ironic to El Tel – to Richard Williams, but the home No.8 could only hoike the ball over the bar.

Whyteleafe were now starting to play some decent football, and the pressure on the Ashford goal was building. In an effort to turn the tide, Terry brought off both Dussard brothers on the hour mark – or maybe their Mum had rung to say they had to go home for their tea – and put on Tom Evans and Joffy Thorogood. A minute later, though, it was the home side that had a free-kick in a dangerous position near the corner flag, after a little shove from Mighty John. That man Massey once again took the kick, and an excellent curling cross to the near post was met by the head of Williams, but he could only put the ball wide of goal.

In the 63^rd minute, another threatening move from Leafe resulted in the Ashford defence forcing the ball behind for a corner. Massey curled the ball dangerously under JW’s cross-bar, and a short session of head tennis ended with a header into the Ashford net, to give the home side a deserved lead.

The boys tried to respond three minutes later, and had a free-kick wide on the right. The cross into the centre found Dean Clement on the edge of the “D”, but his attempted bicycle kick was charged down.

After 68 minutes, Whyteleafe went 2-0 up, and this one was a really bad goal to concede. Quite simply, a regulation throw-in found Kevin Lock (not the former West Ham centre-half !) totally unmarked in the penalty area, and he had the simple job of thumping the ball home. This caused a great deal of arguing and arm-waving among the Ashford defenders, and for a time it seemed that things might go seriously pear-shaped, and any number of goals seemed likely. Our players now also started to show a good deal of frustration, and got a bit tetchy, and the referee had to be on his toes to calm down the odd flare-up. Of course, it didn’t help that Whyteleafe now started to play with the confidence of a team with a two-goal lead. Ashford still persisted with the first-time long balls.

Somehow, we got through this shaky period without conceding another goal, and without getting a player booked, and we actually created a chance, after 81 minutes. Predictably, this came from a dead-ball situation. Tom Adlington floated a long free-kick into the Whyteleafe box; centre-half Steve MacKenzie got up to meet it, but headed wide.

Ashford also put together their best (and only) passing move of the game with five minutes to go. Chris Barrett won the ball near his own corner flag, and carried it up-field. The move, involving Joffy in the centre, swept the ball to the right wing position, but the home defence managed to scramble the ball out for a throw. (Material there for the forthcoming Ashford Town club video – “101 Greatest Throw-ins”).

Suitably encouraged, Barrett went on another run, cutting inside, a minute later. This time he was dispossessed, and found himself hopelessly out of position. The ball was fed wide to substitute Richard Thompson, in acres of space in the left-back position that Barrett had vacated; he managed to find a Whyteleafe forward in the centre, but the resulting tame shot was straight at John Whitehouse.

By the time Tom Evans won a corner, in the 93^rd minute, Ashford’s only hope was to get a consolation goal, but it was the home side that was to score again. With 95 minutes on the clock, Whyteleafe virtually walked the ball into the net for their third goal. Fittingly, it was the Player-Manager who played the final pass, from the edge of the six-yard box, and the tap-in was a formality.

Meanwhile, back at The Homelands, Margate were making more pennies for us by entertaining Weston-super-Mare – but the performance of the team on the pitch this afternoon illustrated the size of the task facing the new Manager. It’s true to say that this wasn’t anywhere near to being the strongest team that we can put out, once everyone is back from injury, but the boys need to pull themselves together quickly and get some sort of result against Banstead on Tuesday. Banstead got a 3-2 victory at Croydon today, so that moves us down a place, to third-bottom.

It was hard for the small band of Ashford supporters to raise even a wry, philosophical smile at the end of the game, as it was all very dispiriting. Worse than that, there were some real die-hard supporters in Surrey today who gave the distinct impression that they were losing the will to keep following the team – I hope they can find the strength to give it another ten years !  Mrs Milton Keynes Correspondent and me ?  We’ll be doing it again next week, in Croydon, for the rearranged fixture against Croydon Athletic – eyes glazed, and wondering why we do it, but we’ll be there.