Tunbridge Wells 2 Ashford United 1
From Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent
I
love the cricket season – but one of its drawbacks is that it overlaps with the
start of the footy season, so I have to observe the start of each of Ashford’s
campaigns from afar. I am quite happy to give my umpiring duties priority, but
it is my dearest wish, every August, that the lads will at least still be in
the FA Cup by the time I am able to attend my first football match.
This
season, alas, my beloved Club has really excelled itself. Although I am able to
report for duty for the team’s sixth game of the season, we are not only out of
the FA Cup, but manager Paul Chambers has been sacked, some of our best players,
including the irreplaceable Stuart Zanone, have left the Club and my old friend,
Alan Orsbourne, is no longer the physio. With Tunbridge Wells also coming to
terms with a life without long-serving manager Martin Larkin, it was hard to
know what to expect of today’s game.
In spite of the number of changes made to the playing
personnel, it has to be said that new player-manager Danny Lye still has a squad
full of Ryman League-standard quality at his fingertips, and the Ashford United
starting line-up looked both strong on paper, and composed and very capable on
the Culverden Stadium’s lush, green pitch.
After fielding four different goalkeepers in the first
five matches of the season, the man with the gloves on this occasion was Dan
Eason, who comes to us from Hythe Town, (with the highly-rated Joe Mant going
in the other direction – and well done, Joe, on your first clean sheet for
Hythe , this afternoon). Given that Mant’s lack of height was given as part of
the rationale for telling him that he could go and find another club, I was
very surprised to find that Eason is actually even shorter, although his
handling and distribution were very good, today. Wearing the No.2 shirt was an
old Ashford Town favourite – Tony “Browne Dog” Brown, who, prior to this
season, had played his last game in an Ashford shirt at home to Kingstonian, in
the final match of the 2008-9 season. I understand that he is 37 now, but he
looked as fit today as he did the last time I saw him. On the other side, at
left-back, was a new signing – Chris Elliott, who joins us on a dual
registration arrangement with Folkestone Invicta.
In central defence, we still, thank goodness, have the
tower of strength and fount of experience that is Pat Kingwell. Alongside him
now is ex-Maidstone United defender Nathan Paul, about whom I have been reading
glowing reports. I wasn’t disappointed. He looks a class act at the back, and
was probably our best player this afternoon. In central midfield we had Gary
Clarke and Micky Phillips – but with Phillips wearing the skipper’s armband. This
change in leadership was (almost certainly) due to the fact that Gary was
playing his final game, today, before going off to have an operation on his
troublesome groin. We will be several weeks without Gary, but let’s hope that
he makes a full recovery.
There was also quality on either side of midfield, in Ashford’s
4-4-2 formation, in the form of Darren Marsden and Jamie Collado, and class up
front, with player-assistant manager Shaun Welford partnering ex-Tunbridge Wells
forward Paul Booth. This is the first time I have seen Welford, but he looked
as large and imposing as his tall reputation as a goal scorer.
On the subject of large units, it was good to see Andy
Irvine back at Tunbridge Wells. His move to Ashford United last season didn’t
quite work out, yielding just two goals in the equivalent of 7½ games, but he
will clearly be a handful for SCEFL defences this season.
On the bench, Ashford had goalkeeper Dean Ruddy,
manager Danny Lye, Gary Mickelborough (who is finding it tough to get into the
team this season), Josh Woolley and second new signing Louis Sprossen. Ex-AFC
Wimbledon and Bromley midfielder Sprossen also joins us on a dual registration,
this time with Hythe Town.
If it was strange to see a goalie other than Joe Mant
in goal for Ashford – and the last time Joe wasn’t in goal for us in an away
fixture was when Tom Carr turned out at Meridian, in the 2012-13 season – it was
also a bit weird to see us taking the field without one of the Cuthberts in the
side. It has been nearly two seasons since both of the brothers has been
missing. The last time it happened, I think their Mum made them go shopping
with her. This time, according to my Senior Intelligence Officer, it was the
occasion of Adam’s wedding.
Apart from that, the Ashford team was decimated due to
international call-ups – and I never thought those words would appear in one of
my match reports ! While the lads were scrapping
away for league points, Jamie Bosio was in Faro, Portugal, representing Gibraltar
against the Republic of Ireland. He has now moved on to Warsaw, in preparation
for the game against Poland.
As an aside, one good thing about the international weekend
break is that the train between Milton Keynes and London wasn’t crammed full of
Arsenal fans, for once. However, there was rather a large number of white rugby
union shirts on view – so, evidently, the Conservative Party had a wugby
fixture in town. (I actually think that Ireland should have been given a ten
point head start, as an apology for 400 years of oppression, especially now, in
what the Irish are calling the Decade of Centenaries – but that’s another story,
and one that we weren’t taught at school).
To get back to the matter in hand, this was a game in
which it always seemed likely that Ashford’s superior experience and quality would
eventually see them through, against the more youthful-looking home side, yet
it was Wells who took the three points, after opening the scoring with a
well-taken goal from a corner, and then retaking the lead with a penalty, just
before half time.
The visitors started on the front foot, playing down
the slope in the first half, with both Paul Booth and Shaun Welford imposing
their physical presence on the Wells defenders. As early as the first minute,
Booth rose to meet a deep cross, and home goalie Steve Lawrence had to dive low
and to his right, to tip the player-coach’s header around the post. Two minutes
later, the two Ashford strikers combined well, with Booth’s head laying off a
clearance from defence into Welford’s path. The Ashford No.9 had the strength
to shrug off his marker, leaving him with a one-on-one with the ‘keeper, but
his diagonal shot went across the face of Lawrence’s goal, and wide.
In the fifth minute, shortly after Tunbridge Wells’
skipper and former Ashford Town striker Joe Fuller had aimed a weak shot wide
of goal, from about 20 yards, Shaun Welford had another opportunity to open the
scoring. A challenge for a high ball involving Welford and Wells’ young
right-back Gary Beckett resulted in Beckett sprawled on the turf and Welford
having the ball at his feet. The Ashford striker elected to pull the trigger
straight away, but his shot, from just outside the penalty area, was wide. A
minute later, Pat Kingwell delivered a high through-ball for Welford to chase. There
were appeals for a penalty, as Welford was maybe bundled over in the penalty
area, but the young referee, having his first game at this level, under the
ever-watchful gaze of an FA Assessor, merely awarded a corner, on the right.
Welford won the aerial battle for the resulting cross, but his header went just
over the bar.
The home side’s first real chance came in the eighth
minute, after Pat Kingwell, whose main role appeared to be to mark Ian Parsons,
fouled Andy Irvine. The free-kick, about half-way inside the Ashford half, was
curled towards the far post. Ian Parsons stole in ahead of his marker, but his
stooping header went just wide. Three minutes later, Irvine and Parsons
combined well, with a neat one-two, but Nathan Paul, not for the only time this
afternoon, read the situation and snuffed out the danger.
Ashford were also indebted to Paul in the 14th
minute, when he managed to be first to get to Antonio Gonnella’s deep cross
from the right, putting the ball behind for a corner. However, it was from the
corner that Tunbridge Wells took the lead. As the cross came in from the left,
defender Tom Bryant, wearing Perry Spackman’s No.6 shirt, steamed in with a
powerful header which went in off the Ashford bar, from close range.
The home side’s initial lead lasted for about four minutes.
The ball was spread wide, to Jamie Collado, on the Ashford left. Collado’s ball
into the heart of the Tunbridge Wells defence appeared to be too far in front
of Shaun Welford, but the hardworking No.9 nevertheless managed to get there
before Lawrence, and side-footed the ball home.
On the half-hour mark, Darren Marsden had what was to
prove to be Ashford’s final clear-cut chance of the half, after Paul Booth had
won the ball and put him through on goal. Marsden was at full stretch, but got
there before goalkeeper Lawrence, only to stab the ball narrowly wide.
Two minutes later, there appeared to be a general
drinks break – which threw me, as I’ve been used to having drinks after 22
overs, for the past few months – but this coincided with some fairly lengthy
treatment being administered to Tom Bryant. Unfortunately, Bryant had to go
off, to be replaced by Khalil McFarlane, but this did not prevent the home side
from taking the lead, just before half time. A neat through-ball was threaded
inside the Ashford right-back, Tony Browne, into the path of Andy Irvine. Both
Irvs and The Browne Dog went down, as the pair tangled, and the ref had no
hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot. I saw no compelling evidence for a
penalty, but there were few complaints from Browne Dog and the other Ashford
players.
I must say that Dan Eason looked a tiny figure, as he
prepared to face Jason Barton’s kick from the penalty mark. He guessed
correctly, in diving to his right, but the ball went past him, and Tunbridge
Wells went into the break 2-1 up.
The visitors actually appeared to increase their
domination in the early part of the second half, with the first five minutes
after the interval consisting almost entirely of Ashford possession, but ending
with Jamie Collado hitting a shot straight at Steve Lawrence. In the 54th
minute, Shaun Welford, on the half-way line, ran onto an excellent throw by Dan
Eason, easily rounding and out-pacing Ollie Cooke. He took the ball into the
Wells penalty area, before pulling his left-footed shot across the face of
goal.
Jamie Collado had two good chances to equalise for
Ashford during this period of ascendency, but, crucially, was unable to find
the net. In the 57th minute, Chris Elliott, who saw a great deal of
the ball on debut, chipped the ball into Collado’s path, behind the Tunbridge
Wells defence. Jamie chested the ball down, but hit his shot against the
crossbar, from about ten yards out. Two minutes later, Darren Marsden carried
the ball through the centre of the Wells half, before laying the ball off to
Paul Booth, on the right. Booth’s low cross found Collado on the corner of the
six yard box, but his shot was again just too high, this time just clipping Lawrence’s
crossbar.
The one good chance that fell to the home side in the
second half saw Andy Irvine come close to scoring against his former club. Ehil
Izokun, who had come on as a substitute at half time, sent in a low cross from
the right, in the 62nd minute, but Irvs diverted the ball wide, from
close range, to the big man’s obvious anguish.
Wells manager Keith Bird made his third and final
substitution in the 63rd minute, sending John Sinclair on in place
of Ian Parsons, as Chris Elliott and Micky Phillips stood over the ball in
preparation to take a free-kick, just outside the Tunbridge Wells area. This
ended with Elliott curling a shot just wide of the angle of post and bar.
Shortly after Danny Lye had replaced Gary Clarke with
Louis Sprossen, in the 67th minute, Darren Marsden fed the ball
forward to Shaun Welford, who carried the ball as far as the Tunbridge Wells
by-line. He managed to beat Lawrence, from what looked to be an impossible
angle, but the ball hit the base of the near post.
Danny Lye brought himself on, in place of Jamie
Collado, in the 78th minute, but, as the half wore on, Ashford
looked increasingly unlikely to equalise. This might have been partly due to
fatigue – and the average age of the squad has come in for some criticism, from
some quarters – or it might have been due to simply running out of ideas. Micky
Phillips never ceased to be the driving force behind Ashford’s efforts, as he
continued to show energy in midfield, but the ploy of bringing on Louis
Sprossen to provide some width on the left was ineffective. Two wildly
misplaced through-balls from Chris Elliott, towards the end of the game,
typified the visitors’ tiring, fading effort, as the home side, who had, by
this time, just left Irvs up front, looked increasingly comfortable in holding
on to the lead.
Josh Woolley, who came on for Darren Marsden, in the
86th minute, did look very lively during his short spell on the
pitch, and was at the centre of a move that resulted in confident appeals for a
penalty to Ashford, for hand-ball – but the referee dismissed these appeals
straight away, and the home side held on for all three points, to send most of
the 293 in attendance home happy.
In the end, Wells thoroughly deserved the win, for the
way in which they stood firm in the second half, with Steve Lawrence not really
having a save to make, in spite of all Ashford’s possession.
Danny Lye and The Management will no doubt be
concerned at the team’s failure to convert periods of dominance into goals, but
this is the wrong end of the season in which to feel despondent, and I felt
that there was a great deal of encouragement to be had from the performance.
Ashford have quality all over the field, in spite of the recent loss of some
good players, and it surely won’t be long before the team puts a run together. Results
elsewhere, this afternoon, confirmed that this season’s Southern Counties East
League is particularly wide open, with other fancied teams dropping points –
Greenwich Borough and Hollands & Blair played out a draw, whilst Erith
& Belvedere, who beat Greenwich on Monday, lost to Cray Valley PM.
Ashford’s next game is away to Rochester United, on
Tuesday, but a far more important date is the 11th of September –
next Friday – when the FA is due to inspect the newly-laid 3G pitch at
Homelands. I’m pleased to say that I heard very confident noises coming from
the inner sanctum of the Club – which is just as well, as the result of that
inspection is far more important to us than anything that happened on Tunbridge
Wells’ emerald turf this afternoon.
