Croydon v Ashford United. Southern Counties East Football League. 22nd of April 2017.

Croydon   0      

Ashford United 4

 

From Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent

Today’s trip to the Croydon Sports Arena, to take on Croydon, was a monumental occasion for Ashford United Football Club. All Ashford fans will know what the situation was in the League, as we approached the penultimate game of the season. Ashford United and Crowborough Athletic were neck and neck, on points, but with Ashford having a goal difference that was so far superior to that of The Crows that two wins from the final two matches would give Ashford their first championship since 1949.

So two hurdles to negotiate, then, and, with Rochester United coming to Homelands on the final game of the season, today’s game was expected to be by far the more difficult for Ashford. Croydon have had a very solid, mid-table season, and have pulled off some notable victories – including a win against Crowborough, quite recently, which helped our cause a great deal !  The Trams were also fresh from a 6-2 victory in their previous game, on Easter Monday, so, all week, I had been anticipating this game with a certain amount of trepidation.

What I could not have known, of course, was that the home side would be simply dreadful throughout the whole of the 90 minutes. Their apparent disinterest almost matched their incompetence, so that what was meant to be a major test for the visitors turned out to be as close to a formality as you are likely to see in a match between two teams from the same league. It was a fairly “ugly” performance from Ashford, and some of the players occasionally looked a little embarrassed to be there – but concentration levels rarely faltered, and the lads got the job done, with few alarms.

Another general observation I will make is that this was comfortably the worst game that I have seen this season, and a candidate for being one of the worst games involving Ashford of all time – but, in common with most of the good number of away fans in attendance, who made up the vast majority of the crowd of 108, my focus was on nothing more than the result, this afternoon.

A contributing factor to how poor the game was, as a footballing feast, was the state of the pitch. I love coming to Croydon Arena. I have been doing so since the 2004-5 season, (when Croydon beat us 2-1, and Byron Glasgow scored our only goal with a brilliant, curling free-kick). There is always a great view from the large stand, and I find the fact that the pitch is surrounded by an athletics track to merely add to the variety of life at this level of football. The people here are always friendly and helpful, but I can’t hide the truth that the playing surface was very bumpy, and bare patches could be seen from halfway up the stand.

In fairness to Danny Lye and his boys, I think that Ashford summed up the situation of the pitch pretty well, as, at no stage did they try to get the ball down and play pretty football. Ashford seemed to have three main modes of scoring, this afternoon. There was the long ball aimed in the direction of the tall twin strikers (Adrian Stone and Shaun Welford), there was a whole succession of Shaun Welford long throws into the goal mouth, and there were frequent quite appalling kick-outs from the Croydon goalkeeper.

The identity of the Croydon goalkeeper was the first surprise of the day, as he was listed as being Jeff Duah-Kessie, who started the day as the fourth-highest goal scorer in the Southern Counties East Football League. I had considered him to be a major potential obstacle to Ashford United’s title ambitions. I later found out that he was being used as an emergency goalie, in the absence of other options for the home side. The need for such a drastic reorganisation might go some way to explaining The Trams’ distinctly end-of-term performance, this afternoon.

There were some relatively minor surprises in the Ashford line-up. With George Savage on the bench, skipper Stuart West played at right-back, in a solid, 4-4-2 formation. Richard Armitage took West’s place in central defence, alongside Pat Kingwell, with Frazer “Dad’s Army” Walker at left-back. Danny Lye opted for just the one wide man, in Rory Hill, leaving Ryan Palmer on the bench. The men entrusted with controlling the midfield for Ashford were Ben Davisson, Dan Stubbs and Jason Goodchild, who today showed his versatility, in a fairly deep central midfield role. Given the nature of the game, it was difficult for any one player to stand out above the rest, (Shaun Welford, with his hat-trick, notwithstanding), but, if I were forced to name a Man of the Match, then Dan Stubbs would probably be the one. He did a lot of good work in breaking up the few attacks that Croydon tried to put together, and passed the ball as well as anybody, in difficult conditions. The presence of this strong, three-man midfield enabled Rory Hill to get forward to support the front two, so it might be argued that Ashford were often actually playing in a 4-3-3.

Ashford’s bench was very strong, today. As well as Savage George and Ryan Palmer, there was defensive cover in the shape of Joe Vines, plus arguably our two most talented players: young Millwall star Matt Day and David Botterill.

One thing which Ashford did well today was to take control of the game, and dominate possession, right from the start. It should also be said that the long-ball tactic was fairly successful, with passes from deep twice putting Adrian Stone through on goal, during the first half, but Adrianho was not in great finishing form, this afternoon. In fact, including the occasion when one of Duah-Kessie’s goal-kicks went straight to him, he had three one-on-one situations in the first 45 minutes, and should have had a hat-trick.

However, it was a Stone v Duah-Kessie situation that led to Ashford’s opening goal, in the 21^st minute. Although Adrianho’s attempted lob was readily beaten away by the ‘keeper, Shaun Welford caught up with the loose ball, only to be clumsily bundled over by the pursuing Duah-Kessie. The young referee, who had a pretty sound game, had no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot. There were calls from the very vocal Ashford support for a red card to be shown, but Welford was running away from the goal at the time, so the colour of the card shown was always going to be yellow.

Shaun’s first task was to trot across the eight-lane running track to retrieve the ball, but, once he had returned with it and placed it on the spot, he stuck it away with what has become a trademark penalty – low and hard to the ‘keeper’s right, hitting the corner of the net knee high.

The opening goal settled some Ashford nerves in the crowd, but, on the pitch, the team failed to add to the score during the remainder of the first half. In fact, the game became scrappier as half time approached – although there was a distinct sense that the visitors were more than happy to sit on the lead. Nothing was getting through Ashford’s midfield, Pat Kingwell got his head to anything that came near him in the air and George Kamurasi was untroubled in goal.

The general sloppiness and sleepiness continued in the early part of the second half, and there continued to be few alarms for the Ashford defence. The one chance that Croydon did have was when their centre-forward used his pace to round Richard Avery, but Big George came out and made an excellent save, taking the ball cleanly from the man’s feet.

Danny Lye made a couple of substitutions, fairly close together, either side of the hour mark. After 56 minutes, Adrianho was replaced by Matt Day. Then, after 61 minutes, David Botterill replaced Ben Davisson, who looked like he might have picked up an injury.

The succession of long throws from Shaun Welford came at about this time, all bar one of them from near to the corner flag on the right. There were at least half a dozen of them, each one being launched into the Croydon goalmouth, having the clear intention of putting pressure on the stand-in ‘keeper – and each one of them failing to produce a goal. The closest that this tactic came to bearing fruit was in the 66^th minute, when Matt Day rose high, at the far post, to meet a headed flick-on, but he could do no more than head the ball against that post, from point-blank range.

It was Dave Botterill’s wand of a left foot that set up Ashford’s second goal, in the 69^th minute, but not before there was a moment of farce, when the referee, either on his own or in collaboration with his lino, changed his mind about which side a corner should be taken from. It was not at all out of character with the pace, and nature, of the game that several seconds seeped away as Botterill made his way from the corner flag on the right side of the pitch, to the corner flag on the left. Anyway, the cross from Botts was met by the head of Stuart West, who came charging in, ramming the ball into the top corner of the goal.

That really was the clincher for Ashford, as the home side never looked like reducing the deficit. And this was in spite of the fact that star striker Jeff Duah-Kessie switched from his goalkeeping duties to play as a striker, being replaced by a considerably shorter outfield colleague.

This is actually the first time that I have seen this happen in a game of football, and I’m not sure what the relevant law says about the goalkeeper’s attire in this situation. Although the two players swapped shirts, JD-K continued to wear black shorts and orange socks, whilst his teammates were in royal blue shorts and light blue sockies. It didn’t make much difference, and the referee seemed unconcerned, but I just wonder what the situation would have been if Duah-Kessie had started the game in all bright pink, or dayglow green.

More to the point, it was the switch to a more vertically-challenged, and presumably less experienced, goalie that played a part in Ashford’s third goal, and Welford’s second. David Botterill supplied a long, searching, diagonal cross, from a free-kick, and Welford simply rose above the approaching goalie, who had rushed out of his goal in vain, and planted his header into an empty net. In fact, this was very much a carbon copy of the goal that Welfs scored a fortnight ago, to win the Kent Senior Trophy for Ashford – except that the cross came from the left, instead of the right.

That third goal came in the 81^st minute, and there were 91 minutes up, on my watch, when Welford completed his hat-trick. Again, it was a deep cross from the left that set up the chance, which Shaun, unmarked beyond the far post, headed back into the penalty area. There, he found David Botterill, who manoeuvred the ball back to him. From close range, Welfs lashed the ball into the roof of the net, with a shot that was as ruthless as it was unstoppable.

That’s now 45 goals for the season for the big fella, and his fourth hat-trick. Your defence should indeed be terrified – Shaun Welford’s on fire ! 

This is also a reminder of a very important sub-plot to the promotion campaign, as Shaun has, for some time, been on course to break Stuart Zanone’s record for the most goals in a season for Ashford. Stuart’s record stands at 47, which he achieved in the 2014-15 season. So Welford needs to score three goals against Rochester United, next Saturday, to break that record – but he needs EIGHT to break Stuart’s record for the most goals scored for Ashford in a match !

But the main issue concerns the SCEFL Championship, and promotion to the Isthmian League. Although this was an awful, painfully one-sided match, which was a pretty poor advert for Step 5 football, Ashford United did a thoroughly solid job in securing all three points. Down in Sussex, Crowborough again managed to scrape through their match, scoring the only goal from the penalty spot, against ten-man Beckenham Town, meaning that The Nuts & Bolts still need three points against Rochester United to be sure of Ashford’s first title since Clement Attlee was Prime Minister. (That’s actually quite an appropriate remark, as Attlee is almost certainly the only Prime Minister of Great Britain to have played nonleague football – he played for Fleet Town !).

Without wishing to tempt fate, I would be very surprised, (not to say devastated), if the lads were to let their grip on the title slip now – not because they beat Rochester 0-8 in the corresponding fixture, but because the focus appears to be very strong now. This was very apparent in the way in which the whole squad went about their business today. Also, as the players made their way, in ones and twos, from the changing room to the bar, which is situated just outside the Arena, they all repeated the same mantra: “Just one more game. Just one more game”.

And, finally, an apology for the absence of fine detail in this report, and for my failure to identify one or two of the Croydon players. That’s because, on a day that otherwise went absolutely swimmingly, Your Correspondent managed to leave his notebook and team sheets behind on the train, when he got off at Milton Keynes.