Herne Bay 2
Ashford United 2
from Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent
It is difficult to
predict the direction in which Ashford United’s season will go. The narrative at
the start of the season was that, after an excellent 2018-19 season, which
culminated in a fourth-place finish and being denied promotion to the Isthmian
Premier Division only after extra time in the play-off final, it would be more
difficult this season for Tommy Warrilow, given the need to operate with a smaller
playing budget. However, Tommy’s boys appeared to make light of the loss of
several star players at the start of this season, by reeling off five straight league
wins.
But closer analysis of
this start to the campaign now reveals that this might have been a bit of a false
dawn, since four of the five teams that Ashford beat were positioned between 15th
and 20th in the table at the start of today. It is therefore hardly
surprising that the lads then lost the next three league games – against teams
currently in the top four of the division – but the apparent slump in form had
certainly seemed to be taking a toll on the lads’ confidence. That is why it was
very important that they emerged with a win away at Whyteleafe on Tuesday
night, a hard-fought 3-4 win, with both of the club’s main strikers, David
Smith and Jay May, getting on the scoresheet.
For the record,
Whyteleafe were 11th in the table this morning. Today’s opponents,
Herne Bay, started the match in seventh position, a place and two points behind
Ashford, having played two games more. That means that the lads’ task today was
to achieve a league victory over the highest-placed team in the division since
the 1-2 win at Phoenix Sports in the season’s opening fixture.
I was thoroughly
looking forward to this match, not least because it was my first visit to Winch’s
Field. In fact, I can’t remember having previously been to Herne Bay, the town
of my Mother’s birth. Although I’m not particularly a ‘box-ticker’, today’s
excursion means that the remaining important non-league grounds in Kent that I
have not attended are now just those of Ebbsfleet United, Margate, Faversham
Town and Deal Town – oh, and Hythe Town.
As I had expected, Winch’s
Field is a typical, old-fashioned (and that’s a compliment) non-league football
ground, set among the semi-detached properties of the local community. Not a
pre-fabbed stand in sight. The main stand is long, extending for almost the
length of the pitch, on one side, and there is covered terracing at each end.
In fact, Herne Bay FC seems to be a proper, well-supported football club. Today’s
excellent attendance, of 355, was swelled by Ashford United’s usual strong away
following, but this is the first time that I have been to a league match at
which there were more home fans behind the goal than Ashford fans at the other
end. (And they made more noise, on this occasion).
Sam Mott once again
wore the captain’s armband, in goal, for Ashford – and I was delighted to see
former Ashford United favourite George Kamurasi in goal for Herne Bay. Big
George was a key member of Ashford’s 2016-17 double-winning side, and also
played for us during the two seasons either side of that campaign.
Ramell Lake once again
wore the No.3 shirt – which no doubt had something to do with the fact that Mr
& Mrs McIntyre had just given birth to a baby – but the rest of the Ashford
side appeared to be pretty much as expected. Josh Wisson and Mo Kamara were in
central defence, with Jerald Aboagye at right-back. Danny Walder and Tom O’Connor
were in central midfield, with Aaron Condon out on the left, no doubt with a
remit to supply some quality crosses, and the returning Laurent Mendy on the
right side of midfield. Laurent played in five full games for us at the end of
last season, including all four hours of the two play-off games, in addition to
making four substitute appearances. Jay May and David Smith led the attack
today, having scored three goals between them in Ashford’s 3-4 victory over
Whyteleafe on Tuesday. My assumption is that Zak Henry was absent due to
suspension, following his recent red card.
Tommy warrilow was able
to name a full quota of five substitutes today – Benjamin Binder, Tashi-Jay Kwayie,
Theo Osinfolarin, Levi Gold and Lee Prescott – whilst there were just three bums
on the home side’s bench. Two names that leapt from the Herne Bay teamsheet
were Zak Ansah, (because that’s a scary prospect for any opposing team), and
Laurence Harvey, who played as a young central defender for Ashford Town in 2009-10,
and for Ashford United in 2011-12. He has developed into a big, strapping
lighthouse of a centre-half !
The match began beneath
a covering of high, grey cloud, which persisted for the duration of the match,
and the Winch’s Field floodlights were illuminated as early as the eighth
minute – and it was the home side that made the brighter start. In the opening
seconds, Tushuan-Tyreese Walters, to name but three, sent in a cross from near
to the right corner flag, which was met by his strike partner, Zak Ansah, but
Ansah failed to make a clean contact, and Sam Mott gathered easily. Soon
afterwards, Walters was again on the attack, and cut inside left-back Ramell Lake
far too easily for Ashford fans’ liking. He shot for goal, but his weak shot
went wide. Walters and Ansah were to look dangerous for the remainder of the
half.
Ashford’s first
opportunity was created in the 11th minute, and this was a
tremendous solo effort from centre-back Mohammed Kamara. A long kick-out from
Big George was taken on the chest by Kamara, deep inside his own half, and a
slaloming run took him as far as the edge of the Herne Bay penalty area, but he
fired a fairly wild shot wide.
The Bay took the lead
in the 17th minute, and it was a goal that demonstrated the home
side’s attacking quality. It came after an Ashford attack had broken down, and
Bay turned defence into attack in an instant, soon having a two v two situation
with the Ashford back line. Tushaun-Tyreese Walters carried the ball into the
Ashford half, and had support from Zak Ansah on his left – but he required no
assistance, showing great footwork to beat two players before slotting the ball
home from a distance of about 15 yards.
The first half of this
game was generally fairly even in terms of possession, but Herne Bay appeared
to be the better organised and more coherent side, and had more pace, and more
quality in attack.
David Smith did force
Big George into making a save, in the 20th minute, when he made room
for a shot from 20 yards out - but the Ashford defence was backpedaling, just
seconds later, as the home side rapidly counter-attacked once again, being
halted only by an offside flag. Jay May worked tremendously hard all game, but received
little decent service this afternoon, spending most of his time either flicking
on long clearances in the direction of David Smith, or dropping very deep in
search of the ball. May went on a solo run, in the 25th minute,
through the heart of the Herne Bay defence, which he attempted to finish by
placing a toe-poked shot just inside George Kamurasi’s left-hand post. Big
George was able to make the save, but was at full stretch, diving low.
But the best chances in
the first half fell to the home side. In the 32nd minute, Mo Kamara
was unable to organise his feet in time to clear an attempted through-ball, and
so this let Walters through on goal once again, but this time Sam Mott came out
to make a save. Two minutes later, Zak Ansah showed brilliant skill when, with
his back to goal, just outside the penalty area, he turned and nutmegged Josh
Wisson in a single, fluid movement. Leaving Josh several yards behind, Ansah
had just Sam Mott to beat. He tried to do so by placing the ball to Sam’s left,
for what would have been a beautiful and (at this level) quite astonishing goal,
but the ball rolled just wide.
However, Ansah’s quality
was to shine through, in the last minute of the first half, when he put Bay 2-0
up. The Ashford defence was in a little disarray as the home side counter-attacked
after an Ashford move had broken down, and the ball broke fairly conveniently
into the path of Keiron Campbell. The Herne Bay No.11 spread the ball to Ansah,
in acres of unmarked space on the left, and he had all the time he needed to
steady himself and measure a chip into the far corner of the net.
Earlier, in the 37th
minute, Daniel Lawrence had received the first of seven yellow cards that were
shown, in what was never a dirty match. This was for a tackle from behind on
Tom O’Connor. Three minutes later, Jay May had also been booked, after he had
dropped particularly deep, well into his own half, in fact, in order to pick up
possession. As he was approached by a Herne Bay player, Jay instinctively stretched
out a fully-extended arm in order to hold off his opppnent’s challenge.
Unfortunately for both men, Jay’s hand connected with the face, and so the
referee deemed it worthy of a yellow card.
So the situation looked
pretty grim for Ashford at half time. They had been clearly second-best to a
team beginning the afternoon seventh in the division, and the squad was
beginning to take on a fairly mid-table-ish look. But, to the surprise of many,
the boys showed tremendous character to not only dominate the second half, but
also score a couple of goals to earn a point that had looked unlikely on the
evidence of the first 45 minutes. It is fair to say that the first half-hour of
the second half was ‘all Ashford’, but in spite of fairly monopolising
possession of the ball, the visitors made little impression on the Herne Bay
defence. In fact, the home side looked more likely to score from an occasional lightning-fast
break.
Much of the credit for
the turn-around in the game must go to Ashford manager Tommy Warrilow, who made
a tactical change at half-time, sending on the attacking midfield player
Tashi-Jay Kwayie in place of left-back Ramell Lake, and so relying on a
three-man back line, with Josh Wisson in the centre.
Kwayie actually came
closest to scoring for Ashford during the early part of the half when, in the
49th minute, following a corner on the left, he hit the bar with a
looping header. But Herne bay went even closer to scoring, in the 59th
minute, when another very fast break sent Walters clean through on goal again. A
goal here probably would have wrapped up the three points for the home side,
but Sam Mott kept his team in the game, with a good save. There was another
scare for the Ashford captain in the 69th minute, when he saved a
long-range shot from Thomas Carlton, but then had to smother Ryan King-Elliott’s
attempt to put the ball in from the rebound.
Ashford continued to mount
attacks on the Bay defence, and gained reward for the fairly constant pressure
in the 70th minute. It was probably inevitable that the ball would
fall nicely to an Ashford player in an attacking position sooner or later, and
it was appropriate that that man should be the substitute, Tashi-Jay Kwayie.
And he made no mistake, thumping the ball home, from about 15 yards.
Tashi ‘celebrated’ the
goal by getting himself yellow-carded, just four minutes later, for what looked
to be a fairly obvious, and fairly daft, late tackle.
And so the half
continued along much the same lines, with Ashford pressing forward and
dominating possession, and Herne Bay maintaining an acute threat on the
counter-attack. There were certainly good chances for the home side to score a
third goal. In the 80th minute, the diminutive Keiron Campbell
sprung out of a defensive position with a turn of pace that the current Ashford
squad simply doesn’t possess. As Campbell charged into the deserted Ashford
half, Josh Wisson came across with a desperate attempt at making a saving
tackle. Josh, who again impressed, this afternoon, always looked like he was going
to come second in this race, and the most likely outcome appeared to be that he
would miss the ball, clean up his man and be sent off – but Josh somehow
managed to avoid both runner and ball. Campbell sped away, bearing down on the
Ashford goal, but Sam Mott was able to save the eventual shot at his near post.
In the 83rd
minute, (two minutes after Tommy Warrilow had replaced Danny Walder, a holding
midfielder, with Levi Gold, a striker), the three-man Ashford defence was again
left to deal with a fast Herne Bay raid. This time, it was Zak Ansah who tried
to hit the target, but his low, well-hit shot was foiled by an equally well
executed save.
Ashford were rewarded
for clearly ‘winning the second half’ with an equaliser just a minute from
normal time. A cross came in from the right, and Big George was screaming at
his defence to clear the ball from his six-yard line. For once, the defence
failed to do so, and David Smith took the opportunity to swivel on the loose
ball and fire home from close range.
There was a feeling
that this would be the final meaningful action in the match, with both sides
leaving Winch’s Field with a point, but there were still plenty of incidents to
come, with the game extending for a further ten minutes, once injury time and
injury time for injuries inflicted during injury time had been added on.
First, on the stroke of
the 90th minute, Tushaun-Tyreese Walters received a yellow card for
a late tackle on Laurent Mendy; this was his second yellow card, so this led to
him being sent off, necessitating the short walk from the touchline on the far
side to the dressing room. Five minutes into injury time, Levi Gold picked up a
yellow card and David Smith went down injured, limping off, to be replaced by
Theo Osinfolarin. There were also chances created at each end of the pitch, the
last of these, at 4.55pm, being a Herne Bay free-kick, with Zak Ansah standing
over the ball. It needed little imagination to envisage Ansah winning the match
with a final piece of sublime skill, but his shot at goal went inches wide.
So not a totally
convincing performance by Ashford, but the point was well deserved, given that
the manager had had the courage to change things at half time, and the players
had responded by putting in a much improved second-half performance. In fact, a
pretty good week’s work for Tommy Warrilow and his boys, with four points
gained from two matches, both of them away from home, and both of them against
a good team. The point lifts Ashford up a place, to fifth, which constitutes a
play-off berth. There is still room for improvement in what remains of the
season – and we have only played ten of our 38 games – but there is surely
cause for optimism that Ashford can continue to nibble away at those play-off
positions.
