Haywards Heath Town 1
Ashford United 0
from Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent
First of all, Happy
Pearl Harbor Day, everyone. And, appropriately enough, there was a nip in the
air this morning.
So that gets the Pearl
Harbor joke out of the way. I think I’ve probably used that particular gag
about five times, now – whenever I go to an Ashford game on the 7th
of December.
Back in the world of
dreams, today Ashford United travelled to West Sussex, to take on Haywards
Heath Town – and I took advantage of the direct rail service between Luton and Haywards
Heath and followed suit. Ashford had played four times since I last saw them –
in the 2-2 draw away at Herne Bay – and they had won two and lost two. Others
have described this as being further evidence of the team’s inconsistency this season.
I disagree with this. I reckon that Tommy Warrilow’s squad has been remarkably consistent,
in that they have beaten the teams occupying the lower reaches of the division
but have been beaten by the better sides. During those last four games, convincing
victories had come against struggling Hythe Town and Ramsgate, whilst we had
lost to Whitehawk and Guernsey, conceding three goals in each match.
Given that analysis, it
was difficult to know what to expect from today’s game, since Haywards Heath
Town started the day well down the table, but with four or five games in hand
of the other teams in the division. Haywards Heath are a decent team, and I
reckon they are ‘nailed on’ to finish in the top half of the table at the end
of the season. Therefore, a draw, or at least a very tight game, was probably
the expectation. In truth, today’s contest really should have finished as a
goalless draw. Unfortunately, a defensive howler by Mo Kamara, in the 43rd
minute, gifted the home side a half-time lead, and a very solid defensive
display by our hosts ensured that Ashford never looked like getting on terms,
in spite of dominating possession for at least the final hour of the match.
The defensive qualities
of Haywards Heath apart, there was never a likelihood that I would be purring
about this match being a ‘good advert’ for the Isthmian League, as there was
not a great deal of quality shown in the final third of the pitch by either
side. That is in spite of the two teams on show being among the better sides in
the division. There was no excuse for this, as there were perfect footballing
conditions today: a fairly mild day, for December, and barely a breath of wind.
Tommy Warrilow was also able to field what was recognisable as being pretty
much his strongest side. Club captain Sam Mott in goal, with a new-look central
defensive pairing of Matt Bourne and Mohammed Kamara, with Jerald Aboagye and Jake
McIntyre the full-backs on either side of them. The arrival of the experienced
Bourne has enabled Josh Wisson to resume his defensive midfield role. The
midfield quartet was completed by Lee Prescott in the centre, Aaron Condon the
wide man and Tashi-Jay Kwayie, who very much pushed up in support of the usual
strike pairing of Jay May and Dave Smith. On the subs bench were Tom O’Connor,
Theo Osinfolarin, Levi Gold, Benjamin Binder and ‘keeper Lee Hook.
The game was played in
a fairly low-key atmosphere. This was partly due to there being a small crowd,
of just 102, but there was no chanting or singing from either set of
supporters. The very vocal choir which used to follow Ashford United in away
games appears to have long abandoned the cause, and their absence is almost
certainly partly responsible for the fact that the average league gate at
Homelands is currently 117 down on last season’s average. I am happy to report,
however, that there were many familiar faces of long-standing supporters in
attendance, and without this away following the gate would have been very
meagre indeed.
The Haywards Heath Town
support is certainly not the most vocal, but the home fans were woken up early
when The Blues, playing in blue & white striped shirts, blue shorts and
blue sockies, launched an attack straight from the kick-off. Ryan Warwick
carried the ball deep into the Ashford penalty area, but his shot went high and
wide. Early half-chances for Ashford fell to Dave Smith and Tashi-Jay Kwayie.
In the eleventh minute, Smith got on the end of a very long clearance from Sam
Mott, taking the ball on his chest just 20 yards from goal, but his curling
shot went well wide. Three minutes later, Tashi-Jay’s long-range shot went well
over the bar, hitting nothing but the tall netting protecting the block of
flats situated just behind the goal.
There were two other
chances created by The Blues during this early period. In the 18th
minute, Callum Saunders dinked a through ball into the Ashford penalty area, in
the path of centre-forward Trevor McCreadie. This seemed all too easy, from the
point of view of the Ashford defence, but the striker’s weak shot was well
saved by Sam Mott. Three minutes later, a good, cross-field move by the home
side ended with Saunders putting a low cross into the centre. This found
right-back Hamish Morrison, of all people, in the six-yard box; he attempted to
neatly guide the ball past Sam Mott, but instead deflected it straight to the
Ashford ‘keeper.
From about the
half-hour mark, Ashford United began the enjoy the majority of possession and
territorial advantage, but without being able to breach the Haywards Heath defence.
David Smith, in particular, was very closely marked, and had very little space
in which to work. As a man who had gone into this game as Ashford’s top scorer,
having a strike rate of almost a goal a game, (he had actually scored 17 goals,
at a rate of a goal every 105 minutes), it is probably fair to say that
Haywards Heath had done their homework properly.
Just as it appeared
that the half was about to end goalless, and at about the time that I was
thinking that Ashford might have a problem scoring if the home side somehow
managed to get a goal, that is precisely what happened. In the 43rd
minute, Mo Kamara received a square ball from his defensive partner, Matt
Bourne, and had acres of space in front of him. Mo has shown, on at least two
occasions this season, that he is perfectly capable of slaloming with the ball between
opponents, and beating an entire team. Like a hound who had suddenly heard the
hunter’s horn, he bounded forward from deep inside his own half. He had already
got up a good head of steam when he encountered his first obstacle, in the
person of Kieran Rowe. Unfortunately for Kamara and Ashford, Rowe’s tackle was
a good one, and, having robbed the United defender, he was clean through on
goal. It was a chance to score handed to him on a plate, but Rowe took the
opportunity brilliantly, rounding Sam Mott with a classy drop of the shoulder,
to virtually walk the ball into the net. So The Blues went in at half time with
a 1-0 lead.
The second half was all
Ashford, as the visitors continued as they had ended the first half. On the
plus side, there was no shortage of effort from Warrilow’s men, and they did
well to continually win the ball back, and maintain a fairly constant pressure.
Ashford’s problem, however, not for the first time this season, is that they
lacked the skill and the guile to break down a good, well organised defence. Generally,
The Blues’ defence held a strong line in front of their 18-yard box. When the
ball did enter the box, it either did not fall to an Ashford player, or there
were plenty of blue & white-shirted bodies available to make a block.
The result was that
Luke Glover, in the Haywards Heath goal, had very little to do. He did, however,
have to make a save in the 51st minute, after a free-kick was awarded
to Ashford for a foul on David Smith. This was taken by Jake McIntyre, who
managed to curl his shot over a four-man wall, but this was straight at Glover,
who easily made the save. In the 57th minute, Tashi-Jay Kwayie had a
‘double attempt’ from inside the penalty area, but both of his shots were
blocked.
The first Ashford substitution
was made in the 63rd minute, when striker Jay May was replaced by
gifted midfielder Tom O’Connor, with Kwayie pushing up to partner Dave Smith in
attack. This might have been partly for tactical reasons, but Jay did limp off
rather feelingly. Tom immediately added a hint of creativity to the midfield,
put was unable to have a telling impact. There was a brief scare for the home
defence in the 65th minute, when a long throw from Jake McIntyre was
allowed to bounce inside The Blues’ six-yard area, before being collected by
Luke Glover; then, seconds later, Lee Prescott almost succeeded in putting Kwayie
through on goal, but Tashi-Jay was unable to control the ball, managing only to
poke the ball to the waiting goalkeeper.
It was a measure of the
extent of the Ashford pressure that, when the home side eventually got the ball
upfield, winning a corner, they conspicuously took as much time out of the game
as they possibly could before taking it. Callum Saunders sauntered over to the
corner flag at a pallbearer’s pace. When the kick was eventually taken, it
ended with a Blues player hitting a shot that was so wild that it ended up on
the roof of the block of flats behind the goal.
Ashford did not help
their cause with some wayward shooting, when attempting to threaten Luke Glover’s
goal from distance. In the 74th minute, Glover made a punched clearance
from a corner from the right. The ball bounced towards Lee Prescott. The experienced
Ashford No.7 had plenty of time in which to steady himself, and hit the ball
cleanly, and he made measured strides towards the ball – but cluelessly hit it high
and wide. In the 80th minute, Prescott had another attempt at a
long-range shot, after Aaron Condon had squared the ball to him, but he again
hit it high over the bar. Do the players ever practise shooting? (Asking for a
friend).
So the game very much
resembled an ‘attack v defence’ exercise during the second half – in which case
the defence won emphatically, and, for that reason, Haywards Heath deserved the
three points for the victory. I feel that Ashford might have deserved a point
for sheer persistence and effort, but it was not to be. The final squeak of a chance
in ‘normal time’ came in the 83rd minute. Jerald Aboagye sent in a
long cross from the right. This was headed back across the face of goal, almost
under Luke Glover’s crossbar, and there were pleas for a penalty as Tashi-Jay
Kwayie challenged for the high ball at the far post, but the referee waved
these away.
Tommy Warrilow’s final
throw of the dice was to replace Josh Wisson with striker Levi Gold, to form a
three-man strike force, but this was too late for the change to have any
impact. Hope was finally extinguished when, a minute into injury time, Dave
Smith went into what looked to be a 50-50 challenge, which ended with both
players on the turf injured, and a crowd of players indulging in a spot of mild
‘hand-bags’. The upshot was that both David Smith and Levi Gold were shown a
yellow card – to add to the yellow card that had been shown to Haywards Heath’s
Ryan Warwick, on the hour mark, for a foul on Jake McIntyre.
The extended delay was
just what Haywards Heath wanted, of course, and it appeared to have taken the
game pretty much to full time, but the match continued deep into the early
evening. In fact, as much as eight minutes was added on for stoppages. It was
during this time that Ashford had their two best chances of the half, resulting
in two excellent saves by Glover, who finally had to show what he was capable
of. First, he made a good, reflex save when a shot emerged from a crowded goal
mouth; then, he came swiftly out of his goal to thwart a Mo Kamara cross after
the Ashford centre-back had penetrated deep inside the Haywards Heath penalty
area.
So Ashford left the
Hanbury Park Stadium empty-handed, having once again come up short when
confronted by one of the division’s better teams. In spite of the gloom, we
remain within the play-off zone, dropping one place in the league, from fourth
to fifth. United face VCD Athletic in the Kent Senior Cup on Tuesday, but the
next league match, next Saturday, will be against leaders Hastings United.
Unless there is an improvement in the ‘final third’ of the field, I fear we
might struggle to get anything from that game.
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