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Phoenix Sports v Ashford United. Kent Invicta League. 4th of February 2012.

2012-02-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

PhoenixSports 3 AshfordUnited 0

From Ashford United’s Milton Keynes Correspondent

Itwas a real surprise that this game was on, today. With night temperatures 3 or4 degrees below freezing all week, and with the entire Kent League PremierDivision fixtures wiped out, this afternoon, it seemed that Saturday morning’s10am inspection at Mayplace Road East, in Bexleyheath, would be a mereformality. It was a shock to the system, therefore, when it was announced onthe AUFC Forum that the match was ON. So I had to (for once) abandon breakfast,and think fast in terms of what I could, and should, grab, prior to rushing offto catch the 11.05am train out of Milton Keynes Central, to London Euston.

Inthose “Golden Five Minutes”, what are a man’s priorities ? I soon decided that the thermal underwear andwoolly hat were top of the list, followed by Your Correspondent’s notebook andpencil – and then it was time to fly out the door.

Iwas horrified to find that the railway station was absolutely heaving withpeople, with queues for the bank of ticket machines – but I managed to get tothe train with seconds to spare, and so embarked on the journey of just overtwo hours to Barnehurst, via London Bridge. There were quite a few Arsenal fansaccompanying me on my trip to The Smoke – which suggested that there were stillsome who have not given up on Arsѐne Wenger’s tippy-tappy warriors – but mythoughts were focused on the Kent Invicta League, and Ashford United’s meetingwith Phoenix Sports, who began the day in 4^th place, still with arealistic chance of catching Bly Spartans and Bridon Ropes at the top of theleague. Ashford had been playing well, leading up to this game, thanks mainlyto a mid-season influx of experience and quality, in the form of the likes ofMo Takaloo, Roy Guiver and Jimmy Dryden – but a poor start to the season hasmeant that there was no margin for error left now, with the team lying 13points behind leaders Bly, at the start of play, with just the two games inhand.

Mo Takaloo was actually missing today. Along with ClubCaptain Ollie Finch, he was continuing to serve a suspension. This provided theopportunity for Ben Jordan to skipper the side this afternoon. The best news,however, was that, due to the postponement of Hythe Town’s game at Walton &Hersham, Jimmy Dryden was able to make one more appearance for Ashford, havingbeen called back to his parent club earlier in the week.

The other significant piece of team news was thatformer Ashford Town captain Matt Bower was back, after a long absence withinjury. He took his place in a back three of himself, Jordan and Lee Coburn, infront of ‘keeper Billy Rice, with Sam Conlon on the right and Richard Quigleyon the left acting as wing-backs. Roy Guiver started the game in centralmidfield, alongside Liam Whiting. Dan Scorer was on the left wing – or whereverhe was required to take a dead-ball kick – and Jimmy Dryden was up front withPeter Williams.

Completing the roll-call, Stephen McKentishfootballwas present with his reporter’s hat on, with both Tony Betteridge and ErnieWarren braving the bitter cold alongside the other Ashford United supporters.

Denise Richmond was also in attendance. Denise is Chairpersonof the Kent League, and one of the architects of the new Kent Invicta League. Iam not a mind reader, but I imagine that she would have seen this fixture asbeing just about the best advert for Step 6 football in Kent that she couldhave. This was an event that was well attended – with the crowd of 141 owingmuch to the usual good attendance from Ashford – and which was staged in a nicefacility. Set in the heart of suburban, semi-detached Sarf London, the PhoenixSports Ground has a decent bar and a snack bar situated at one end of a post& railed pitch which is level, if slightly sloping. Whilst there is nostand or terracing for spectators, a good view on the half-way line wasavailable from the slightly raised bank behind the dug-outs. The pitch itselflooked to be in remarkably good shape, and played very firm and bouncy.

In spite of the very cold temperature, the day was atleast sunny and bright, certainly in the first half, and the ground had a niceopenness about it. The afternoon began to be spoilt for us, however, atprecisely 2.10pm, when the home side took the lead. Centre-forward Alfie Harris– who, ironically, is the image of Gary Lockyer in stature and style – sent ina low, diagonal shot, from about 20 yards out, which found the corner of theAshford net, past a diving Billy Rice. It was a well-struck shot, but I amforming the impression that Billy Rice doesn’t save a great deal, and thatanything heading for the corner of his net is likely to beat him.

Just two minutes later, Alfie Harris again found theball at his feet, this time inside the Ashford area, but he was only able tohit the ball straight at Rice.

Ashford, playing in their Norwich City-style awaystrip, given Phoenix’s colours of green shirts, black shorts and black sockies,took a while to get into the game, and the first sign of any quality came inthe 18^th minute, when Sam Conlon did some good work on the left,forcing the first of a whole succession of Ashford corners in the match – but DanScorer’s cross came to nothing. A minute later, a good, diagonal ball from DanScorer found Sam Conlon on the right, but the Phoenix defence managed to blockthe ball behind, for a corner. This time, Scorer pulled something out of thebag that had obviously been devised on the training ground. He drove the balllow, to Richard Quigley, who was stationed well outside the penalty area – withtwo Ashford players letting the ball go by. Quigley struck the ball well, and his low, left-footed drive seemed tobe heading for the corner of the net, before the home side’s impressive goalie,Stuart Harvey, made a good diving save.

The visitors had several corners in a brief period ofdominance, having finally hit their stride – but it was Phoenix Sports who cameclose to scoring in the 24^th minute. A throw-in, from the right,skidded off the top of an Ashford head, and found Sam Prett unmarked in thearea – but he was unable to keep his hooked shot down, and his effort went overthe bar.

Ashford’s attempts on goal in the first half wererestricted to shots from long range. Lee Coburn let fly with a shot from some30 yards, in the 31^st minute. Whilst this effort was always goingwide, Peter Williams very nearly diverted the ball goalwards with aninstinctive header. In the 34^th minute, shortly after Matt Bower haddeflected an Alfie Harris shot, from close range, behind for a corner, LeeCoburn again hit a well-struck shot, from a similar distance to his previouseffort, and this time it required another good save from Harvey.

Constructive passing movements from Ashford Unitedwere very rare, this afternoon, but, in the 37^th minute, JimmyDryden spread the ball wide to Sam Conlon, on the right, in a move thatculminated in Dan Scorer hitting a left-footed shot wide of the far post. StillAshford pressed forward, and the corners kept on coming – but the home defencestood firm, with the tall Stuart Harvey catching whatever crosses his defenderscould not clear.

The sun disappeared at the start of the second half –which did nothing to ease the biting cold.

In the 48^th minute, a shot by Dan Scorerwas well caught by Harvey, and Liam Whiting hit a shot over the bar in the 51^stminute – upon which Ashford Manager Paul Chambers immediately made asubstitution, replacing Richard Quigley with Aaron Firth.

In the 55^th minute, there was the raresight of Roy Guiver bursting into the opposition’s penalty area. Guiver triedto touch the ball over the tall ‘keeper, who palmed the ball out to JimmyDryden, who was in a central position, just inside the penalty area. This wasAshford’s best chance of the match to date, and there was no other man that thevisiting fans would rather have seen the ball fall to than Jimmy – but he wasunable to get over the ball, and sliced his shot high, and over the bar. Twominutes later, the visitors had an even better chance to equalise. Sam Conlondid some good work, moving through the Phoenix half, and found Roy Guiver inthe penalty area, with a clear sight of goal. Roy virtually had a one-on-onewith the ‘keeper, here, but he shot the ball straight at Stuart Harvey, whosaved with his knee.

And that was the closest that Ashford came to scoring.

In the 66^th minute, Tom Scorer was sent onin place of Peter Williams – but it was a minute later that there was apotentially pivotal incident in the game, and one which completely went againstAshford. Liam Whiting made a superb tackle on Phoenix’s Danny Frost. It washard, but fair, and he won the ball cleanly – but his momentum caused him toupend Frost, and that now appears, according to a ludicrous modern fad infootball, to be a free-kick offence. Worse was to follow. Frost obviously tookexception to being tackled, so retaliated with a right cross to Liam’s jaw. Iactually thought that the Ashford No.7 did well to ride the punch – but the keypoint was that a punch was thrown, and everybody in the ground saw it, except,apparently, for the referee and his linesman on the far side. After discussingthe issue between them, the result was that the ref booked Liam Whiting for hisexcellent tackle – and no action at all was taken against Frost. To say thatthe Ashford bench was incensed would be an understatement – and their mood wasn’timproved when the lino in front of them admitted that he had seen Frost throwthe punch, but thought that he’d let his two colleagues sort out the incident themselves.

This is the sort of injustice that football fans dwellupon, especially when they’re desperate for a break to go their way – and thoseon the Ashford bench were certainly never able to let it drop – but the truthis that United were never able to get behind, or around or through the Phoenixdefence. I didn’t think that Phoenix looked anything out of the ordinary, to behonest, but they did the simple things well, and Ashford never really botheredHarvey in their goal. That is in spite of the fact that Ashford actually hadthe better of the second half, and looked impressive when either of the Scorerbrothers was on the ball. In the 73^rd minute, for example, young Tomshowed great skill and footwork on the left flank – but his efforts resulted innothing better than yet another corner.

Whilst Phoenix looked fairly workmanlike for most ofthe game, it was a moment of great individual skill that led to the home side’ssecond goal, in the 80^th minute. Adam Cuthbert picked the ball up onthe left side of the field, and took it infield, before drilling the ball intothe bottom corner of the net. The fact that Ashford United is the team thatevery other team in the Kent Invicta League most wants to beat was reflected inthe celebrations of the Phoenix Sports bench, which spilt out onto the playingarea.

Three minutes later, Phoenix completed Ashford’shumiliation when Alfie Harris scored the home side’s third goal, and his second.The strong No.9 collected a through-ball, well inside the Ashford box, and withhis back to goal. He looked every inch the accomplished centre-forward when heturned and hammered the ball past Billy Rice – but there was just a suspicionthat the Ashford bench thought that his task had been made too easy, by someslack Ashford defending.

By this time, Roy Guiver had been operating in thefront line, with Jimmy Dryden either playing in the hole behind the two frontmen, or trying to create something from midfield – but the game was all over,bar the shouting. Aaron Firth had a chipped attempt that went over the bar,from just outside the area, and Lee Coburn attempted yet another long-rangeshot – but the visitors never found the net, and the game finished 3-0.

There was much swearing and muttering from the Ashfordbench at the final whistle – mostly aimed at the performance of the threeofficials – but I am sure that they must have been disappointed that the teamhad failed to really bother the Phoenix defence. Having said that, Ashford’sperformance was nowhere near as bad as the 3-0 score-line seems to suggest –but this defeat must surely have finally put paid to any chance that they had ofgaining promotion from the Kent Invicta League this season.

ARCHIVE: Witney Town v Ashford Town. Doc Martens League Division 1 East. 2000-1 season.

2011-12-29T15:40:00.001-08:00

Witney Town 1 Ashford Town 3

from your Milton Keynes correspondent

I hate to boreyou all with this again, but that statistic is building up - 32 games without adraw this season at the start of this match, which is quite an exceptionalstat. And so’s this one : only one clean sheet in 32 games; although I shouldadd that the lads have only failed to score in seven of them. And whilst I havethe attention of all you anoraks, here’s a question,

Q. : What doesWitney Town FC have in common with Real Madrid, Manchester United and DoncasterBelles ?

A. : They’veNEVER beaten Ashford Town at home. (Mind you, the other three probably would ifwe ever played them !).

So what couldwe expect from the trip to Witney ? Nota bad side, Witney - 11th in the table (two places above us), but, curiously,the worst-supported side in the division, with an average home crowd of justover a hundred (which is basically just Mums and Dads ! ). Thanks go toTonbridge Angels’ excellent web-site for that gem of information, by the way.

Crackingperformances away to Premier Division sides Grays, Crawley and Weymouth thisseason had shown that Ashford were perfectly capable of getting a result here,but it had all started to get a bit sloppy of late - a run of four consecutive defeats,including three against teams in the bottom five of our division ! If it were merely a question of motivation,then today’s match was going to be a test - out of all cup competitions, andjust the 21 league matches to complete, with a final position somewhere inmid-table virtually guaranteed. Would the boys realise that next year’s pushfor promotion - and surely that can’t be too outrageous to hope for - startsNOW ?!

I went to thecorresponding fixture a couple of years ago - the first time I’d seen the teamplay for some time. When we were 0-2 up with 20 minutes to play, I tried tocast my mind back to the last time that I had actually seen Ashford win(must’ve been some time before Walsall beat us 1-3 in the FA Cup at EssellaPark in the seventies !). I went up tothree old boys in green & white scarves, who were obviously regulars, andsaid : “Do you realise that, if we hang on here, it’ll be the first time I’veseen Ashford win for 25 years ?!”. The little one in the middle (who turned outto be Pat Earl !) said : “Well, it takes us a long time sometimes !!”. We heldon to win 0-2 !

Witney’s newground, Marriotts Stadium, is situated in an industrial estate just beyond thewestern outskirts of the town. It’s handy to drive to - just off the A40, andwith plenty of car parking space. It took us just 1¼ hours to drivefrom Milton Keynes. It’s a strange sort of a ground, dominated by a huge,almost square, stand, which is almost as deep as it is long. It’s an impressivebuilding, though, and, with only about 250 seats stuck on the front of it, (andmost of those never have a bum near them), it’s obviously intended to be amulti-function facility. As for the rest of the ground, there is a coveredstanding area on the other side of the pitch, and a stand at one end -unfortunately, the end from which the wind whistles in is open. This is thewind that was cooling the back of Craig Tucker’s neck in the first half. Apartfrom the wind, it was a fine, sunny day in Oxfordshire, (although my wife, of course,was freezing – sometimes, it’s like being married to Alan Green !), but thepitch looked a bit patchy even before the kick-off.

The team newswas interesting - no Steve Marshall up front, and no Steve Robinson, so TonyEeles captained the side in his absence. There was also a new name for me - JoeCornwall in defence (sorry, Joe, if I’ve got your name wrong !). With both JonWarden and Nicky Arundel leaving the Club in mid-week, to return to Kent Leaguefootball, there was a starting place for the promising Dave Peachey, alongsidePlayer-Coach Steve Lovell. The fact that Assistant Manager Peter “Ashford ‘tilI die” McRobert was also named among the three substitutes probably betrayedthe fact that Tommy Sampson was a bit light on personnel for this game - I’msure that the inside story will be revealed in Tommy’s column on this web-sitebefore long !

So it was a4-4-2 formation for Ashford, with Paul Ribbens wide on the right and Kirk Wattswide on the left in midfield, playing in white shirts, green shorts and whitesocks. (I actually have a soft spot for this strip - it’s the combination thatwe invariably wore in the early seventies, when we had what was arguably ourbest ever side; the days when Peter Sillett was in charge and Alan Morton was bangingin all those goals; when Scarborough robbed us 1-0 in the semi-final of the FATrophy, with a very dodgy penalty !).

There wascertainly plenty of time to reminisce in the first quarter of an hour of thematch, as nothing of any note happened in this time - as the match reporters onthe radio say : “I’ve written nothing in my note book !” This was not due to any shortage of endeavourfrom the players - it’s just that everything was compressed into the middlethird of the pitch. There was a strange, Sunday afternoon atmosphere about thegame - blue skies, and with both benches making marginally more noise than thevery sparse crowd.

Then, after 16minutes, Jason Ash put the ball out for a corner to Witney. As the ball wasswung across, the referee blew up for a free-kick - it was not immediatelyclear which team had been penalised. There was no reaction from the crowd -mainly because there was no crowd - and both sets of players seemed to bequerying the decision. Dave Peachey was in the area, looking both bewilderedand disappointed, and the referee seemed to be making his way towards thepenalty spot - a penalty, maybe ? Iheard someone in the home crowd say “Oh, good”, so that confirmed it. The wordfiltering back to the touchline from the players was that the penalty was forpushing, against Dave Peachey.

There was nodoubt about the spot-kick, though - Witney’s Keith Knight planted the ballfirmly to Craig Tucker’s left, to become the home side’s top scorer thisseason, with nine goals. So 1-0 to the Blanketmen. (If you know your industrialhistory, you won’t need any explanation for this nickname !).

Ashford reactedto going behind by picking up the pace, and looked slightly the better side formost of the rest of the half, but still made little headway in terms of anequaliser. Steve Lovell looked strong, and won plenty of balls in the air, butseemed to miss his regular striking partner. A nod-down by Lovell, after 21minutes, did, however, lead to Ashford’s only recognisable chance in the firstperiod, with midfielder Adrian Webster picking the ball up and running at theWitney defence. The Australian transferred the ball onto his right foot, andshot low, but just wide.

The only otherglimmer of hope for the visitors before half-time came after 43 minutes whenLovell controlled the ball on his chest, swivelled and shot, but the effort wasa weak one, and, as the old-timers say, the goalie could have “thrown his capon it”. Incidentally, although it’s old news now, I feel I should say somethingabout Steve’s decision to stick with the job at Ashford, instead of taking theoffer of the Manager’s post at Sittingbourne. This is an important “barometerreading”. Obviously, a bloke like him will have some long-term ambitions to gointo management, so the fact that he (and also Tommy) have pledged theirimmediate future to The Homelands sends a message to players, supporters andofficials alike that there might be something worth persevering with at theClub ! Well, Tommy, for one, iscertainly not doing it for the money ! Let’s hope that their loyalty is repaid some day.

A quiet halfended with a scare for Ashford. A cross from the Witney right was headedgoalwards, and, with Tucker beaten, was cleared off the line by the newcomerCornwall. So very little to report in the “incidents” column - Webster’s shotfor Ashford, a soft penalty for Witney, and neither goalie actually making asave.

And so tohalf-time, and a pleasant surprise in the music department - rather than theusual seventies rubbish belting out on the tanoy (the curse of the smallerfootball ground), there was a first chance to hear a new release. BruceGrobelaar’s debut single. A catchy cover version of Bob the Builder’s Christmashit. Just love that chorus : -

“ Grobthe Builder,

Can he fix it ?

Grob the Builder,

YES HE CAN !! ”

(What was the number of that solicitor’s again, Steve?!)

The second halfbegan much more brightly, with Ashford out of the traps pretty quickly. Ourfirst attack, in the first minute, ended with a foul on Dave Peachey. TonyEeles found Peachey’s head from the resulting free-kick, but the ball was putbehind for a corner.

Moments later,it was the home side - playing in all-yellow, as usual - who came forward. JoeCornwall committed the cardinal sin for a defender - he was caught inpossession as the last man ! The Witneyplayer who robbed him, first half substitute Richard Bourne, bore down on theAshford goal, but shot straight into Craig Tucker’s arms.

Two minutesinto the second half, Ashford won a throw-in, deep in the Witney half, on theright. Paul Ribbens threw the ball long, into the penalty area, where it fellat the feet of Tony Eeles. The stand-in skipper seemed to have all the time inthe world, and was able to pass the ball into the far corner of the net. Yetanother goal in a prolific season for the midfield general, and “iverdibianchi” were all square.

(Okay, so I’mbeing flash coming out with the italian - but you have to admit that it adds atouch of class to the web-site).

Tommy Sampson’sboys then largely took control of the game, having the lion’s share ofpossession and doing all the pressing. After 54 minutes, Tom Binks came on assub for Joe Cornwall, after which Steve Taylor pushed further forward down theright, linking up well with Paul Ribbens. In this half - whether or not it wasby chance or by design - it was young Dave Peachey who was the target of mostlong balls forward, and, in spite of his slight frame (he’s built rather likeRodney Trotter !), he was strong and competitive. But still the flick-ons andlay-offs didn’t quite come off.

To be honest,Ashford’s dominance was helped by Witney Town being fairly poor during thisperiod - the best that they could offer in response to the equaliser was aspeculative, long-range shot from Mike Cook, which was again straight intoTucker’s arms.

The nextclear-cut chance fell to the visitors, after 55 minutes. Steve Lovell wasfouled, deep in the Witney half. Tony Eeles’s free-kick was only half cleared,and Paul Ribbens’ header back into the danger zone found Dave Peachey on theedge of the six-yard box. As a natural goal-scorer, he looked odds-on to putthe lads in the lead, but he pulled his shot across the face of the goal.(“Rodders, you plonker !”).

After 63 minutes,young David won yet another ball in the air, which Steve Lovell ran onto -unfortunately, he got the shot completely wrong, and sliced it well wide. Well,as Coach, you sometimes have to show the youngsters how NOT to do it !

By the time thehome side made their second substitution - Geoff Neville, in the 64th minute -the pitch was beginning to cut up very badly, but Ashford were still incontrol, with most of our best work continuing to come down the right , throughSteve Taylor and the excellent Paul Ribbens. The fact that the right wing areabegan to resemble a ploughed field told us something about the way the matchwas going !

After 67minutes, it was Taylor who made in-roads into the Blanketmen’s penalty area,getting to the by-line before being brought down. Gentle appeals for thepenalty were turned down, and the Nuts & Bolts had to settle for a corneron the right. This was taken by Kirk Watts, who had been having a quiet secondhalf, after looking quite lively in the first period, but his cross was headedwide.

Just after thehour mark, the home side did come back into the game a little more, but couldmanage only a corner, after 69 minutes, which resulted in an Ashford free-kickfor a foul on goalkeeper Tucker, and another optimistic long-range effort, thatwent well over the bar, on 70 minutes.

It was at aboutthis time that there was the most amusing incident of the game. One of theWitney players responded to some on-going stick from an Ashford fan behind thegoal by shouting : “Shut up, Noddy Holder !”. (A reference to his Barnet !).That was really refreshing. A fan being barracked by a player. It could onlyhappen in non-league footy !

Witney had arather better chance after 76 minutes, when goal scorer Keith Knight was putclean through on goal. Craig Tucker came out to meet him, and Knight pulled hisshot wide - he should have done better.

After 82minutes, Ashford won a throw-in on the left, level with the penalty area.Again, they tried the long-throw routine - the throw was flicked on at the nearpost, and Tony Eeles was waiting at the far side of the box, as the last man,and drilled the ball into the corner of the net, hitting roughly the same spotthat he had for the equaliser. Inevitably, there was the chant of : “Eelesy,Eelesy, Goal Machine” from the Ashford faithful behind the goal. The nickname“Goal Machine” has always meant to be ironic, as Tony has, traditionally, notscored the number of goals that you might expect from a player with his talent,but he’s certainly been banging the goals in this season ! 1-2 to the Greens !

Witney neverthreatened to come back after this - their only remaining goal attempt camewith a free-kick outside the penalty area, with two minutes to go, which washit straight at Craig Tucker.

Then with 90minutes on the watch - Scott McRobert having replaced Kirk Watts five minutesearlier - Dave Peachey burst onto a lobbed through-ball from midfield, leavingthe home defence for dead. In a one-on-one situation with goalkeeper Tom King,Peachey shaped to curl the shot into the net with his in-step - King got a handto the ball, but could not prevent it from ending up in the top corner of thenet. A good striker’s goal for David, and one which was just reward for hisgood battling performance in the second half.

The 1-3scoreline was also just reward for the team, for bossing the last 45 minutes,having been a goal down to a soft penalty at half-time. The victory was justwhat Tommy needed, after four consecutive defeats - let’s hope that the boyscan now go on to finish the season strongly, to set us up for a promotioncampaign next season. There are plenty of stern tests to come this term, though- we still have the Isle of Wight to play twice, Hastings to play twice, andhave to go to the likes of Grantham and Rothwell. Also, Histon will be nopush-overs.

Which brings usback to those amazing statistics. The magic number is now 33 : 16 wins, 17defeats ...... and no draws. Also, Witney still haven’t beaten us on their homeground - either in this new stadium, or at their old place. Spare a thought forCraig Tucker and the defence, though - they were really unlucky not to havedoubled their tally of clean sheets for the season !

ARCHIVE: Whyteleafe v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 26th of December 2006.

2011-12-29T15:37:00.001-08:00

Whyteleafe 1 Ashford Town 1

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

Boxing Day 2006. This was another first forus, going to a footy match on Boxing Day, as we’ve previously always spent theday with the in-laws, as a sort of return leg from Christmas Day. It’s also aday when, traditionally, the fixtures compilers arrange some local derbies forclubs, to both minimise travelling for players and supporters, and to maximizegate receipts for those clubs scheduled to play at home. It was a bit gallingfor both Whyteleafe and Ashford Town, therefore, that, on a day when thefixture lists included Ramsgate v Margate, Sittingbourne v Maidstone, Chatham vDartford and Erith & Belvedere v Erith Town, the two teams should be downto play each other. Unsurprisingly, the match attracted a crowd of only 129.

This was also the fourth match of JohnCumberbatch’s reign as sole Manager, and it must be said that we approached thegame with a rare sense of hope, after John had got off the mark with a deservedvictory against a decidedly useful side in top-of-the-table Dulwich Hamlet onSaturday. According to eye-witnesses from both sides, Ashford looked bothuseful and committed. The victory was also founded upon a seemingly bizarreteam selection, with Anthony Allman and Simon Glover, our two “class acts” inthe centre of midfield for much of this season, being deployed at right- andleft-back, respectively, and with vertically-challenged Tom Adlington played incentral defence. Well, whether or not this was a stroke of genius from John, itcertainly seemed to do the trick. And, as if to make the point that this teamselection was not merely an aberration, the same starting line-up turned outfor this noon kick-off, in spite of centre-half Nick Fenwick being fit enoughto occupy a place on the bench - and all three of these lads had an excellentgame in defence today.

Before describing the day’s events, I feel Ishould acknowledge a little debt of gratitude that we owe Whyteleafe FC, forsaving us from relegation at the end of the 2004-5 season. Travelling toHorsham for the final game of that season, Ashford knew that they needed avictory to ensure safety from making the drop down to the Kent League –unfortunately, we got hammered 5-0, and it was only Whyteleafe’s 3-1 win overDorking, here at Church Road,that pulled our nuts out of the fire. I should also say that everyone from theclub that we met today went out of their way to be friendly and welcoming, soit was a pity that the ‘Leafe’s team management personnel acted in such aloutish and unsportsmanlike manner. We’ve become accustomed to the pitch-sidebanter being a little raucus at times, but their sledging of our players wasunnecessarily unpleasant and personal, and the man who carried the big bag ofballs did himself and his club no favours with his uncalled-for volleys offoul-mouthed abuse directed at the Ashford bench.

That 2004-5 season was three relegationscraps ago now, as we again find ourselves just three places from the bottom ofthe table, with today’s opponents just one place below us, level on points, buthaving played three games more. The game was therefore very much a six-pointer,with our hosts arguably in even greater need of the points than ourselves –they had also failed to register a single home win in the league this season,(with their last such victory at home, I’m told, being back in February).

So the team news was that Ashford wereunchanged from the side that beat Dulwich Hamlet, with the only change to theteam sheet being the addition of Nick Fenwick to the subs bench; the team wastherefore, (from right to left, and in 4-4-2 formation): Jake Whincup, AnthonyAllman, Marc Cumberbatch, Tommy Adlington, Simon Glover, Drew Watkins, KevinLott, Matt Carruthers, Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, Walid Matata and George Fenwick.The full list of subs was Ian Ross, Luke Coleman, Jamie Leggett, Nick F and JoeHitchings (whose appearance from the bench on Saturday brought his total timespent on the pitch this season up to 78 minutes).

In the first half, Ashford played up theslope of a pitch that was both bumpy and undulating, and that had several bare,muddy patches. The home side, playing in green shirts, with white shorts andsockies, having forsaken their more familiar Celtic-style strip of green andwhite hoops, did most of the early pressing, and, with the exception of anoff-target, long-range effort from Anthony Allman, Ashford found it hard to getout of their own half in the opening ten minutes. The first real chance thatour boys, playing in an all-yellow strip, managed to create came in the twelfthminute. This came about as a result of a foul on Kevin Lott. The free-kick wastaken by Anthony Allman, who today shared the dead-ball duties with KennyJarrett-Elliott; Anthony chipped the ball into the centre of the penalty area,where Marc Cumberbatch rose to meet it, only to see Danny Coote, in theWhyteleafe goal, make a comfortable catch.

Whyteleafe themselves had a free-kick in adangerous position, in the 15^th minute, after Tommy Adlington hadtapped the heels of Danny Plâtel, from behind. This was taken by Jo Clarke –the only man on the pitch with more grey hair than your correspondent. Hiscross into the area was a good one, but Daniel Hornsby’s push on Tom Adlingtonwas as obvious as they come, and he didn’t get away with it.

In the 17^th minute, Ashford had afree-kick, near the right touchline, which was awarded for hand-ball. KennyThree Names whipped this in, with pace, attacking the near post – two yellowshirts also attacked the near post, in what was obviously a pre-planned ploy,but Danny Coote (who wasn’t actually bald) held onto the ball well. Withinseconds, Whyteleafe took the lead – and it was Ashford’s new ‘keeper, JakeWhincup, who didn’t exactly cover himself in glory with this one. An up &under into the Ashford penalty area appeared to be bouncing harmlessly outtowards the corner flag, but this was hoiked back in, hoisted high once again,by Daniel Hornsby. This was always going to be a tricky one to deal with, as itwas on course to drop into the Ashford goal, but it was in the air for a longtime, and Jake really should have done something decisive with it. Instead, itwas allowed to bounce off either Danny Plâtel or Marc Cumberbatch, and plopover the line. There was some suggestion that it might have been a Cumberbatchown goal, but it was confirmed at half time that the goal was awarded toPlâtel, the man with a circumflex – and I bet you didn’t even know he wasJewish !

To give credit to the home side, they fought hardto protect their lead, snapping in tackles, and chances were hard to come byfor Ashford, but Walid Matata had a chance to score his first goal for theclub, in the 21^st minute. Kevin Lott released him through on goal,with a visionary pass from inside the centre circle, but Walid scuffed hisfirst-time shot wide of the goal. In the 28^th minute, he showed atouch of class, as he expertly turned Kris Barry, rounded another Whyteleafedefender, and then put in a low centre, looking for George Fenwick. Georgeflicked the ball back with the outside of his boot, to set Matt Carruthers upwith a great chance to score, but, disappointingly, Matt skied a left-footedshot well over the bar. A minute later, we had another opportunity, whenAnthony Allman took a free-kick near the left touchline. He sent in a useful,curling cross into the penalty area, and Simon Glover’s flicked back-headerwent just over the bar.

At the other end, in the 31^stminute, Daniel Hornsby lobbed another high, speculative cross into the Ashfordgoalmouth. Again, Jake failed to come for the ball, so that Anthony Allman, whohad no Whyteleafe player near him, but no direction from his ‘keeper either,had no choice but to nod the ball behind for a corner. On this occasion, theset piece came to nothing. Three minutes later, George Fenwick’s persistencepersuaded Oliver Barrett to concede a corner, on the right. This was taken byKenny Jarrett-Elliott, again attacking the near post, but this was headedbehind by Luke Basford, the man on the post, for another corner. Whilst thefollow-up kick also failed to produce a clear-cut chance, Ashford managed tokeep the pressure on the home defence, and, soon after, Matt Carruthers wastripped as he careered through central midfield, towards the Whyteleafe area.This provided Ashford with a free-kick in a position that really did havepossibilities, and Anthony Allman was the first among our free-kick specialiststo have a crack (as each of them did in turn throughout the match – all failingto deliver). Anthony’s method was to go for the direct power shot – as he did,successfully, against Folkestone in the Kent Senior Cup victory earlier on inthe season – but this time his effort was always going wide.

In the 39^th minute, MarcCumberbatch and Tommy Adlington had an awkward, bouncing ball to deal with,running back towards their own goal; the ball broke to Danny Plâtel, who struckhis shot firmly, and on target, but Jake Whincup this time made an excellentsave. The resulting corner, from the left, was crossed long, beyond the farpost, where Daniel Hornsby headed wide.

It was in the 42^nd minute thatWalid Matata gave a glimpse of what he is capable of. A long clearance from theAshford defence went beyond the Whyteleafe defensive line; Walid gave his man astart of at least five yards, but, with a lightning burst of speed, got to theball easily, and was set for a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The chance was snuffedout when the defender cynically hauled Walid down, in what looked to be a clearexample of a red-card offence. Unsurprisingly, Referee Bentley (who had a bignose) seemed to chicken out, and settled for showing a yellow card. This timeit was Drew Watkins’s turn to try to make something of the free-kick. Now, weknow that Drew is capable of “bending it like Rossi” – David Beckham has alsoscored the odd goal in this manner – as he hit the bar, from a free-kick in asimilar position, at Tooting & Mitcham. On this occasion, Drew managed tocurl the ball over and around the defensive wall, but also wide of the goal.

Matata had another chance to score, shortlybefore half time, when George Fenwick flicked on another long clearance. Walidgot to the ball at about the same time as ‘keeper Danny Coote, and managed tokick it through his hands, but there was a defender on hand to hoof the balloff the line. So 1-0 it was to the green & whites (nice strip !) at theinterval, but I still felt that we were bound to score against this lot, andwere still probably capable of forcing a win.

This impression was very nearly confirmed inthe first minute of the second half, when Walid Matata burst onto athrough-ball. I was still ambling back to my position on the halfway line, withmy cup of Bovril, and I should emphasise that the job of linesman is not aneasy one, but I found Mr Phillips’s decision to raise his flag for offside tobe totally inexplicable. Nevertheless, the flag went up, and that was that. Inthe 48^th minute, a good Ashford move down the right, involving DrewWatkins, Anthony Allman and Matt Carruthers, ended with a goal-mouth scramble,but the Whyteleafe defence managed to force the ball behind for a corner. Thiswas taken by Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, on the right, and his deep cross was headedagainst the far post by Matt Carruthers.

In the 50^th minute, good defendingby Simon Glover conceded a corner at the other end, on the Whyteleafe right. Thisproduced a rare scare in the second half for the Ashford defence, as ‘Leafeskipper Danny Arkwright, who looked to be about seven feet tall, rose to meetthe cross with a good, on-target header, but Tommy Adlington was there to clearthe ball off the line.

Generally, though, Ashford always looked tobe the side most likely to score – even through my biased eyes – and we hadanother free-kick opportunity in the 53^rd minute. This came about asa result of a trip by Jo Clarke on Walid Matata, for which the Whyteleafe No.8got booked. This time, it was Matt Carruthers’s turn to go for goal; with the‘Leafe defensive wall lined up on the edge of the penalty area, Matt’s curlingshot went just past the angle of post and bar. The home side did, though, havea free-kick in a dangerous position a couple of minutes later – this was for apush by Marc Cumberbatch on Daniel Hornsby. Jo Clarke took the kick, from justoutside the area, bending the ball around the wall, and it needed a very gooddiving save from Jake Whincup to keep it out. He managed to push Clarke’seffort around the post, for a corner, and then came out to collect theresulting cross with an acrobatic leap and a catch that was so impressive thatit drew chuckles of appreciation from his team-mates on the bench.

In the 62^nd minute, Whyteleafemade their first substitution, with Calvin MacLean replacing Leon McDowell;Luke Coleman got the call to get ready from John Cumberbatch at about the sametime, and eventually went on for Drew Watkins in the 64^th minute.

In the 68^th minute, George Fenwickand Walid Matata again combined well, when George put Walid through with aone-on-one with the goalkeeper, only for Coote to make a good save at his feet– the ball broke to George, and it looked like he only had to knock it into anempty net, but the ball was deflected for a corner. Kenny Three Names took thekick, on the right, and the ball was soon returned to him; he crossed the ballagain, and, this time, he found Simon Glover, arriving at the far post, whonodded the ball down into the far corner of the net. This was Glovesie’s firstgoal for Ashford in his current spell at the Club, and it’s a little ironicthat he has broken what was becoming quite a worrying duck when being switchedto the back four ! (For you anoraks outthere, Gloves has, at the time of writing, played exactly 2,000 minutes offootball this season for that one goal).

With Whyteleafe reacting by immediatelyreplacing Kris Barry with Tony Martin, Ashford then started to show what theywere capable of, as, for a short spell after that equaliser, they visiblyincreased the tempo of their play. In the 73^rd minute, a cross from theleft from Simon Glover was headed clear by the Whyteleafe defence, but only asfar as Kenny, on the edge of the area, who attempted an ambitious, long-rangeheader that went just wide. A minute later, Gloves sent in another cross fromthe left, after some good hold-up work from Walid Matata, but Luke Colemanheaded wide at the far post.

In the 78^th minute, Whyteleafebroke out of defence with a move that took them all the way to the corner flag,on the right, but good defending by Tom Adlington conceded a corner. There wasa delay as, first the referee took time out to yellow-card Danny Plâtel, for anearlier incident, and then play was suspended for treatment to a Whyteleafeplayer. When Jo Clarke eventually took the kick, Marc Cumberbatch did well tohead the ball clear, in spite of being challenged by ‘Leafe’s giant centre-halfDanny Arkwright – later, Arkwright was to be named as the home team’sMan-of-the-Match, according to a supporters’ poll, whilst Cumber was named asthe MK Man-of-the-Match, after another solid and polished performance at theback.

By the time that Matt Kember was replaced byScott Marshall, in the 81^st minute, Whyteleafe appeared to haveweathered the brief onslaught, and the draw began to look the most likelyresult. They did have a free-kick in a dangerous position, in the 82^ndminute, which Jo Clarke curled straight at Jake Whincup, and substitute TonyMartin had a long-range shot which curled wide of the post, on the 90-minutemark, but there would be no addition to the score. The last act of note came inthe 92^nd minute, when George Fenwick got himself booked, (in spiteof trying to persuade Mr Bentley that it was now hardly worth bothering with –“Yes, I think we need a good send-off”, was the ref’s banter, in response !).

In terms of the league positions at thebottom of Ryman Division 1 South, there was no change – with Walton Casualsalso picking up a Boxing Day point, they remain on the same number of points asthe two teams in action today – but Ashford will have been more content withthe draw, given that they have three games in hand of today’s hosts. There was,however, a very strong consensus among the lads afterwards that this was acouple of points dropped, as we had enough of the game, and demonstrated enoughsuperiority, to feel that we could, and should, have taken all three.

Never mind; let’s not be too greedy. At leastthe lads are beginning to play well, and there is evidence that a good squad ofplayers is rapidly gelling together. On Saturday, there is a far sterner test –at home to Hastings United, in a proper holiday-period derby. We beat Hastings 0-1 at The Pilot Field earlier on in the season,but they’re a much better side now, and proved that with a 1-1 draw at home to Dover this afternoon.

Man of the Match

(to go towardsthe Milton Keynes Bowl)

Marc Cumberbatch

ARCHIVE: Whyteleafe v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. January 2006.

2011-12-29T15:33:00.001-08:00

Whyteleafe 3 Ashford Town 2

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

Although we’ve had only two games so far in2006, it’s already been a year of extreme highs and lows. From the euphoria ofthe 3-0 first-half performance against Dover, which culminated in thatexhilarating third goal from Denver “Box to Box” Birmingham, the lads sufferedthe crushing psychological blow of that 93rd minute winner for the MetropolitanPolice last Saturday. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that we collected threepoints from those two games, whilst, of our rivals at the bottom of the table,only Corinthian Casuals managed to get a point (and only one) during the sameperiod, with Burgess Hill Town actually playing three games.

That, I’m afraid is the stark reality of ourcurrent position – we’re in a division within a division, involving four teams:ourselves (18 points from 25 games, at the start of today’s play), Burgess Hill Town(17 from 22), Corinthian Casuals (16 from 24) and Newport IoW (15 from 23). Intheory, two of these teams are supposed to go down at the end of the season,but, with another restructuring happening in non-league football in the Summer,which will involve a whole bunch of teams being promoted from Step 5 to ourlevel, the chances are that no more than one team will actually go down.Nevertheless, it’s always good to set your sights high, so we really should beaiming for 21^st position or better in this 23-team division. Thatmeans that we just need to make sure that we keep two of these three teams behindus. (We still need to play these three teams once; away from home each time).

The fact that we’re in another relegationbattle in Ryman Division 1 – and not fighting it out for third place behindBeckenham and Maidstone in the Kent League – is due to events here at ChurchRoad, Whyteleafe, on the last day of last season. Whilst Ashford were a fewmiles down the road at Horsham, getting thrashed 5-0, Whyteleafe saved our skinby getting a 3-1 result against Dorking, which relegated The Dorks, in our stead.In recognition of the debt that we undoubtedly owe The ‘Leafe, Mrs MiltonKeynes Correspondent and I kissed the ground as we passed through theturnstiles.

As the name of the place suggests, today’svenue was deep in leafy Surrey (i.e. posh end– compared to South Ashford, at least). It’s a pleasant, tree-lined littleground at Church Road.It’s also what the Queen Mother used to describe as an “arse about face”ground, with the main stand (the “Gold Air Stand”) behind one goal, and asmaller stand with a few green and white seats, including club Directors’seats, on the half-way line. The place has rather more terracing than somevenues in Ryman Division 1, and is capable of holding more than the 176 thatturned up this afternoon, (295 is Whyteleafe’s best crowd so far this season). Thepitch was blighted with patches of bare mud, but that was hardly surprising,given the wet weather that’s been about recently.

There were a few “nice to see”s in theAshford line-up. Firstly, it was nice to see Rossi making his 201^stappearance for the Club – having been told that he would never play footballagain, following that horrendous double-fracture of the leg, I’m sure that hedoesn’t take playing for granted, so we shouldn’t either. Quite apart from that,three of Ashford Town’s last four goals have come aboutas a result of an Ian Ross cross or free-kick. It was also good to see Big DaveWietecha back in goal – no disrespect to Sean Glover (who was apparently atfault to some extent for both goals against The Met), but Dave is anoutstanding ‘keeper. In front of him, we had the now-familiar back-four ofRossi, Mark Banks, Tom Adlington and Jamie Smith. (Once again, the full-backstowered over their centre-back colleagues – but so too did the Whyteleafe forwards!). On the subject of defenders, it was good to see former captain andcentre-half Peter Mortley on the bench. Peter has recently left HastingsUnited, reportedly on the grounds of the travelling he has to do from hisMedway home, and has apparently re-signed for us.

There is plenty of competition for places inmidfield at the moment, and the promising RJ Boorman also had to be contentwith a place on the subs’ bench. The preferred central defensive pairing iscurrently Denver Birmingham (now fit enough to complete 90 minutes of late) andGary Clarke, with J-P Collier on the right, and Sol Henry on the left. EmmanuelSackey also had to make do with a place on the bench, with Nathan Thomas andAnthony Pace being other midfielders unable to make the first team squad. WithJoby Thorogood starting a four-game ban, Shaun Bradshaw partnered Adrian Stoneup front, (Adrianho carrying the Club’s yellow livery for the first time, withWhyteleafe playing in their usual Celtic strip). The bench was completed by KennicksonJarrett-Elliott and Sean Glover.

There was something of a Bromley reunionhere, as Kevin George was named in the Whyteleafe side, having been releasedfrom Bromley in the same cull that has enabled Adrian Stone and John-PaulCollier to return to Ashford. (I now understand that Adrianho is with us on amonth’s loan, but presumably this loan-period can be extended when it expires).

In damping, overcast conditions, Ashfordstarted the better of the two teams, and ran the game for the first ten minutes.Our one shooting chance during this period came after Adrianho had shown goodskill to win a corner, on the right. Skipper Ian Ross came across to take it,his cross falling to Shaun Bradshaw – Bradders hit his shot into the ground,and it bounced up for a comfortable catch for ‘keeper James Wastell.

Whyteleafe’s first real venture intoAshford’s half of the field came after ten minutes – and it took this long forJamie Smith to lunge in with his first reckless tackle. Smudger is obviously avery talented footballer, but his disciplinary record has been appalling sincehe joined us. Having been sent off for two yellows in the previous match,against the Met Police, he again attracted the referee’s attention. Theresulting free-kick, from wide on the left, was floated into the Ashford area,and was nodded down by a Whyteleafe forward, but this was easy for DaveWietecha to gather.

In the twelfth minute, Shaun Bradshaw had aglimmer of a chance when he almost latched onto a fairly innocuous ball from deepmidfield – it just needed him to get a toe to the ball, but he couldn’t makethe vital contact, and the ball went harmlessly through to James Wastell.

After creating some promising situations witha corner, and a free-kick in a forward position, Ashford then went behind, inthe 16^th minute. Mark Banks, who has been looking quite solid at theback since establishing himself in the side, appeared to be in control of along ball from the ‘Leafe defence, chasing back towards his own goal.Unfortunately, he fluffed the tap back to Dave Wietecha, and presented a greatchance for a Whyteleafe forward. (I wasn’t on great form when it came toidentifying the opposition’s players today – mainly because the black numbers onthe hooped shirts were not decipherable beyond a distance of about ten yards!). Big Dave made the first of a number of great saves, but ‘Leafe skipper LeeSidwell was there to hammer in the rebound.

A minute later, there was the first sign ofill-feeling on the field, when an incident involving Jean-Paul Collier led to apush & shove session that involved most of the outfield players. To saythat J-P got booked for a foul is incorrect – he actually got booked forkicking an opponent in the back of the legs, after his victim had passed theball. Whether it was as a result of something that had been said to him, or aprevious challenge, J-P was clearly peering through a red mist of some kind,and a yellow card, at least, was inevitable. Whyteleafe’s Gareth Graham wasalso booked, presumably for his part in the ensuing ruck.

Collier’s yellow card really should haveacted as a warning to him to watch his step for the rest of the game – which iswhat they’re for, after all – but, three minutes later, he dived in with alate, reckless and brainless tackle, right under referee Haines’s nose. It wasalmost as if he had a train to catch, as the red card was automatic. Astravelling fans, we get used to players making mistakes, with some strugglingto make the grade at this level, and with some not being as fit as they mightbe, and we tend to take such things with a pinch of salt, but this was veryhard to accept. John-Paul’s actions appeared to be those of a player who hadabsolutely no regard for the interests of the Club. Worse than that, he let histeam-mates down badly, as they were now a goal down, a man down and with still70 minutes to play. The lads have enough on their plate at the moment, andhaving had to play with nine and ten men in recent matches hasn’t helped theircause.

Things might have gone downhill very rapidlyfrom here, following Collier’s dereliction of duty – in the First World War hewould’ve been shot ! – but, surprisingly, Ashford hit back almost immediately,with an equaliser. It was a well-taken goal, but it certainly involved someslack defending from the home side. A free-kick from the half-way line from IanRoss was floated into the Whyteleafe area – this found Adrianho in plenty ofspace, and he had time to control the ball and square it to Shaun Bradshaw.Bradders also had time to steady himself, and planted the ball into the cornerof the net.

That meant that four of Ashford Town’slast five goals had come about as a result of an Ian Ross cross or free-kick.

One thing that can be said about Ashford’sreaction to going down to ten men is that the two-man attack was generally maintained;Jamie Smith tended to push up into the right of midfield whenever possible,leaving three at the back in a 3-4-2 formation. This defence did, however, finditself under pressure for much of the remainder of the game, especially in thelead-up to half time. In the 24^th minute, Mark Banks had to concedea corner when coming across with a saving tackle – Dave Wietecha demonstratedthat there is at least some height in the Ashford defence, when he rose toeasily collect the resulting cross. A minute later, Ian Ross conceded a free-kickon the Ashford left. This was floated long to the far post, and long-hairedNo.10 Andrew Martin – think of Francis Rossi in his prime, circa 1973 – got uphigh above Ashford Town’s Rossi, and did just about all that could be expectedof him, with a good, downward header. This “finish” deserved a goal, but DaveWietecha did well to make a great save, one-handed, low to his right. Aftersome fairly boorish behaviour from some football clubs in this league recently,and in a game where ill-temper was never far below the surface, I’m delightedto report that Andrew Martin sportingly shook Big Dave’s hand, to congratulatehim on the save.

Whyteleafe weren’t to be denied for long, though,and they regained the lead in the 35^th minute – but once again ittook them two attempts to get past Dave Wietecha. Gareth Graham, who looked tobe the home side’s inspiration in midfield, sent in a dangerous, curling crossto the near post, from a free-kick. Dave did well to keep the ball out, in thefirst instance, but Bobby George was there, on the oche, to knock in therebound.

In the 42^nd minute, Jamie Smith(unusually, it must be said) gave the ball away, with a misplaced pass, and theWhyteleafe midfield immediately sprang out to attack, quickly outnumbering theAshford defence, four against three. Sol Henry did well to get back goal-sideof the ball, holding the attack up and eventually winning a free-kick. Sollyhad a really good game defensively today, looking strong when in possession,and often tracking back to help the defence. (The fact that he never threatenedas an attacking force, not giving the merest hint that he might put in a crossfrom the left, was one of the reasons for few chances being created by thevisitors this afternoon).

Andrew Martin – anyone remember Mario Kempes,who played for

Argentina

in the seventies and eighties ? – showed himself to be a quality player, with45 minutes on the watch. He chased a ball down the right wing, to the cornerflag, turned and beat two Ashford defenders, beat another one to find himselfinside the Ashford penalty area, and then saw his shot well saved by DaveWietecha. Although he didn’t get onto the scoresheet, Martin was later named asMan of the Match, and this was well deserved.

So 2-1 to The ‘Leafe at half time, and,although Ashford generally played OK, particularly in midfield and in defence,it was significant that James Wastell, in the home goal, hadn’t actually made asave in the first half.

Whyteleafe had the first chance of the secondhalf, winning a corner, as early as the 47^th minute, after Sol Henryhad done a good covering job for Ian Ross. The corner was floated deep, beyondthe far post, and Andrew Martin was there with a volley on the turn, but hiseffort flashed just over the bar.

Rossi – I’m referring to the Ashford captainagain here – was the next yellow-shirted player to pick up a yellow card. Thiswas for a late tackle, in the 51^st minute; nothing vicious orvindictive, but it was late. The energetic Gareth Graham took the free-kick, ashort distance from the left corner of the Ashford area, and faced by athree-man wall. Graham’s cross skidded dangerously through the Ashford six-yardbox, and behind, and must have touched a defender, as a corner was given.Graham came across to the right to take the corner himself, but Ian Ross headedclear.

Jason Goodchild scuffed a weak shot wide ofthe post, two minutes later, but the next chance came at the other end. Denver “Two Cities” Birminghamdid well to win a corner, on the right, in the 56^th minute. This wastaken by Ian Ross, aiming for the head of Adrianho, at the near post; theBromley Brazilian got half a head to it, but, after a brief scramble in theWhyteleafe penalty area, the ball was cleared.

Adrianho had a much better chance threeminutes later. Running onto a long ball from defence, he got a touch to takethe ball past the goalkeeper, but a Whyteleafe defender, running back, was ableto clear the ball from the gaping mouth of the goal.

‘Leafe manager Stuart Massey made his firstsubstitution in the 61^st minute, replacing Gareth Graham, who hadbeen hobbling a little, with Tony Martin – probably with the instruction thatall Ashford players intruding into the penalty area should be shot in the back! Similarly, the Ashford bench – withTim Thorogood now back from Las Vegas– brought off Gary Clarke, who seemed to be carrying a knock of some kind, andreplaced him with RJ Boorman, in the 65^th minute.

As the home side continued to press forward,Bobby George managed a weak shot straight at Dave Wietecha, in the 66^thminute, and then, two minutes later, a headed clearance from Tom Adlington fellto the feet of Kevin George, and the ex-Bromley man’s shot was deflected widefor a corner. The resulting cross was drilled, all along the ground, to LeighDouce in the heart of the penalty area, and the centre-half sweetly (get it ?)side-footed the ball into the corner of the net. This looked bad, defensively,as the ball was allowed to travel a long way without a defender getting a footto it, but this also looked to be a training ground set-piece, so you have togive the attacking team some credit for that.

At 3-1, and with ten-man Ashford havingcreated so few chances, that looked to be the goal that wrapped up the pointsfor Whyteleafe, but, for the second time in the match, the boys scored wheneveryone least expected them to. In fact, it was just a minute later that theypulled the score back to 3-2. A great, diagonal ball from RJ Boorman – a bit ofa trade mark, really – was chased into the right corner of the pitch by DenverBirmingham, and the Coloradocity won a free-kick, near the corner flag. Ian Ross went across to take thekick, and curled the ball deep into the area. Sol Henry got as high as hecould, and aimed a looping header towards goal. This should have been an easytip-over for Whyteleafe’s ‘keeper Leigh Wastell, but he did no more thandeflect the ball onto the bar – he flicked his hand at the ball again, as itdropped, but the ball plopped embarrassingly into the corner of the net. Thiswas a comical gaff from a normally reliable and well-respected ‘keeper, but allgifts are gratefully received by Ashford Town at this stage of theseason. The goal was actually credited to Solomon Henry, so, at long last,after 40 hours and 14 minutes of football for Ashford this season – and withhis brother scoring a hat-trick for Arsenal this afternoon - Solly has finally brokenhis duck.

It also meant that five of Ashford Town’slast six goals had come about as a result of an Ian Ross cross or free-kick.

Wastell’s uncharacteristic horlicks appearedto be contagious, as Dave Wietecha did something very similar at the other end,in the 73^rd minute. Dave looked to have a similarly easy task to tipover a curling cross, from a free-kick near the by-line, but he failed to makethe necessary contact, and the ball skidded off the face of the bar. RJ Boormanpicked the ball up and cleared.

Whilst there was plenty of time left forAshford to grab an equaliser, this never looked likely to happen, and a fourthgoal for Whyteleafe was far more likely. In the 75^th minute, aspeculative long-range shot was deflected behind for a corner, which Ian Ross headedclear. Two minutes later, a good run down the left wing resulted in a cross toAndrew Martin, at the near post, but a great volley from the No.10 flashed justover the bar. In the 81^st minute, a through-ball from midfield splitthe Ashford defence, and presented Jason Goodchild with a one-on-one with DaveWietecha, in the Ashford area, but big Dave did well yet again, saving at themidfielder’s feet.

The occasional ill-temperedness of the firsthalf appeared to have died down, but, seemingly from nowhere, things “kickedoff” again in the 85^th minute. A free-kick was awarded to Ashford,and the two players involved appeared to get into a bit of a tangle. Well, onething led to another, and soon there was a mass scrum. This was the usual sortof thing – much pushing and shoving; some players trying to make peace, butactually making things worse; some players trying to make war, but being unableto get a clean punch in. The best box-to-box run of the entire match came fromthe linesman on the far side, who sprinted three-quarters of the length of thepitch – presumably to tell the referee that he saw everything ! Anyway, after several minutes of discussionand delay, the result was a yellow card for the not-so-sweet Leigh Douce. Afterfurther debate, Jamie Smith was shown a yellow card – his second of the match –and, as night follows day, a red. It appeared to be a harsh decision for Smithto be singled out, from all the players who were involved in the incident, butit later emerged that he was yellow-carded for throwing a punch. If that’s thecase, then Jamie can have no complaints, and should be thankful that it was nota straight red, to follow his yellow card in the first half. Being sent off forthe second successive match, I’m not sure how long his “holiday” will be, but Iassume this will mean a lengthy ban. (Mortley to come back into the centre ofdefence, enabling Tom Adlington to return to his right-back position ?). Italso meant that Ashford Town continued with this very poor disciplinary record;we’ve now failed to finish with eleven players in three of the last four games,having collected no fewer than five red cards in that time. This could wellprove costly when the suspensions start.

The home side shouldn’t get too sanctimoniousabout this, as they were very fortunate to finish with all their playingpersonnel on the field – in this most recent incident I distinctly saw a righthook thrown by an arm in a green & white hooped sleeve, and left-back ChrisHead also threw a punch, in the first half, which was not spotted by theofficials.

When the football eventually restarted, IanRoss’s free-kick went harmlessly through the Whyteleafe penalty area, andbeyond the far post, but there was a further lengthy delay to enable treatmentfor both James Wastell and Shaun Bradshaw, who had accidentally clashed inmid-air as Bradders challenged for the ball.

With 91 minutes on the clock, but with theexpectation of plenty of injury time, Adrianho, who, like Bradshaw, had workedhard up front throughout the game, got caught in possession on the half-wayline. Whyteleafe immediately sprang out from midfield, and Tommy Adlington andMark Banks soon found themelves wide-eyed and outnumbered – six against two.Again, though, Sol Henry got back well to defend, and further losses wereavoided.

When the referee’s final whistle went afteronly four minutes of injury time, it was something of a surprise, butWhyteleafe looked more than capable of running down the clock, as necessary.

Ashford weren’t thrashed 4-0; we weren’tout-played; we weren’t out-classed; nobody threw the towel in. The truth,though, is that, whilst the majority of the players had a good game, theopposition goalkeeper wasn’t called upon to make a save in anger. Ashford wereactually quite flattered that the scoreline was so close, with our second goalbeing an absolute gift. So, after just one away win in 2005, the first awaymatch of 2006 has resulted in defeat. Today’s result must have been quite a relieffor Whyteleafe, as this was their first win in the league since the 22^ndof November.

The overwhelming mood amongst the players andmanagement after the game appeared to be one of disappointment that the job hadbeen made harder by the actions of a deserter after only 20 minutes of thegame. Not that there was much opportunity for post mortems after the game; witha clubhouse packed with players and supporters wishing to talk footy, allconversations were drowned by a pub band that decided to embark on an unwelcomepractice session in the bar. (This was not the calibre of artist that would getSteve Monk falling over himself to make a booking for Ashford Rocks – one ofthe old standards murdered was The Who’s “Substitute”, but Anthony Pace wasn’tpresent to be able to appreciate the joke). I’m not sure who gave permissionfor this racket to be made at this time and in this place, but, whoever it was,they have no understanding of the grieving process that we fans need to go throughimmediately after a defeat.

In the current situation, no report would becomplete without it being put in the context of how the other teams in therelegation mini-league got on: whilst BurgessHill Townwon at home, both Newportand Corinthians lost, so the overall damage was minimal, I suppose. Our next opponentsare Tonbridge Angels, at home (!).

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

2011-12-29T15:29:00.001-08:00

Whyteleafe 3 Ashford Town 0

from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

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

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

It’s difficultto know how much worse it could get, though. Not only are we three leaguesbelow the Conference, for the first time in our history, but we’ve somehowcontrived to spend some time at the bottom of a league where attendances indouble figures are not uncommon. Our own home attendances are averaging 210 atthe moment – well down on last season’s average of 284 – but there are stillonly four or five clubs in our division who will beat that. We’ve since managedto shoot up to 19^th, but the fact remains that we’ve won only twogames since April in all competitions, including friendlies, and we’ve alreadydipped out of three cup competitions at the first hurdle – the home Kent SeniorCup 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 thatlot with the health of the Club off the field. With the now infamous JohnGurney at arm’s length, most of the Club’s debts now paid off and the wholeshow now being run properly, we must be one of the most financially sound clubsin non-league football. Not only that, but there are good income streams comingin. The cash from the ground-sharing arrangement with Margate is like off-shoreoil to us (only temporary), the function facilities at The Homelands provide agood income and there is talk of bits of new money coming into the Club. It’sfor these reasons that there are still some of us who believe that better timesmust be just around the corner, but it all seems to require endless patience.

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

Terry won’tneed to learn to speak Catalán for this task, but he has to realise that thisis not a negligible job that he’s taken on. Ashford is a town of over 65,000people – if you include the rural district, which extends right down to RomneyMarsh, the population is pushing 100,000. El Tel needs to know that he carrieswith 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 toHorsham last week. After that we’re at home to Banstead on Tuesday, and they’reone place below us, and also struggling for form. Every chance of some returnfrom the next two games, then. Unfortunately, Whyteleafe and Banstead will alsobe fancying their chances – and with some justification !

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

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

It was good tosee John Whitehouse back between the sticks, with Will Toal having done a soundjob 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 playersare all goalkeepers !). Barry Gardner continued his partnership in centraldefence with Steve MacKenzie; Tom Adlington was at No.2 (a more naturalposition for him than centre-half), but there was a new lad at left-back: ChrisBarrett. 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 theball at his feet.

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

One thing Imust say, before I start on the bad news, was that the weather played ablinder. After some filthy weather during the week, today was bright, sunny andmild. Unfortunately, if the scoreline and other eye-witness accounts have notalready told the story, I have to report that this was a clueless performanceby Ashford Town. There aren’t many weaker teams left in our division to testourselves against, but we failed to create anything of note, and thisunexceptional lot ultimately played us off the park.

The ball wasin the Ashford net as early as the 12^th minute, but we were saved bythe referee’s whistle. A Whyteleafe free-kick from near the corner flag wascleared, but a second cross came in from an almost identical position, curlinginto the far post, under John Whitehouse’s cross-bar. The ball was somehowbundled 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 whitesocks, kept a tight line at the back, and had the off-side trap working wellfrom an early stage. Their main threat appeared, early on, to be from crosses,particularly from Chris Head, on the left. Ashford, in contrast, played theirown brand of one-touch football.

I shouldexplain this term. When Arsenal and Brazil play one-touch football it consistsof short, incisive passes, and is beautiful to watch. The non-league version ofone-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 theball away to the opposition. Now I’m not suggesting that it’s a tactic that theteam 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 currentlyhas at his disposal. I think it’s probably fair to say that there was never amoment when the boys really got the ball down and tried to knock it around.

Back to thetale of woe. The next scare came after 16 minutes, when a header fromWhyteleafe’s Gareth Graham, who has recently returned to Church Road, thumpedagainst the foot of the post. A corner was awarded, so it seems reasonable togive John Whitehouse credit for making a save. John also got a good fist to theresulting corner.

The firstrecognisable 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 MightyJohn, and, finding himself outside his area, had to head clear, under pressurefrom Joby. With the goal unattended, Erron Dussard tried a first-time lob – agood idea, but his attempt went wide.

There’s nodoubt that the home side had the better of the first half, but the Ashforddefence held firm. Steve Mackenzie kept good tabs on the Whyteleafecentre-forward, and the off-side trap worked to good effect on occasions. YoungBarry is looking comfortable at the back, but I get the impression that he’ssometimes too much of a footballer for that position, and is inclinedoccasionally to get caught in possession.

The best move,and the biggest round of applause, of the half came five minutes before theinterval, 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 runfrom Massey took him well into the Ashford penalty area, and he had thepresence of mind to chip a cross to Lewis Taylor, on the right. Taylor caughtthe ball sweetly, on the volley, but blasted it just over the bar.

It must besaid that Ashford came out for the second half with more purpose, and had agood little spell for about seven minutes. We actually won a corner after 48minutes, and, shortly after, Erron Dussard had a shot on target from justoutside the area, but ‘keeper Wastell was comfortably behind it. In the 50^thminute, Andre Robinson collected the ball on the edge of the area, and a neatturn took him into the Whyteleafe box, but his effort was smothered by the homedefence.

After thisbrief revival, however, the rest of the game was mainly one-way traffic. On 55minutes, 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 – toRichard Williams, but the home No.8 could only hoike the ball over the bar.

Whyteleafewere now starting to play some decent football, and the pressure on the Ashfordgoal was building. In an effort to turn the tide, Terry brought off bothDussard brothers on the hour mark – or maybe their Mum had rung to say they hadto go home for their tea – and put on Tom Evans and Joffy Thorogood. A minutelater, though, it was the home side that had a free-kick in a dangerousposition near the corner flag, after a little shove from Mighty John. That manMassey once again took the kick, and an excellent curling cross to the nearpost was met by the head of Williams, but he could only put the ball wide ofgoal.

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

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

After 68minutes, 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 Hamcentre-half !) totally unmarked in the penalty area, and he had the simple jobof thumping the ball home. This caused a great deal of arguing and arm-wavingamong the Ashford defenders, and for a time it seemed that things might goseriously pear-shaped, and any number of goals seemed likely. Our players nowalso started to show a good deal of frustration, and got a bit tetchy, and thereferee had to be on his toes to calm down the odd flare-up. Of course, itdidn’t help that Whyteleafe now started to play with the confidence of a teamwith a two-goal lead. Ashford still persisted with the first-time long balls.

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

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

Suitablyencouraged, Barrett went on another run, cutting inside, a minute later. Thistime he was dispossessed, and found himself hopelessly out of position. Theball was fed wide to substitute Richard Thompson, in acres of space in theleft-back position that Barrett had vacated; he managed to find a Whyteleafeforward in the centre, but the resulting tame shot was straight at JohnWhitehouse.

By the timeTom Evans won a corner, in the 93^rd minute, Ashford’s only hope wasto 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 netfor their third goal. Fittingly, it was the Player-Manager who played the finalpass, 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 entertainingWeston-super-Mare – but the performance of the team on the pitch this afternoonillustrated the size of the task facing the new Manager. It’s true to say thatthis wasn’t anywhere near to being the strongest team that we can put out, onceeveryone is back from injury, but the boys need to pull themselves togetherquickly and get some sort of result against Banstead on Tuesday. Banstead got a3-2 victory at Croydon today, so that moves us down a place, to third-bottom.

It was hardfor the small band of Ashford supporters to raise even a wry, philosophicalsmile 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 distinctimpression that they were losing the will to keep following the team – I hopethey can find the strength to give it another ten years ! Mrs Milton Keynes Correspondent and me ? We’ll be doing it again next week, inCroydon, for the rearranged fixture against Croydon Athletic – eyes glazed, andwondering why we do it, but we’ll be there.

ARCHIVE: Wembley v Ashford Town. Ryman League Cup First Round. 2005-6 season.

2011-12-29T15:25:00.001-08:00

Wembley 5 Ashford Town 2

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

This is, believe it or not, my first report on a cupgame, in all these years of writing drivel on the exploits of Ashford Town FC.This is the First Round of the Westview Rail Cup – basically the IsthmianLeague Cup, which was known as the Bryco last season. Whilst the competitionhas nothing like the importance and prestige of the FA Cup or FA Trophy – theClub actually pocketed £1,000 for winning that FA Cup Preliminary Round tie theother Saturday – this did give the boys the opportunity for a confidence boost,against a team one division below us. Having lost all four league games by theodd goal so far this season, putting us plumb bottom of the table, we’vemanaged in between to beat Slade Green 3-1 in that cup tie. Slade Green arefrom the Kent League, which is equivalent to Wembley’s Ryman Division 2. It’salso apparent that Wembley are a very ordinary “Step 5” team – as opposed tobeing a very good Step 5 team, like AFC Sudbury, Winchester, Maidstone or(dammit) Tunbridge Wells - so there was every logical reason for Tim Thorogood andJohn Cumberbatch to feel confident. Not that we expected tonight’s hosts to bepush-overs – let’s face it, even a one-legged girl on an 18-30 holiday wouldn’tbe a push-over for our lads at the moment !

For those of you who associate the word “Wembley” withCup Finals, twin towers and the subtle odour of piss and onions, Wembley is aLondon Borough just to the South of Harrow, not far from Heathrow, on the oppositeside of the A40 to Southall (remember them ?). The Vale Farm complex in whichthe ground is situated is some 700 yards away from the new Wembley Stadium,currently under construction – from the club bar, the enormous arch of the newmonument was easily visible above the long, but narrow, red-trimmed main standon the far side. Sceptics would say that this is the nearest we’ll ever get tothe new stadium, although we came pretty close to making it to the old Wembleyin 1973, when we woz robbed, by a dodgy penalty, in the semi-final of the FATrophy by eventual winners Scarborough. [YourMKC spits on the floor].

Whilst not the biggest of grounds, I thought that thiswas quite a reasonable facility for a Step 5 club, albeit a little jumbled.Apart from the main stand on one side, which had a four-deep line of red seats,there was a scattering of flip-up seats and shelters at various places aroundthe pitch – including a proper bus shelter on the half-way line, opposite towhere the management teams and subs were stationed. Not that there was therequirement for a facility to accommodate a huge crowd – the attendance wasprobably below 50, in spite of it being a pleasantly warm evening.

We expected to have a real problem in fighting our waythrough the M1, M25 and M40 traffic for the 7.45pm kick-off – instead we werepleasantly surprised that we made the journey from Milton Keynes in a little over an hour and fifteen minutes.Unfortunately, on the other side of the M25, the traffic situation was to have(probably) a decisive influence on the outcome of the match, with goalie JaniSeitsonen having a nightmare trip from Orpington, arriving at the ground 15minutes before half-time. That meant that new Coach Ray Riseley had to go ingoal, and, unfortunately, he had a nightmare of a debut for the Club.

In fact, it was all-change at the back for Ashford. Inspite of having enjoyed that precious commodity of continuity so far thisseason – the back five, in a 4-4-2 formation, had been the same in every game –Tim and John switched to a 3-5-2 formation this evening, with only LynvallDuncan surviving in position from previous games. Lynvall was in the centre ofa back three, with regular right-back Tommy Adlington on his left (!) and youngMark Banks on his right. From left-to-right, it was skipper Ian Ross, RichardBoorman and Terry McCann (starting his first match this season) forming astrong central midfield; Kennickson Jarrett-Elliott, criticised by some for hisprevious defensive displays at left-back, was given a chance to show hisattacking qualities, on Rossi’s left flank, with Sol Henry wide on the right.With Shaun Bradshaw injured, Jazhel Bonaparte made his first start, partneringJoby Thorogood in what must have been the shortest forward-line ever to lead anattack for an adult football team. Whilst Joby is now famous for hisToulouse-Lautrec style stature, he towers over Jazhel by a good inch ! [Before anyone starts making the analogy, itis in fact a myth that Jazhel’s Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather,Napoleon, was a short-arse – he was, in fact, 5’ 6”, which was a good averageheight for a man at that time.]

On the substitute’s bench we had five outfield players– suggesting that Ray wouldn’t have even been named as a substitute if Jani hadmanaged to turn up on time. As well as John-Paull Collier (recovering frominjury) and Steve Humphrey (a striker, who replaced Bradshaw in the second halfon Saturday, at home to Newport IoW), there were some familiar names from pastmatch reports of U-18 and Reserve games: Anthony Pace, Gary Clarke (now backfrom his hols) and Aiden Pursglove.

I can’t shed any light on the reason for this changeof formation, not being a mind reader, but it might have had something to dowith the fact that Marc Cumberbatch was absent tonight, and will also be absentfor Saturday’s FA Cup tie at home to Windsor & Eton – maybe The Managementwanted to experiment with a “Plan B”. It’s also possible that they were lookingfor a way of accommodating Ian Ross in a team formation, using Kenny on hisleft to compensate for Rossi’s relative lack of pace. Of course, we’ve had thisdebate in the national Press over the past week or so – for Tim & John andIan Ross, read Sven and David Beckham – so I won’t labour the point with morespeculation.

The conclusion, though, is that the 3-5-2 failedspectacularly – whether this was due to the formation itself, or to thepersonnel employed in it, is something that The Management will have to workout.

We were also short-handed on the management side ofthings, with Club Physio Owen De Sade also absent. That meant that themulti-talented Elaine Orsbourne had several hats to wear this evening. As wellas fulfilling her duties as Club Secretary (which included some unpleasantbusiness later on in the evening), she was the anonymous Match Reporter for theKentish Express, stand-by nurse in case of any injuries and Chief Thigh Rubberbefore the game. Husband Alan, as usual, supported her in all of these oneroustasks – except for the bit with the thighs, which she kept all to herself.

And it all began so promisingly. Ashford at first lookeddangerous and full of goals in attack, with the home side seeming uncomfortableagainst the pace of our front two, and we dominated the first 15 minutes of thegame. Our first chance of the game came in the first minute. A long ball fromdefence, over the Wembley back line, was chased by Joby, but a home defendermanaged to put the ball behind for a corner. The corner, taken by Sol Henry,came to nothing.

Ashford, all in yellow, with the home side playing inAjax of Amsterdam shirts, red shorts and red socks, took the lead in the ninthminute. The ball was carelessly given away by Wembley, and Terry McCann fedJoby down the right. The Hobbit squared the ball in to Sol Henry, who foundJazhel Bonaparte with a good through-ball. Jazzy neatly tucked the ball intothe corner of the net, for his first goal, in his first start, for the Club.

This was a very soft goal for The Lions to concede,but we weren’t complaining – we didn’t realise at the time that the gift was tobe returned, with interest, during the remainder of the game ! The first giveaway came in the 16^thminute, with the home side having posed no threat up to this point. Ray Riseley’spoor kick-out went straight to a Wembley player, who immediately put PaulShelton through on goal. The hapless Riseley came out for a few strides, thenstopped, and from that point he was dead in the water. Shelton easily rounded him, and slotted theball into an empty net. At the time, it seemed that this equaliser was to be nomore than a temporary set-back, but, as it turned out, the remainder of thehalf was to be much more even, with chances at both ends.

Ashford had a chance to strike back in the 17^thminute. As a Wembley attack broke down, Sol Henry led a breakaway, with a threeagainst three situation, but was fouled by Carlan Edgar, coming across tocover. Ian Ross curled in a quality free-kick, to the far post; big LynvallDuncan did well to meet the cross, but his finish was poor, putting the ballbehind for a goal-kick.

There could have been trouble, three minutes later,when Tom Adlington – sent off for receiving two yellow cards on Saturday –dived into a challenge with two feet. It seemed a genuine attempt to play theball, but the number of booted feet used was definitely no fewer than two, andhe might have been a little fortunate that the colour of the card was againyellow. The resulting free-kick was cleared, and Joby led yet another paceybreak, again put through down the right by Terry McCann. This ended in Jobybeing fouled, close to the corner flag – Rossi’s resulting cross was headedclear.

Whilst it was a very mild evening, there was also adewy dampness in the air, and this led to fast, skiddy conditions. It also madehandling difficult for both goalkeepers. In the 24^th minute, Lions’‘keeper, Ade Solarin, completely fluffed a punch, when dealing with a deepcross, causing the ball to loop behind for a corner, and, soon after, MarkBanks was pulled up for a foul throw when the ball completely slipped out ofthis hands.

The next chance for Ashford came in the 29^thminute. Richard Boorman, probably our best player, from what I’ve seen so farthis season, found Kenny Jarret-Elliot, wide on the left, with a long,cross-field pass. KJ-E cut in, onto his right foot, but was blatently tripped,in a dangerous position just outside the penalty area. Boorman tookresponsibility for the free-kick, but blasted the ball over the wall, over thebar and out of the ground. (Not that you need to be J.Wilkinson to boot theball out of this ground !).

In the 33^rd minute, Richard Boorman wasagain at the heart of a good, flowing move; he spread the ball out to the leftflank, where Jazzy controlled it, cut in-field and played a quick one-two withTerry McCann, before firing in a decent shot, which went just wide of the post.

As mentioned earlier, the home side had their fairshare of the game, once they’d equalised, and there was a dangerous moment inthe 35^th minute; Mark Banks, who was conspicuous with verbalencouragement for his team-mates for the full 98 minutes of the game, wascaught in possession, at the back, by Paul Shelton, but Lynvall Duncan was onhand with a covering tackle, to save the 22 year-old’s blushes. Two minuteslater, Banks conceded a free-kick, near the corner flag, which earnt him a goodtalking-to from Referee Tim Ingram, who generally had a good game. Thefree-kick was crossed in by skipper Ian Bates – who on Saturday set a new appearancesrecord for the home team, in his 506^th match – and was put behindfor a corner by Lynvall. Bates also took the resulting corner, with a deepcross to the far post. It was palpitations time again, as Ray Riseley droppedthe ball, under little pressure from players around him, but an Ashford bootwas there to make the emergency clearance.

The midfield was working well at this point. TerryMcCann and Richard Boorman seem to be an ideal combination in central midfield– Terry is the ball-winner, and the man who can break up opposition attacks,whilst Richard is confident on the ball, and always prepared to run with theball, look up and pick a pass.

In spite of the good work going on in the middle ofthe park, The Lions took the lead, in the 41^st minute. A corner,again taken by Ian Bates, was floated into the six-yard box. Ray, in theAshford goal, looked uncertain, let the ball bounce and then tried to fall onit at the far post. Unfortunately, Paul Shelton got to it first, and managedthe scramble the ball over the line, for his second goal.

So 2-1 was the score-line going in at half-time, inspite of a late chance for Richard Boorman, in the 45^th minute. SolHenry released Joby down the right – and, for once, The Hobbit avoided theoff-side trap – and Joby managed to square the ball to Jazhel Bonaparte. Jazzytwisted and turned on the edge of the area, then laid the ball back to Boorman,who again skied his shot out of the ground. It was disappointing to see thelads troop in a goal behind at the break, but they were playing well enough toprovide optimism that they’d come storming back in the second half.

Unfortunately, the second half began disastrously,with the softest of soft goals given away. Straight from the kick-off, Ashfordwent backwards into their own half, and a misplaced pass from Lynvall Duncan,meant for Tom Adlington, went out for a throw-in. The Ashford defence failed toclear a long throw up to the edge of the penalty area, in spite of severalattempts to do so, and the ball fell to Jeffrey Dalton-Brown, whose low shotwent through the hands of the diving Riseley. That made it 3-1, and the taskwas suddenly that bit harder.

To their credit, Ashford tried hard to peg back thedeficit. In the 51^st minute, Richard Boorman was fouled, andeveryone bar Terry Mac and Tom Adlington went up for Rossi’s free-kick. Thiswas chipped in low to the near post, and the ploy nearly worked, with Joby justfailing to get a toe onto it. Five minutes later, Terry McCann showed all hisqualities, when pursuing his man through central midfield and winning the ballwith a great tackle. This sparked off another attack, and the ball was workedout to Joby, on the right. His cross, across the face of the Wembley goal, wentall the way to Jarret-Elliot – who I’m still not convinced about – on thecorner of the six-yard box, but Kenny’s attempt to pull the ball back acrossgoal was blocked.

A number of changes were made in the 58^thminute. Wembley replaced Darren Butler with No.16 on the menu, Shigutu Matsuko,whilst Tim and John made a double substitution; J-P Collier and Gary Clarkereplaced Ian Ross and Sol Henry. This was a like-for-like swap, with no changeto the 3-5-2 system. Rossi looked bitterly disappointed to be taken off,ripping off his captain’s armband and tossing it in the general direction ofTommy Adlington – no doubt it’s frustrating for him to have made little impacton the matches he’s played in so far, having worked so hard, for so long, tocome back from that appalling broken leg. Sol, too, had made little impressionon the match, so, with about half an hour left, and the boys still two goalsdown, it seemed a sensible decision.

J-P’s first contribution was to win a free-kick, inthe 61^st minute. This was taken long by Richard Boorman – so long,in fact, that it looped just over the bar, indicating that Richard had probablyseen Solarin just off his line. Two minutes later, Boorman was the taker ofanother free-kick; he played it short to J-P, who returned the pass; Richardthen carried the ball into space, towards the edge of the Wembley goal, but hiswell-struck shot was always sailing just over the bar.

Ashford continued to show plenty of spirit andurgency, as they went in search of a goal, but our momentum was checked alittle in the 64^th minute, when play was held up for repairs to bemade to the netting in one of the goals. This soon developed into quite anunpleasant, and unnecessary, little incident, as members of the homecoaching/management staff were effecting the repairs. Since the incident is tobe the subject of a full report by the Referee to the Ryman League, with namesnamed, I’d prefer not to go into the detail of who was actually involved, or ofwhat was alleged to have caused the incident. The result, though, was that anAshford supporter received a slap round the chops from the member of the home coachingstaff, who received a red card for his actions. If any further action is to betaken against him, then this will all come out in the wash, but I seem toremember that Eric Cantona received a lengthy ban when he left the field ofplay to assault a spectator at Selhurst Park a few years ago. [Ofcourse, the full details of the incident, and the identity of the well-knownHomelands celebrity, will be all over the ground by Saturday.]

Back to the game, and Ashford resumed with the sametempo, once play was able to restart, in the 69^th minute, with Jobygoing on a characteristic dribbling run. This ended with a shot from outsidethe area, which ‘keeper Solarin – who had also been lectured by the referee forhis part in the goal netting incident – saved, but was unable to gather.Bonaparte latched onto the rebound, but his shot was blocked.

[On the subject of Bonaparte again, my favourite quotefrom Napoleon (about Josephine) is: “She has the prettiest little *!$% in allthe world – the three islets of Martinique arethere”. If you want to know what *!$% stands for, you’ll have to look it up inthe history books; alternatively, look at a map of Martinique!]

In the 73^rd minute, as Ashford continued topress, Wembley took advantage of one of our attacks breaking down, and veryquickly our back three were exposed. Paul Shelton was put through in theinside-left channel, rounded Ray Riseley and slotted the ball home for awell-taken breakaway goal. That also made it 4-1, and it was Shelton’s hat-trick !

Still the visitors pressed forward, in search of agoal, and, only a minute after Wembley’s fourth goal, Gary Clarke demonstratedhis undoubted talent with a single touch. After the ball was carelessly givenstraight to him by the home defence, Garyput Joby through, into the penalty area, with an inch-perfect pass. Joby hadonly the goalkeeper to beat, but was immediately bundled over, for a stone coldpenalty. If past history is anything to go by, and if the term “consistency”means anything, then the expectation was that the defender would be shown a redcard – in the event, the Referee had a chat, but took no action. In fact, theoffence cost Wembley nothing, as Joby stepped up to the penalty spot andside-footed the ball over the bar.

In spite of the quality of Gary Clarke’s through ball,the pass of the game came a little later, in the 76^th minute – J-PCollier carried the ball through the centre circle, and curled an excellentball into the path of Jarret-Elliot, who took the ball into the penalty area,but was unable to get his cross in. This was Kenny’s final contribution to thegame, as he was replaced by Anthony Pace, a minute later. This gave us a veryyoung and talented-looking midfield quintet of Pace, Clarke, McCann, Boormanand Collier. All looked comfortable enough in there, but it was a pity thatthey were playing in the context of a three-goal defecit.

In the 80^th minute, this three-goal defecitnearly became four, as centre-forward Jumo Mitchell broke down the left. He cutin, onto his right foot, but his curling shot hit the far post. However, thenightmare became a reality four minutes later, when Wembley did take a 5-1lead, and it was Mitchell who was the scorer. After J-P had collected a sillybooking, for blatantly jumping onto an opponent’s shoulders, and then indulgingin some “afters” – unsurprisingly, there was some frustration creeping in atthis point – a free-kick was floated into the Ashford box. What followed defiesdetailed description, but this was the most comical of all the soft goals thatwere conceded this evening, (although nobody on the Ashford bench waslaughing). After a succession of fluffed attempts at a clearance, and thestand-in ‘keeper’s failure to deal with the situation, Mitchell managed to turnthe ball over the line, from about two yards out.

There was a consolation goal for Ashford, but thisonly served to frustrate, rather than console, as it demonstrated just how manygoals we should have scored against tonight’s opponents, (who, believe me,aren’t accustomed to scoring five goals against any team, and must have thoughtit was Christmas). A foul on Jazzy – and I think of Martinique every time Imention his name – led to a free-kick, in the 89^th minute, taken byRichard Boorman. Richard’s deep cross into the Wembley goal mouth was met by anunmarked and unchallenged Lynvall Duncan, who thumped the ball into the netwith his head, from close range. Easy !

With a few lengthy delays for injuries, as well as forthe incident involving the Wembley Coach, there was still time for anothergoal, and, with 94 minutes gone, J-P dribbled the ball in, from wide on theright, and shot, but Ade Solarin did well to gather the greasy, skidding ball.Even as late as the 98^th minute, our young team kept trying, andJoby managed to rob the last defender, who recovered by tackling backimmediately. The ball broke to Richard Boorman, but his shot went wide of thefar post.

The quote of the night came from acting skipper TomAdlington, as the final whistle was blown: “Fuckin’ embarrassing !!”.

Thankfully, that’s all it was, as no lives were lost,and no valuable league points had been lost either. The biggest cost, though,might be to the team’s morale, as, in spite of maintaining their effort andenthusiasm right the way through to the end, the lads looked thoroughlydejected once the game was over. Of course, although there were positives, withthe performances of Richard Boorman and Terry McCann in particular, there’s nohiding from the fact that we managed to get hammered 5-2 by a very ordinaryRyman Division 2 side.

The most important thing now is for the youngsters toforget tonight’s experience, and for the team to revert to the solid defensivedisplays that they’ve been showing so far this season. I’m not qualified to saywhether it was the 3-5-2 formation that was responsible for the debacle, but wecan’t afford a repeat performance against Premier Division Windsor & Eton,as they’ll jump all over us !

ARCHIVE: Walton Casuals v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 2006-7 season.

2011-12-29T15:18:00.001-08:00

Walton Casuals 1 Ashford Town 1

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

Anotherweek, another signing for Ashford Town. Last Friday it wasMatt Carruthers, released by Folkestone in mid-week, who (re-)signed for us, intime to play in the Corinthian-Casuals game. This week, with Richard Sinden goingthrough the “Out” door, to VCD Athletic, (and scoring two goals for them on hisdebut on Thursday), the new signing is Nick Fenwick – brother, of course, ofGeorge, and son of El Tel. With Joffy Thorogood now gone to pastures new, (andI’ll miss Joff, as he was a character), that means we’re left with twoThorogoods, two Cumberbatches and two Fenwicks.

Lastweek’s signing of Matt Carruthers, a proven striker, for his second spell atAshford, continued the trend of The Management strengthening the squad withquality players. With the loan signings (who might, in any case, decide to stayon on a more permanent basis), recent arrivals having had previous experienceat Ryman Premier and Conference levels now include Anthony Allman, SimonGlover, Simon Overland, Luke Coleman, Adam O’Neill, Drew Watkins and now MattC. Adding these to the best of last year’s squad, it will soon almost be moredifficult for us to lose with these players than to win with them.

Unfortunately,losing is something that our boys have been doing without any trouble at all.Our four wins so far this season have all come in a golden four-game period inearly September. Since then, four of our five matches have been againstopponents that, on paper, have looked distinctly poor – GodalmingTown, Waltham Forest(twice) and Corinthians – and we’ve been unable to win any of them.

** *

ANORAK’S CORNER.

I haven’t done an Anorak’s Corner so far thisseason, as I’ve been waiting for a few games to be played.

Strikers: Any early analysis of goal-scoringstatistics might have been skewed by the (probably unrepresentative) 7-0shellacking of Bedfont Green in the FA Cup, especially George Fenwick’shat-trick, but it must be said that George has kept up his goal scoring record,in what is his first spell at anything like this level. He’s now scored a goalevery 125 minutes (i.e. 7 in the equivalent of just under 10 matches), and he’sbeen well supported by the recently departed Richard Sinden (a goal every 216minutes). These figures compare very favourably with those of last season, whenwe were very reliant on top-scorer Joby Thorogood for goals. Joby’s strike-ratefor his 12 goals last season was a goal every 295 minutes; the scoring rate ofhis main partner up front, Shaun Bradshaw, of a goal every 487 minutes, is putinto perspective by Stuart Playford’s record of a goal every 476 minutes duringhis recent spell as a centre-half !

Goalkeepers: Simon Overland is the only manto have played in every minute of every game so far this season, and his recordso far stands at a goal conceded every 59 minutes; whilst he hasn’t kept aclean sheet since we beat Bromley in the League Cup, this is still a betterrecord than that of any of our three main ‘keepers used last season (i.e. JaniSeitsonen’s one goal every 54 minutes, Sean Glover’s one every 50 and DaveWietecha’s one every 41). For the record, Simon’s stats at the end of lastseason was even better, with a goal conceded once every 90 minutes.

Attendances: So we’re letting in fewer goalsthan we were for most of last season, and we have a main striker who can pop‘em in with greater regularity. Unfortunately, the attendances issue representsunmitigated misery. In spite of average league attendances declining to apaltry 208 last season, which was 35 down on the previous season, it lookslikely that there will be a similar fall this time around. The average gatefrom five league matches so far has been 158, with a median figure of 143. It’strue that we are yet to play any of the local derbies this season (Dartford,Maidstone, Dover,Hastings etc.), but it’s very worrying that the “core” crowd continues toshrink. The only crumb of comfort in terms of attendances is that the totalgate for cup games currently stands at 779; this is already higher than thefigure for the previous two seasons, with the boys still in two cupcompetitions, and at least the home League Cup tie against Cray Wanderers tocome.

** *

Inspite of the lack of encouragement from recent performances, today’sopposition, Walton Casuals, appeared to offer something of an opportunity,(although The Casuals beat Whyteleafe 5-0 in an FA Trophy replay on Tuesday, sothat seemed a bit ominous !). There were seven teams spread over just three pointsat the foot of Ryman Division 1 South at the start of play; Walton Casuals and Ashford Town were two of these. There were alsofour teams just a few points ahead of these, but who had played two or threegames more, so it would only take a couple of wins for our heroes to liftthemselves well up the table.

FranklynRoad Sports Ground is situated right on the South bank of the Thames, and isfairly remote, in as much as there is a paucity of decent places to eat –therefore, we had to resort to the fall-back of fish & chips in the car.The ground is actually less isolated than it was, as a leisure centre, with aswimming pool and all sorts of stuff, has appeared behind one of the goalssince we were last here, (which was towards the end of last season). Althoughthis isn’t one of the bigger grounds we visit, with the only seated accommodationbeing located in a single, red-seated stand, it’s quite a nice little place towatch football, and so the turn-out of spectators was depressingly small. Itwas one of those occasions when it was possible to count the crowd with a quickglance around the ground; the official attendance was 47, but any number below50 would have been believable. One feature of the venue is the pitch, which waslovely and flat and lush, which gave just the occasional bobble – no excuse foreither side for not playing football, then.

Onestatistic not included in Anorak’s Corner was that George Fenwick hasn’t played90 minutes of a game since the match against Tonbridge Angels, in The Cup, andit may or may not be a coincidence that Ashford’s decline this season beganafter that game. Well, George was rewarded, for having scored when coming offthe bench in the previous two games, with a starting place today. Heaccompanied 18 year-old Luke Coleman up front, in a 4-4-2 formation, with TheManagement solving the problem of how to fit in all the strikers we now have atthe Club by playing Matt Carruthers on the left-side of midfield, with JobyThorogood in his now-familiar position on the right. Skipper Simon Gloverpartnered Anthony Allman in the centre of defence, and, with Tommy Adlingtonserving a one-match suspension for his sending-off in the FA Trophy replayagainst Waltham Forest, it was the predictable defensiveline-up of Dan Tanner and Marc Cumberbatch in the centre, with Ian Ross andDrew Watkins on either side.

NickFenwick, who is, I’m told, yet another central defender, was named as one ofthe substitutes. Nick is almost as big as his brother, and his hair is almostthe same colour as Walton Casuals’ tangerine shirts. (It’s Sod’s Law,incidentally, that every team we’ve played against on our travels so far thisseason, apart from Hastings, has had a home kit that clashes with our new awaystrip, so our boys were once again clad in the green & navy blue). AlongsideNick on the bench was another central defender, Barry Crawford, as well asKennickson Jarrett-Elliott, on-loan striker Adam O’Neill and Joe Hitchings (wholived up to his new nickname of Joe 90 by spending yet another 90 minutes onthe bench).

Ashfordstarted with plenty of purpose, and were obviously not afraid of having a shoton goal. However, the first ten minutes of the game produced nothing more thana weak shot from distance by Simon Glover, a fruitless corner from Ian Ross onthe right and an optimistic shot on the turn from outside the area from JobyThorogood which went high and wide. Nevertheless, it was good the hearencouragement from The Management for these players at least having a go.Casuals’ one effort on goal during this opening period fell to full-back JamesCrowe. A long throw, well inside the Ashford half, was headed clear by IanRoss, and fell to Crowe just outside the penalty area, but his attempted shotwas sliced well wide of the goal.

Thegame then became a little scrappy and head-tennissy for a while, before GeorgeFenwick picked the ball up in the centre circle, in the 16^th minute.George spotted Joby Thorogood making a run through the centre of the home defence,and put him through on goal with a well-weighted pass. On this occasion, thedefender recovered well, and was able to hustle Joby off the ball. In the 19^thminute, Walton Casuals came close to opening the scoring, when they had afree-kick on the left side of the field. This was crossed high, into theAshford penalty area; Greg Ball (good name for a footballer) got up well, witha glancing header, but the ball went just wide of the post, with Simon Overlanddiving at full stretch.

AfterAnthony Allman had shot high and wide, from well outside the area, in the 20^thminute, there followed a period of Walton Casuals pressure, but the greendefence stood firm. There was actually a chance on the break, from a Casualscorner, in the 23^rd minute. Anthony Allman, who was again Ashford’smain play-maker in midfield, put Luke Coleman through in the inside-rightchannel, and we suddenly had a two v. two situation, but Luke failed to capitaliseon this opportunity, losing control and possession. This actually wasn’ttypical of Luke’s contribution in the first half, as he generally showed thathe has a good touch, in his role of target man, holding the ball up well, butrarely getting a clear sight of goal. The one chance he did have came in the 28^thminute; this came straight from a goal-kick, which was flicked on by the headof George Fenwick, into Luke’s path. He attempted to find the roof of the netwith a first-time shot, but his effort failed to dip, and the ball was alwaysgoing too high.

Colemanbecame the provider, in the 31^st minute, heading Drew Watkins’ crossfrom the right touchline into the path of Joby Thorogood, on his outside. Itwas unfortunate that this chance, and so many other chances in the game, shouldfall to Joby, as he still hasn’t found the shooting boots that he mislaidbefore the Maidstone game. Like several other ofhis attempts at goal this afternoon, his first-time shot on this occasion waswell off-target. The Hobbit did, however, do well two minutes later, when hechased a lobbed through-ball along the touchline from Anthony Allman. Althoughthis resembled a lost cause, nobody can question the effort and commitment ofany of the Thorogoods, and Joby got close enough to the ball to induce a foulfrom a Casuals defender. This gave Ian Ross the opportunity to launch afree-kick into the penalty area. This time he pumped it long, to MarcCumberbatch, who was unmarked as the last man, on the left, but Marc could dono more than pat a weak header down to Matt Reed in the Casuals’ goal.

Thehome side, the second side we’ve played this season to be nicknamed “TheStags”, had plenty of possession in the first half, but were unable to create aclear-cut chance from various free-kicks and long throws into the penalty area,and Simon Overland’s handling was pretty safe throughout the game. On the oneoccasion that he failed to collect a long throw or a cross, in the 43^rdminute, he was clearly fouled. Casuals’ best chance in this period came in the 42^ndminute, and this was from open play. In-form striker David Ocquaye, who Dan Tannerdid well to keep under control for most of the match, laid a forward ball offto Craig Carley, with a short pass which showed the benefits of two strikersstaying close together. This neat little interchange put Carley clean throughon goal, but he pulled his shot wide of the far post.

WhilstMatt Carruthers was fairly anonymous on the left side of midfield, he didcombine well with Luke Coleman, in a neat move down the left-hand side, with 45minutes up on the watch. The move ended with the ball being squared to Joby Thorogood,in space, but his shot was once again sliced wide of the target.

Soit was all-square at the break, which was probably a fair reflection of thehalf, as neither ‘keeper was actually called upon to make a save. It was actuallya good game to watch, with both sides trying to play their football, but bothwere equally found wanting in the final third of the pitch.

Ashfordhad a great chance to go ahead in the third minute of the second half. A longkick-out by Simon Overland was flicked on, and was picked up by George Fenwick,deep in the Casuals’ penalty area; George pulled the ball back to AnthonyAllman, following up, who had the goal at his mercy, but his shot was wild andwent wide. It was one of those hands-on-head moments that are so familiar toteams that are struggling to score goals.

Ashford’sanguish might have increased, three minutes later, when the home side also wentclose. Referee Luis Pinto Nunes awarded a free-kick to The Stags, just insidethe Ashford half, with one of his many mystifying decisions – well, what woulda Portuguese know about the rules of football ? Whilst the Ashford players were arguing the toss about the decision, thefree-kick was quickly-taken, and floated into the Ashford area; James Croweglided in, in front of Simon Overland, as the Ashford defence slept, but histouch took the ball just wide of the post.

DrewWatkins had been feeling his thigh since very early on in the half, and heeventually went down after giving the ball away, in the 52^nd minute.He was replaced, some four minutes later, by Barry Crawford – this was apleasant surprise, as my understanding was that his ankle injury was some wayoff being healed, (but I was told later that it’s more a case of him playingwith the injury than having shaken it off). Anyway, there was no visible signof any physical problem, and he immediately added a physical and vocal presenceto the side. I was slightly surprised that Marc Cumberbatch didn’t move acrossto right-back, with Barry taking his place in the centre, but the formerRangers player is probably talented enough to be comfortable anywhere on thepitch, and it was probably a good shout to not disrupt the central partnershipof Tanner & Cumberbatch, as they’ve been doing well together of late.

Whetheror not it was to test Barry out, much of the home side’s attacking effort wasnow concentrated down the Ashford right, and they showed that they also had along-throw specialist on this side of the field, with Michael Cayford chuckinga couple of testing balls into the Ashford area, but these were headed clear oneach occasion. Walton had a clear-cut chance in the 62^nd minute,though, when Craig Carley threaded a ball through the Ashford defence to putDavid Ocquaye in on goal, but the man who scored twice in the 5-0 mid-weekdemolition of Whyteleafe shot wide of goal.

TheCasuals’ goal came in the 64^th minute, and it came from the penaltyspot, after a farcical decision by the referee. There was no doubt that Ian Rossfouled his man, being slightly late with an attempted tackle, but it wasequally clear that the offence was outside the area – even from ourground-level position in the stands. Rossi’s reaction was one of utterdisbelief when Mr Nunes awarded a penalty, but there was no way that the refwas going to change his decision. That was 1-0, then, as Simon Overland, forall his qualities, doesn’t do penalty saves, and Craig Carley side-footed theball in for an easy goal.

Thisreverse appeared to be rather ominous at the time, as, apart from AnthonyAllman’s early miss, we’d shown few signs of scoring in the second half. Itmust be said, though, that the boys responded well to going behind, and, whilstwe were eventually left feeling rather robbed of two points as a result of thegift of the penalty, there’s also an argument to say that we might not haveequalised if we hadn’t first gone behind (if that isn’t Irish logic). Anyway,The Management’s initial reaction to the goal was to replace Luke Coleman witha man with an Irish name, Adam O’Neill, in the 66^th minute. Fourminutes later, the home side made a double-substitution, with Jack Watkins andKristian Webb replacing James Crowe and David Ocquaye – (job done, Dan Tanner).

WhilstAshford pressed hard for the equaliser, with Anthony Allman and Simon Gloverboth driving the team on from central midfield, we didn’t create a clear-cutchance until the 73^rd minute, when Rossi floated a free-kick intothe area, after he himself had been fouled. The ball went all the way into the six-yardbox; George Fenwick managed to get a touch to the ball, but could only steer itwide of the post. The lino’s flag was up for offside, in any case. Anotherpromising move, in the 75^th minute, involving Simon Glover and MattCarruthers, on the left, was also ended with the linesman’s flag for offside –this turned out to be Matt’s final act in the game, as he was replaced by KennyJarrett-Elliott, seconds later. (I understand that Kenny’s Mum wants him to bereferred to as “Ken”, but I don’t think I could get used to that).

Inthe 76^th minute, Simon Glover fed the ball forward to Adam O’Neill,who was fouled on the edge of the area, to provide us with a free-kick in adangerous position. With Anthony Allman and Ian Ross in the side, it was surprisingthat the out-of-form Joby Thorogood was entrusted with the kick, but it was nosurprised that he lofted the ball well over the bar. Four minutes later,Ashford had another free-kick, in a similar position, but a little further out,and this one was taken by Anthony Allman; this time it was a cross into thearea that was called for, and this glanced off the head of George Fenwick, butalso off a Walton Casuals defender, for a corner, on the left. Anthony wentacross to take this, and his cross was a good one, going all the way through tothe far post – George managed to get on the end of this, but his downwardheader, from about a yard out, went wide of the post.

Inthe 82^nd minute, Ashford got a deserved equaliser, shortly afterCasuals had made their third and final substitutuion, with Michael Cobdenreplacing skipper Scott Harris. The move started with a throw-in taken by BarryCrawford, on the right. The ball was passed along the line, to give Kenny ThreeNames his first touch, on the left. The man from Freetown took the ball into the area, beatingthree players, and pulled the ball back from the by-line, to Adam O’Neill. Theloanee from Tonbridge did something very simple, but very important (Jobyplease note) – he shot LOW. Whilst this effort was partially stopped on theline, the ball trickled into the goal, and this was enough for Ashford to drawlevel, and for Adam to become our eleventh different scorer this season.

Andthat was how the score remained: 1-1. O’Neill did have a chance to put in adangerous cross, in the 88^th minute, but sliced his attempt behindfor a corner, after a move involving Simon Glover and Kenny, and Casuals’ AnthonyGale powered a free-kick straight into a two-man Ashford wall, in the 89^thminute, but there was no further addition to the score.

Ina game where neither goalie really made a save in anger, a draw was not anunfair result, but it was probably quite significant that it was the Ashfordplayers who were cursing the final whistle, as they felt they should have gotmore than just the point from the game. The point was enough to enable us torise two places in the league table, to 19^th, going above bothGodalming and Hastings, who didn’t play. I’d be inclined to agree that weshould be going one better and starting to win games now, given the players wehave available now, but today’s performance was definitely a small stepforward. There was a good feeling about the team today. There was plenty oftalking, plenty of determination and they showed good spirit by coming backfrom a goal down, but the lack of quality in the final third of the pitch isstill a worry.

DanTanner just shaded the Man of the Match today, just ahead of Marc Cumberbatch,who also played well in central defence; Anthony Allman and Simon Glover werealso considered, for their performance in the centre of midfield.

Thenext match is the re-arranged League Cup tie at home to Cray Wanderers, onTuesday. If we can win that, then we’re back at Franklyn Road to play The Casuals in thenext round, and, I reckon that the lads would probably fancy their chanceshere, if we can first get past Cray.

Man of the Match

(to go towardsthe Milton Keynes Bowl)

Dan Tanner

ARCHIVE: Walton Casuals v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 2005-6.

2011-12-29T15:12:00.001-08:00

Walton Casuals 1 Ashford Town 0

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

Now that the imminent and gruesome threat ofrelegation to the Kent League had largely been allayed, it was time toconcentrate on having a day out, without fretting about whether we couldscramble enough points to avoid a catastrophic drop. Sure enough, this was apleasant afternoon by the river, in Walton-on-Thames, witnessing a fairly tamematch played out in mild, still conditions. It seemed that the passing of therecent crisis had communicated itself to Ashford’s players, as this was apretty tepid performance, fairly typical of an end-of-season fixture. Afortnight ago, of course, when we travelled to the Corinthian Casuals match, wecould only dream of such luxury, but a victory there, and a more convincingperformance last Saturday, which gave us a 2-0 win over Bashley, appeared tohave put us comfortably ahead of Newport IoW.

Being seven points clear at the start of today’s game,with four matches remaining, made safety from relegation far from amathematical certainty, but, with Ashford having a better goal difference thanNewport, it seemed very unlikely that the islanders would manage to collect eightpoints from the remaining twelve possible. Furthermore, the latest rumour onthe non-league pyramid restructuring front is that there is a very real chancethat no teams currently at Step 4will be relegated at the end of the season. This is because the Northern Leagueis objecting to the fact that, having decided, at the start of the season, thatthere would be six leagues at Step 4 for the 2006-2007 season, as opposed tothe current four, the Football Association changed its mind in mid-stream infavour of a five-league option. (This is further proof that the FA couldn’torganise a fire in a match factory, and is nothing new).

What the Northern League wants to do is to compel theFA to stick to its original plan of six leagues at our level. If this challengesucceeds, then, with an insufficient number of Step 5 clubs having the requiredground grading and league position to enable them to progress, the numbersrequired for six leagues at Step 4 will be achieved by scrapping enforcedrelegation. (In any case, with only 29 Step 5 clubs currently being eligiblefor promotion, when 30 were required, it seems that only six teams will berelegated from Step 4 with the current five-league option, but one of those sixwill certainly be the club finishing second-bottom of Ryman Division One !).Another implication of reverting to the six-league idea would be that we wouldbe playing in a 20-team division next season. Sir Anthony Kempster’s currenteducated guess is that we would still retain the fixture with CorinthianCasuals, but, due to the geographical reorganisation, would no longer be in thesame division as Leatherhead, Bashley, Lymington & New Milton and NewportIoW – which would be a relief for those at the Club who don’t relish the voyageon the high seas !

Back to the day out. The first important task, havinglocated the Franklyn Road Sports Ground, was to find a pub that served somedecent scran. We achieved this in downtown Walton, after parking up in Sainsbury’scar park. For the record, Mrs Milton Keynes Correspondent had scampi and chips,whilst I had a Tarka curry – it was a little ‘otter !

Without wishing to be derogatory to our hosts, Franklyn Road isvery characteristic of Step 5 land, with probably the minimum ground upgrade havingbeen made to make life at Step 4 viable. There is just the one small stand, onthe opposite side of the pitch to the dressing-rooms and dug-outs, providingseated accommodation, and standard, corrugated roof shelters behind each goal.This is not entirely surprising, though, given that this is the Casuals’ firstseason at this level, having been promoted as Champions of the CombinedCounties League. Last season they won that league by an enormous, 26-pointmargin, with a goal difference of +99 (which equates to an average margin ofmore than two goals per game !). They have certainly held their own comfortablyenough in their first season, starting today’s game in a very respectable 15^thplace. (In fact, all of the promoted teams have easily made the grade thisseason – it’s been largely the ex-Southern League clubs with the big groundthat have struggled). Attendances have been unimpressive, though, with anaverage home gate of 118 being the fifth-lowest in the division, and today’scrowd of 56 brought the average down still further.

As at Corinthians, Ashford Townwere not unsupported, with two handfuls of supporters behind the goal, insteadof one, but this was not enough to inspire the players to turn in any more thana largely competent, but flat, performance. There was no discernable lack ofeffort here, but the performance was certainly lacking that extra snap and zipthat can only really be induced by panic. In short, this game had all the auraof an end-of-season 0-0 draw – and would have been, if we hadn’t conceded asoft goal towards the end of the first half.

Ashford Town started the game unchanged for the fourth successive game – could thisbe the shape of next year’s team ? – which is fair enough, considering thatthese players had gained six points from their previous three matches together.Simon Overland continued in goal, having kept two clean sheets in his previousthree games and been beaten only from the penalty spot in the other – Big DaveWietecha was at a physio appointment, having treatment on his injured shoulder(so was probably having more fun than the rest of us). The remainder of theteam was, again: Smith, Tanner, Playford (capt.), Crawford, Simmonds, Clarke,Cumberbatch, Jarrett-Elliott, Joby Thorogood and Sinden.

There were some changes among the substitutes, though,with several players now recovering from injury. On the bench were the twoblokes who have been stalwarts of our defence for most of this season – TommyAdlington and Ian Ross, Ashford Town’s very own Ant & Dec (although I don’tknow which is which). Shaun Loft, a recent signing from Hastings, provided an attacking option,whilst Joffy Thorogood and James Colman, the Ressies’ goalkeeper, made up afull complement of substitutes.

What was striking about Walton’s facility was thequality of the turf – it was lush and green, with not a blade of mud, which isquite surprising at this stage of the season. This obviously suited the homeside’s passing game, as they showed a great capacity for keeping possession inthe early stages – a novel idea at this level ! – and Ashford hardly had a kickduring the first 15 minutes. However, our defence looked comfortable, andWalton, playing in tangerine shirts, black shorts and black socks, had only acouple of corners to show for their efforts during this time.

The deadlock should have been broken in the 17^thminute, when Simon Overland misjudged Casuals’ third corner, which was crossedin by Scott Harris – instead of making a comfortable catch, he only justmanaged to get his finger-tips to the ball. Greg Ball really should have noddedhis namesake into the back of the net, but he somehow managed to pop the ballover the bar, from about two yards out.

Ashford finally got into the game in the 19^thminute, when Joby Thorogood won a free-kick near the corner flag. Whilst theresulting cross from Danny Simmonds was headed clear by the Walton defence,Gary Clarke picked the ball up outside the penalty area, and aimed a long crosstowards the far post. Left-back Dan Tanner, who had gone up for the free-kick,hoiked the ball into the mouth of the goal, but Steve Sutherland cleared offthe line. Seconds later, Kenny Three Names took charge of taking a free-kick,just outside the Casuals’ area. This was headed behind for a corner, on theright, so Kenny went across to put in an in-swinging, left-footed cross. Again,it was Tanner, the full-back, who was on the end of it, but his header wentjust over the bar. Another free-kick to Ashford, just outside the area, awardedfor a foul on Joby Thorogood in the 23^rd minute, also came tonothing.

Neither ‘keeper had to make what might be described asa proper save throughout the match, but both had some gentle employment eitherside of the half-hour mark. First, in the 29^th minute, Walton had afree-kick near the touchline, but big David Ocquaye could do no more than headthe ball down to Simon Overland, and Chris Nelson, playing in only his thirdgame of the season, in the absence of regular ‘keeper Danny Andrews, picked theball up from a similar effort from Marc Cumberbatch, two minutes later.

In the 36^th minute, Marc lobbed a ballforward from midfield for Richard Sinden to chase, and Sinders won a free-kick,on the edge of the penalty area, after having John Ambridge’s hand in the backof his neck. Kenny Jarrett-Elliott again took the kick, and his fast, whippedcross curled just beyond the far post, with Richard Sinden just failing to gethis eyebrows to the ball. Sinders is yet to get off the mark for Ashford, andhas now played in four games – given his record of 24 goals in 28 games for hisprevious club, we can be hopeful that it’s not too long before he breaks hisduck.

After Casuals’ early domination, this had been a veryeven contest – though all a bit polite and low-key – but the home side took thelead in the 40^th minute. This came about as a result of BarryCrawford allowing himself to be closed down, on the half-way line, by GregBall. In fairness to the lad, this looked like a hand-ball, but this didn’tregister with Stevie Wonder with the whistle, and the Walton striker was off ona break. This was effectively a two-against-two situation, but, having carriedthe ball to the edge of the penalty area, Ball (the one in the tangerine shirt)placed a firm shot into the corner of the net, past the diving Overland, for his 19^th goal of theseason.

By far the most likely player to create the chance ofan equaliser was the fast-improving Kenny Jarrett-Elliott. As his confidencehas grown, Kenny has recently looked a completely different player from the onethat was previously freely touted as being the worst player ever to wear anAshford shirt. This afternoon he certainly showed that he has the ability to takeon, and get past, his full-back. He still makes the odd embarrassing error, butif he’s encouraged to keep trying things, I’m sure that he’ll continue to makechances. After some good work on the left, in the 42^nd minute, hesquared the ball to Marc Cumberbatch, but Cumber’s first-time effort, with his“wrong” foot (his left), went spiralling over the bar. Two minutes later, Kennybrought the ball out of defence, on the break, after a Walton corner had cometo nothing. He carried the ball to the edge of the Casuals’ area, and laid theball off to Danny Simmonds. Simmo found Richard Sinden, just inside the penaltyarea, but the ex-Hythe striker’s short cross just eluded the outstretched bootof Joby Thorogood.

That was just about the story of the first half, withthings not quite happening for an Ashford side that otherwise didn’t do a greatdeal wrong. There was a noticeable, disinterested silence as Referee David Belbinblew his whistle for half time – there wasn’t the usual murmur, or ripple ofapplause – and most of the tiny crowd trooped off to the bar.

There was a feeling among the Ashford contingent thatgoing a goal down might sting the lads into life, but the second half passed byin much the same way as the first had done. Little of note occurred in thefirst 15 minutes of the second period, and the only real entertainment to behad came from watching Gary Clarke’s rolling spat with Craig Carley. This confrontationwas mostly verbal, but Carley couldn’t resist ploughing into Clarkey late, whenthe ball had already gone out for a throw-in, and it was a pretty stupid way toget a yellow card.

If this was a stupid booking, then the next incidentwas altogether more sinister. Danny Simmonds went down in a heap after a nastychallenge from John Ambridge – the tackle was actually bad enough for the refto produce a straight red card, and Walton Casuals were reduced to ten men forthe final 30 minutes of the match. This was by no means an unpopular dismissalamong the Ashford faithful, as Ambridge hadn’t actually endeared himself, withsome sarcastic clapping and mocking smiles at officials’ decisions.

The home side’s reaction was to sacrifice a striker –David Ocquaye – and put Carlo Castronovo into the defence, but,disappointingly, Ashford never looked like making the extra man count. Almostimmediately, we had a corner on the right – this was slightly fortunate, asthis was awarded by the referee, after the lino had signalled a goal-kick.Kenny Three Names, alas, wasted the opportunity, scuffing the corner behind ina manner reminiscent of “the old Kenny”.

There was potentially a much better chance in the 63^rdminute, when Marc Cumberbatch attempted to nod the ball through for RichardSinden to run on to, but this was foiled when Castronovo deliberatelyintercepted the ball with his hand – a free-kick was awarded, and thesubstitute was lucky not to receive a card of some sort. Kenny Jarrett-Elliottwent for goal with the free-kick attempt, but the ball sailed miles over thebar and out of the ground. (This was one of those occasional embarrassingerrors that I mentioned).

Kenny did a lot better with a corner, in the 66^thminute. This was curled long, beyond the far post, to Marc Cumberbatch - thisis becoming quite a common set-piece move for Ashford Town.On this occasion, Marc headed the ball back into the centre, and Dan Tanner’sheader towards goal was deflected behind for a corner. Danny Simmonds’ resultingcorner was headed clear.

The Management made a tactical change in the 70^thminute, with Shaun Loft replacing Barry Crawford, and the team switching to a3-4-3 formation. It’s quite rare for a person to truly live up to their surname– Dennis Wise is an example of someone who certainly doesn’t - but Loftycertainly does that, towering above his fellow strikers. If we’ve suffered froma lack of height up front all season, then this lad seems to be the perfectantidote. Today, however, he failed to really get into the game, and we knowthat he’s still short of match fitness. (It remains to be seen whether he’llget a start on Easter Monday, against his former team-mates at Hastings). As for Barry, he again lookedsolid at the back before coming off.

There was no doubt as to the Ashford player who wasmost in the wars this afternoon – this was Danny Simmonds. After his earlierclattering at the hands of Mr Ambridge, he was tackled very late by ScottHarris, and the Casuals’ striker was shown a yellow card for his trouble. Threeminutes from the end of the match, Kenny Jarrett-Elliott picked up anunnecessary yellow card for a late tackle, but also did enough good things tobe named as our Man of the Match. There were several other candidates. JamieSmith again looked to be a very accomplished defender, Gary Clarke battled awayas usual in the centre of defence (in spite of being a little under theweather, with a virus), Dan Tanner did a lot of good work on the left and BarryCrawford caught the eye in defence, but Kenny was the player who looked mostdangerous for us.

The news that Newporthad lost 2-4 at home to Dulwich Hamlet brought us another step closer tosafety, in spite of today’s rather limp defeat. Newport now need to win all oftheir last three games, even if we lose all of ours, if they’re going to avoidfilling one of the two relegation places (as things stand at the moment).Whilst nothing is impossible in football, I can’t see that happening – in fact,if it does I’ll show my bare bum in Woolworths !

It’ll be interesting to see if The Management makesany changes for our second game in three days, on Monday. There were someaching limbs among the team after the game, and the boys will need to show abit more life and energy against a very good Hastings team.

Man of the Match

(to go towardsthe Milton Keynes Bowl)

Kenny Jarrett-Elliott

ARCHIVE: Ashford Town v Waltham Forest. FA Trophy Preliminary Round Replay. 2006-7 season.

2011-12-29T15:03:00.001-08:00

Ashford Town   1       WalthamForest                   1

JobyThorogood 74                    Thomas 17

(1-1      after 90 minutes)

(1-1      after extra time)

(Waltham Forest won 5-4 onpenalties)

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

FATrophy Preliminary Round, First Replay. I describe it in that manner because I’mold enough to remember the days when cup ties sometimes became sagas, with fiveor six replays. Tonight, of course, there had to be a finish, with extra timeand penalties being used, if necessary.

Itwasn’t the plan to attend any home games this season, but we were so enthralledby Saturday’s drama that we just had to go and see the sequel – the fact thatwe’d already taken time off work for the Kent Senior Cup tie away atFolkestone, which would otherwise have been played on the Monday, also had somethingto do with it. We joked, of course, that, if extra time and penalties wererequired, then it might be around about 1 o’clock in the morning before we gotto bed – well, there’s many a true word spoken in jest, and, as you willalready know, that’s more or less how it turned out. It was a long night lastnight for all concerned, and this could turn out to be a very long report, ifI’m not careful, so let’s cut to the chase. (Except I would like to say that wearrived in Kingsnorth with enough time to visit our sponsors, The Queen’s Head – partly because theysponsor the Club’s web-site, but mostly because it’s a great pub).

Interms of team selection, it’s almost a case of “hands up who’s fit”, as theplaying staff is looking thinner, and more depleted, with every game. The onechange from the team that played at Waltham Forest on Saturday wasfor George Fenwick to start, with Richard Sinden unluckily relegated to thebench. There was, however, a change in formation. Joby Thorogood, last season’stop scorer, returned to the attack, with skipper Simon Glover dropping backinto midfield. Joffy Thorogood pushed well forward, so that we mostly appearedto use a 4-3-3 formation, with a midfield trio, from left to right, of Glover,Allman and Clarke. The back five was unchanged, with Ian Ross, Dan Tanner, MarcCumberbatch and Tommy Adlington in front of Simon Overland.

Ireckon there were just two “fit” subs on the bench – Richard Sinden and KennyJarrett-Elliott, who we know is carrying a hamstring injury anyway. BarryCrawford was there, but, for a player of his quality to be constantly warmingthe bench, I reckon that his ankle injury must be serious enough for him to beavailable to play in an emergency only. Wearing the No.12 shirt was 16 year-oldJoe Hitchings, who very much seems to be Ashford Town’sequivalent of Theo Walcott – he has his boots on, and his Mum says he’s allowedto play, but The Management seems totally disinclined to use him. In spite ofbeing named as a sub in all bar two games this season, Joe has been given justone outing, which lasted for all of two minutes. Not surprisingly, neither Joenor Barry was used, so Ashford relied on just the 13 players for the two hoursplus of play last night. Peter Mortley is described as still being on thelong-term injury list, Graham Porter has made one appearance, as an unused sub,since the 2^nd of September, and Stuart Playford appears to have hungup his boots. And that’s it. With the Reserves apparently without a Manager,which raises the question of how long that particular squad is going to sticktogether, we might be down to calling up the under-16s soon.

Where was I ? Yes, cutting to the chase.

Last night we had the same referee, Rob Hyde, thatreffed the first game, on Saturday, and, for some reason, he again started thegame some five minutes late. (I already had one eye on what time I might get tobed). The pattern of the game was set early on, with Waltham Forestlooking to put long balls over our defence, for their forwards to exploit whatthey no doubt saw as the lack of pace of our defenders, with Ashford trying toget the ball down and play some passing football. (Unfortunately, although thisis clearly what Tim and John are trying to get the boys to do, this was veryrarely achieved – as was the case on Saturday, they only really seemed to playcomposed and coherent football for a period after they had scored, and this hasto be down to a collective lack of confidence).

What was again apparent last night was that Waltham Forest have some talented individuals inthe side, particularly in attack, and the consensus appears to be that they aretaking time to gel together under their new Manager. One of their betterplayers seems to be Danny Kenny, a wide-right player, who came on as asubstitute at half time on Saturday. He’s a good deliverer of the ball, as heshowed in the 11^th minute, with a free-kick from the righttouchline, which was headed clear. Two minutes later, he showed good visionwhen attempting a through-ball from the halfway line, but this was just toostrong for the Waltham Forest runners.

Ashford’s first chance came in the 15^thminute. After a foul on Simon Glover, an Anthony Allman free-kick was headedclear by The Stags’ defence, but only as far as Gary Clarke, just outside thepenalty area. Gary, who is still yet to score this season, having scored threegoals last season, saw his shot go just wide of the post, but there must havebeen a deflection, as a corner was awarded, on the right. Ian Ross swung adangerous cross into a crowded six-yard box; the ball went just over the bar,from a Waltham Forest head, but the referee had seen afoul somewhere.

Although Ashford were trying to play football, it wasall a bit frantic and rushed in the early stages. Although our visitors werelooking for the early, long ball, that’s not to say that they couldn’t play,and they put some nice moves together in the first half. We saw one of these inthe 17^th minute, when Waltham Forest took the lead.This featured a very neat one-two which enabled Andrew Thomas to get into theAshford area with just Simon Overland to beat. Thomas made no mistake, and slidthe ball into the net, for a well-taken goal; Simon managed to get a touch onthe ball, but was unable to prevent it from going in.

A feature of both of these games, between twostruggling sides, was that the balance of confidence swung more than one mightnormally expect when a goal was scored, and it was no surprise that WalthamForest subsequently looked like adding to their lead. The next few minutes werebasically played in the Ashford half, and the visitors had a corner in the 21^stminute. This was neatly controlled by Danny Kenny, on his chest, but his shot,from outside the area, was deflected wide. The cross from the follow-up cornerwas well claimed by Simon Overland. Two minutes later, a free-kick for Forest, wide on the right, was floated to the far post,headed back into the centre and then headed goalwards by Andrew Thomas, butSimon made a good save.

The incident that led to that free-kick had resultedin a yellow card for Joffy Thorogood, our one-man disciplinary problem; hisFather clearly appears to be losing patience with him, as he immediatelydecided to haul him off, with Kenny Jarrett-Elliott being the replacement, asearly as the 23^rd minute.

Ashford actually broke out of defence, in the 24^thminute, with Simon Glover sliding a ball through for the other Thorogood, Joby,to chase. With a clear sight of goal, Joby decided to hit the ball from outsidethe area – his firmly-struck shot was always just too high, but this was atleast an encouraging sign.

Nevertheless, the visitors, again playing in theirfirst-choice strip of white shirts, black shorts and white sockies, were soonback on the attack, in the 28^th minute. With the ball being spreadwide to the left, the resulting cross was headed on, into the Ashford penaltyarea, for the unpronounceable Fola Orilonishe to chase. Fola got to the ballmarginally before the advancing Simon Overland, and, in spite of there being adefinite, audible contact between the two players, and with the ball runningfairly harmlessly towards the by-line, the No.11 chose not to go down to claima clear penalty. This act of honesty incensed one or two of his team-mates, whoberated him for not throwing himself to the ground. Maybe I’m old-fashioned(well, there’s probably no “maybe” involved), but I was pleased to seeOrilonishe do the right thing, and would hope that any of our players wouldhave acted in the same way, (but wouldn’t actually put what’s left of my meagrepension on it).

Orilonishe nearly made amends, a minute later, when hecombined in a nice move with Andrew Thomas – Thomas dinked a neat pass into himinside the right-back, received a reversed return pass from Fola from theby-line, but then side-footed the ball wide of the post, from about eight yardsout.

Waltham Forest continued to look very bright and dangerous when coming forward, mixingsome neat passing movements with the first-time ball over the top, and wentclose again, in the 34^th minute. This chance came about as a resultof quite a good tackle by Simon Glover, chasing back; unfortunately for Gloves,though, the ball broke into the path of Danny Gabriel, whose dipping shot wentjust over the bar. Two minutes later, Simon Overland had to tip over aspeculative, lobbed shot from well outside the penalty area. The resultingcorner was headed clear, but Simon Glover was caught in possession, near hisown by-line, whilst trying to play the ball out of defence. This led to somemore anxious moments in the Ashford penalty area, before Rossi chested the ballbehind for a corner. Although this was dealt with, Foresthad another corner, in the 38^th minute, when Dan Tanner blocked anattempted cross. This time, the corner was hit low, to Ryan Oliva, on the edgeof the box, but Oliva’s hooked shot went just over the bar.

Ashford’s response was genuine Route One stuff, with aheaded flick-on from the goal-kick putting George Fenwick in with a sight ofgoal; George struck his shot firmly, but straight at the goalkeeper. A minutelater, Ashford were moving forward again, through Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, on theleft; just as Joff Thorogood had done before him, Kenny pushed well forward, sothat he was often effectively a third striker. Three names squared the ball toJoby, on the edge of the penalty area, but he didn’t really time his attempt,with his left foot, and the ball trickled through to ‘keeper Jason Willis.

With a minute to go before half time, our boys put agood move together, down the right, involving Anthony Allman, Tommy Adlingtonand Joby Thorogood. This ended with Joby attempting to go around the full-back,Matt Waldron, in the corner, but Waldron went sliding in recklessly, and earnthimself a yellow card from Rob Hyde. Rossi put in a dangerous cross from theresulting free-kick, but this was headed clear, and Waltham Forestwent in at half time 0-1 up – they were probably value for 0-2 or 0-3, but itwas just the one goal separating the two sides.

As the second half kicked off, it was still pleasantlymild, and I actually watched the whole of the proceedings in shirt sleeves,which is unusual for an evening game in October. (Apologies to our friends inthe South Atlantic, once again, for mentioningit). Almost immediately, Ashford won a free-kick, in a deep position, for afoul on Simon Glover. Ian Ross pumped this into the penalty area, using GeorgeFenwick’s head as a target. Jason Willis came out, into a crowd of players, tocollect the ball, and promptly lost it, but his defenders rescued him byclearing their lines.

Ashford continued to try hard to play a high-tempopassing game, but the visitors countered this by breaking up play, and takingplenty of time over substitutions and throw-ins. This was probably an entirelyunderstandable tactic, and it succeeding in disrupting Ashford’s rhythm. Thefirst of Forest’s substitutions came in the 52^ndminute, with Fola Orilonishe being replaced, due to injury, by Danny Flynn.Whilst this substitution was taking place, Jason Willis went down injured, andthere was a further delay for him to be treated. (My thoughts again strayed tothe issue of when I might get to bed). After play had eventually got underwayagain, Ashford were putting together another promising move, involving GaryClarke, Simon Glover, Tommy Adlington and Kenny J-E, in the 56^thminute, when another Stags player went down, needing treatment. This time itwas Ryan Oliva, and both teams took the opportunity to have a drinks break.

In the 58^th minute, a poor kick-out by JasonWillis went straight to Marc Cumberbatch, and Marc was able to head the ballforward to Joby Thorogood. Joby attempted a one-two with Anthony Allman, butthe plan didn’t quite work out, and the ball rolled away for a goal-kick. Asthe hour mark was passed, we still hadn’t seen our heroes create a reallyclear-cut chance; there was some good, quick passing at the back, and aroundthe half-way line, but we had virtually no quality possession in the finalthird of the field.

With Waltham Forest making anotherleisurely substitution in the 63^rd minute, when Nick Muir replacedRyan Hall, Ashford’s next chance came after 67 minutes. Simon Glover attackedfrom the right, and found Anthony Allman, infield, just outside the penalty area.Anthony tried a shot from distance, which went across the face of goal, but theteam must have at least been lifted by the fact that he had a shot.

In the 68^th minute, the play was at theother end, and Ian Ross was penalised for a foul, when it looked like he wasthe one being fouled; however, Danny Flynn’s cross from the resulting free-kickwas headed wide of the target. Two minutes later, just about in the middle ofthe Ashford half, Tommy Adlington was guilty of a late tackle, and was shown ayellow card for his trouble. Although the free-kick was some way out, Victor Renner,the ex-Dover man, attempted a shot, which was not too far over the bar. DanTanner then had a situation to deal with, chasing a Forestthrough-ball, running back towards his own goal, in the 71^st minute;he attempted to put the ball out for a throw-in, but sliced his effort behindfor a corner – this was headed clear by the Ashford defence. A minute later,Danny Kenny again showed his quality, with a cross-field pass; this foundRenner, who hit a firm shot into a crowd of players, and it was MarcCumberbatch who side-footed the ball clear.

In the 73^rd minute, The Management made awidely anticipated change, when Richard Sinden was sent on for George Fenwick.I’m afraid that George looked very rusty out there last night, and wasconstantly frustrated when his touch let him down – he also looked very tiredas he returned to the bench, and both of these issues might be put down to thefact that he’s missed a couple of games. I’m not sure whether the substitutionhad anything to do with it, but Ashford finally made the break-through within aminute of Sinders coming on. Simon Glover controlled a clearance from the Waltham Forest defence on his chest, and spreadthe ball out wide to Anthony Allman; Anthony threaded a pass into the area, forJoby Thorogood to run onto, and Joby slotted the ball into the net, with a lowshot. The reaction of the Ashford players appeared to be one of relief, as muchas joy – and at last we were on level terms.

From the time of the goal to the end of normal time,we were suddenly looking at a different team – suddenly, Ashford were lookingfor the winner, and the players finally looked like they believed that theycould do it.

In the 76^th minute, Kenny J-E and Joby puttogether a good move, down the left, and this ended with Simon Glover’sattempted cross being charged down, and behind, for a corner. This was headedbehind, for another corner, on the other side. This one was headed away, for athrow-in. Anthony Allman then put Joby Thorogood in, with another good,incisive pass, this time in the inside-right channel, and Joby managed to get alow cross in, from the by-line. His cross found Richard Sinden, bursting intothe area; Sinders managed to chip the ball over the body of the advancing JasonWillis, who had gone to ground, but the ball went just wide of the upright.

In the 79^th minute, Victor Renner gothimself booked when he left his foot in with Gary Clarke, but Ashford were onthe attack again a minute later, with a free-kick. This was sent in deep, byIan Ross, finding the head of Simon Glover, who in turn found Richard Sinden.Sinders returned the ball, in the air, to Gloves, who tried a Paolo DiCanio-style bicycle kick, which went just wide of the post. In the 81^stminute, we had another free-kick, wide on the left, after Gloves had been held.This resulted in a high, hanging cross, right under Jason Willis’s crossbar.Willis looked uncertain with his handling, and didn’t take the ball cleanly,but the referee’s whistle came to his rescue.

But it wasn’t all one-way traffic in the closingstages, as Forest also really wanted to win this tie – a match away at Hastings promised to be afairly lucrative prize for the winners – and they pressed forward in the 84^thminute. An attempted cross by Danny Flynn bounced off an Ashford defender, andfell to Danny Kenny, whose well-struck shot went straight at Simon Overland.From here, Ashford broke away, in the person of Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, who fedthe ball forward to Joby thorogood; with his back to goal, Joby induced thefoul, and we had a free-kick in a dangerous position. Joby took this himself,and his curling shot, over the Forest wall,was heading for the far top corner, before Jason Willis made a great divingsave, turning the ball away for a corner. Willis had looked a littlebutter-fingered last night, up to this point, but certainly redeemed himselfwith this save, which kept The Stags in the match. Ian Ross took the corner,and it was another dangerous ball into the six-yard box, but it went all theway through, with no Ashford player able to get the vital touch.

In the 88^th minute, Richard Sinden managedto get a flick-on to a Simon Overland kick-out, for Joby Thorogood to run onto, but Matt Waldron managed to put it behind for a corner. With 90 minutes upon the watch, a throw-in found Anthony Allman, near the corner flag, and hesent in a great cross – this was met by an equally good header by RichardSinden, from just a few yards out. Richard did all he could to stick the ballinto the back of the net, but Jason Willis was there once again, with abrilliant reflex save.

As it turned out, those two chances, denied byWillis’s saves, were the closest that Ashford came to setting up a Derby game with Hastings– but they still continued to press, for the remainder of normal time. In the91^st minute, Joby Thorogood won a corner, on the right. This wastaken by Rossi’s trusty left foot, but Willis punched clear. The ball fell toAnthony Allman, whose hopeful shot from a long way out went well wide, and hadjust a touch of desperation about it.

So the match ended all square, at 1-1, just as it hadin Walthamstow, just three days earlier – and a report from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent goes into extra time, for the first time.

The home side did most of the attacking in the openingminutes of extra time, but no clear-cut chance was forthcoming. The firstslightly wobbly moment for either side actually came at the other end, in the93^rd minute, when a long, looping cross from the right touchline lookedlike going harmlessly out for a goal-kick – Simon Overland came out to collectthe ball, and let it slip through his hands, but the lino’s flag had alreadygone up for offside.

In the 98^th minute, Forestmade another substitution, with Cary Wright replacing Andrew Thomas. Then,after 100 minutes of the match, The Stags had a throw-in, near the left cornerflag, which was launched into the Ashford penalty area. This resulted in anasty clash between Tommy Adlington’s forehead and the back of Victor Renner’shead. Whilst Renner wheeled away holding his head, Tommy came off much worse,and was on the ground for some time. During a delay of some four to fiveminutes, our Physio, Mo Alvi, did a painstaking job of applying a head bandage,as Elaine, our intrepid Secretary, revved the car up, behind the stand, readyfor a white-knuckle dash to William Harvey Hospital.All the indications were that this was a blood injury, and, sure enough, Tommywent to hospital after the match, to have some stitches inserted. For now, hemarched bravely on with his bandage on, looking like one of the runners-up inthe Crimean War. In fact, Tommy was fairly symbolic of the battered and tiredsquad of players that we now have.

Eventually play restarted – “When am I going to get tobed ?”, I thought – and, with 108 minutes on the watch, Ashford had afree-kick, for a foul on Simon Glover. Jason Willis managed to punch the kick,taken by Ian Ross, clear, but only as far as Anthony Allman, whose volley fromoutside the area went just wide of the post. Two minutes later, Joby Thorogoodfed a ball forward to Richard Sinden, who was challenged late by Ryan Oliva,and that resulted in a booking for the Waltham Forestdefender.

As Rob Hyde blew his whistle for the end of the firstperiod of extra time, the score remained at 1-1 – both sides were, inevitably,tiring, so a penalty shoot-out appeared to be increasingly likely.

If my bed was calling, my bladder was screaming formercy, so there was nothing for it but to pay a visit to what the Americanscall the restroom. I wouldn’t normally mention this, but I do so now because itresulted in me missing the first couple of minutes of the second period ofextra time, and so I didn’t witness Tommy Adlington’s sending off. This was forcollecting a second yellow card, which was awarded, I’m told, for going into atackle with his foot up.

So Ashford were down to ten men for the final 14minutes of the game – not that Waltham Forest needed any encouragement, as theycontinued to show a great desire to win this. In the third minute of the finalperiod, Danny Flynn ended a well-constructed Forestattack with a long-range shot that flashed just wide of the post. Then a minutelater, defender Sid Nelson tried a shot from outside the area, which also wentwide.

The home side created a chance in the 110^thminute – this resulted from Simon Glover doing well to win the ball, in thecentre circle. Gloves spread the ball wide, to Anthony Allman, who put in agreat cross, looking for Richard Sinden’s head, but Sinders couldn’t quite getthere on this occasion. Two minutes later, another good cross was curled intothe Waltham Forest goalmouth, this time by Ian Ross,from a corner. Jason Willis came for the ball and failed to collect, but hisdefence managed to bundle the ball away to safety.

Forest’s Matt Waldron was booked for tapping the ankles of Simon Glover, inthe 116^th minute. Joby Thorogood lined up to take the resulting free-kick,faced with a two-man defensive wall; this time, though, he put in a cross whichwas fairly disappointing, and this was easily cleared. Ashford had a few moreopportunities with set-pieces, but, perhaps due to tiredness, the lads wereunable to put in a telling cross. On one of these occasions, when the 120minutes were up on my watch, an Ashford free-kick on the left side of the fieldwent straight to the first defender, and, in the 121^st minute,Anthony Allman did something similar with another free-kick. This time,however, the ball broke to Rossi, whose rather mis-hit shot fell to MarcCumberbatch. Marc’s shot went straight at the ‘keeper, and the referee’s finalwhistle, at 10.20pm precisely, signalled the need for a penalty shoot-out.

There’s no other way of describing penalties otherthan to give you the bare facts; so here they are.

With Ashford legend Peter McRobert looking on, thesetook place at the “Road End” (as opposed to the “Other End”). I don’t knowwhich of the skippers, Simon Glover or Liam Baptiste, won the toss, but Ashfordtook the first kicks. In order of play, Anthony Allman, Marc Cumberbatch,Richard Sinden and Simon Glover all scored – Jason Willis managed to get atouch to the first three of these, but Glovesie’s kick sent him the wrong way.Danny Gabriel, Danny Flynn, Matt Waldron and Victor Renner all replied with animpressive penalty, which went in as clean as a whistle.

So it was 4-4 as Joby Thorogood stepped up to take hispenalty. Jason Willis indulged in some minor gamesmanship, but I don’t think itmade any difference, so I won’t make a thing about it. Anyway, Joby hit thepost with his effort, and then Danny Kenny made no mistake with his, and Waltham Forest went off in celebration as ifthey had won the FA Trophy itself. The reason it meant so much to them, ofcourse, is that it was the first victory of any sort for this squad of players.Judging by the talented individuals that were on show over the two games, Idon’t think that it will be too long before they haul themselves off the bottomof Ryman Division 1 North.

A night of bitter disappointment for the Ashford boys,of course. They now have an 8-day break before their next match, which is awayto Maidstone United, in the league, so there’s time for morale to be repaired. Themost urgent job that Tim Thorogood has to do, however, is to strengthen thesquad with some reinforcements, as they’re looking very tired and battle-wearynow.

ARCHIVE: Waltham Forest v Ashford Town. FA Trophy Preliminary Round. 2006-7 season.

2011-12-29T14:57:00.001-08:00

Waltham Forest 1 Ashford Town 1

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

Today’s game was all about redemption for ourboys – whether or not they could redeem themselves aftertheir tame surrender to Godalming Town last Saturday. Therehave been several candidates for Ashford Town’s worst everperformance, in recent months, and last week’s display was right up, or down,there with the worst. Against a team bottom of the league, and without a winthis season, we managed to lose 3-0; in the process, we failed to achieve ashot on target against a defence that had let in EIGHT the previous Tuesday.The previous horror show in the same category was at home to Molesey, when welost 0-4, but the lads bounced back with a 0-1 win at Hastings, just two days later.

Whether we could show the same bouncebackability herein Walthamstow was really what was at stake this afternoon, and ratherovershadowed the fact that this was a cup-tie in a major competition, the FATrophy, with the winners due to go to either Croydon Athletic or Hastings Unitedin the next round. This was in spite of the fact that this competition ispotentially a decent money-spinner for the Club, especially in the context ofhome gates that continue to plummet. It’s ironic that, off the field, the situationfor the Football Club continues to improve, with long-term debts beingsystematically reduced, and more sympathetic landlords of The Homelandsreplacing the Big Bad Wolf and his cronies who had plagued us for so long.Quite simply, though, if the team – that’s The Management and the players –can’t get its act together on the field, then even (more of) the most die-hardsupporters will lose patience, and disappear, and, as so many non-league clubshave discovered to their cost, it’s not easy to get people back through theturnstiles once they’ve found something else to do on a Saturday afternoon.

As I wrote in my report on last Saturday’s game, theteam has already proved that it’s well capable of beating better oppositionthat Godalming Town (with the greatest respect to our conquerors), and I’mconvinced that the difference between success and failure depends to a largeextent on the mental state of the players. Whatever Tim Thorogood and JohnCumberbatch said to the lads before the Godalming game, and whatever theplayers said to themselves, they obviously felt, deep down, that victory wasmerely a formality. Unsurprisingly, they came unstuck.

One thing about today’s opponents, Waltham Forest,was that they were certainly not better opposition than Godalming Town.Like The G’s, they are bottom of their division, Ryman Division 1 North,without a win this season. They’d also scored just eight goals in eight leaguematches, (but let’s not forget that Ashford have only scored five in seven, inspite of having registered a couple of wins). So a very similar task to the onewe faced last week; surely the lads wouldn’t go out with the same attitude ?!

If there were parallels between performances on thepitch, to date, by Godalming Town and Waltham Forest, today’s settingwas a complete contrast to that of the previous Saturday. Instead of posh,leafy Surrey, this was distinctly urban Walthamstow E17; instead of borderingon a golf course, Waltham Forest’s ground is on theSouth side of the North Circular, opposite Walthamstow’s famous greyhoundstadium. The Armadillo Football Stadium is set at one end of a larger footycomplex – and there were two minor games going on when we arrived – which is inturn set in a very residential area, with the pitched bordered by housing ontwo sides. (Any decent clearance went into someone’s back garden – a bit like Essella Park, in the old days). This was quite anice facility, a low stand with about 200 blue and black seats being the mainfeature. There was shallow terracing at each end of the ground, with a steel& scaffolding shelter for the whole width of the pitch. The pitch was surroundedby a single white railing, but this was hidden behind a three- to four-foothigh corrugated steel fence. The playing surface looked pretty good, but therewas a curious hump in the middle of the six-yard box that Simon Overlandoccupied in the first half.

This was a rare and welcome opportunity for YourCorrespondent to make a journey to a ground that is actually North of the Thames. Situated near the Southern end of the M11, thetotal journey time from MK was an hour and twenty minutes, even with thehorrendous road-works on both the M1 and M25. Twigging that, given theresidential nature of the venue, there would be few places to get some decentscran, we adjourned for lunch early, nipping off at Junction 26 of the M25, andutilising the Marriott Hotel in Waltham Abbey. This, it has to be said, was oneof our more up-market match-day stop-offs. The place was full of waist-coatedstaff, and there was Soames & Gilchrist soap and piano music in thetoilets; (I actually felt a bit sorry for the pianist, being stuck in there allday). I also felt a little under-dressed, in my scruffy beige denims (made outof one of John Cumberbatch’s old suits), but the visit did the job, and we weresoon on our way again.

Ashford’s team showed two changes to the one thatstarted against Godalming – Marc Cumberbatch made a very welcome return in thecentre of defence, alongside Dan Tanner, and Joffy Thorogood replaced KennyJarrett-Elliott wide on the left. Kenny’s position on the bench was largely dueto the fact that he is struggling with an injury at the moment, and I gatherthat there is a similar story with Barry Crawford, who also started as a sub. GeorgeFenwick was back, but also started on the bench, after his absence last week,with young Joe Hitchins completing the line-up of subs. So the line-up was (in4-4-2 formation): Overland,Adlington, Ross, Cumberbatch, Tanner, Joby Thorogood, Allman, Clarke, JoffyThorogood, Glover (capt.) and Sinden.

Although the game kicked off late, at 3.05pm, it wasworth waiting for, as this was always a keenly-contested and entertaining game.It was also played in warm sunshine, with just a few wispy clouds in the sky(where else ?), and a steady breeze. (Commiserations to readers in the South Atlantic, where it was no doubt blowing a bastard).There was plenty of urgency and midfield effort from both sides during theopening skirmishes, and the first opportunity fell to Ashford, in the sixthminute. A long, quickly-taken free-kick by Anthony Allman went deep into thehome side’s area, looking for Joby Thorogood, darting in from the right, in amove that was to be repeated several times during the match. On this occasion,Joby failed to control the ball, and it ran through to goalkeeper Jason Willis.A minute later, Joby did well to win a corner. This resulted in a deep cross,from Ian Ross, which found the head of Marc Cumberbatch, but there was no powerin the header, and the ball went first-bounce into the ‘keeper’s arms.(Although neither side was aware of it at the time, this was a dress rehearsalfor Ashford’s goal, which came later in the half).

The home side, playing in Derby Countycolours of white shirts, black shorts and white sockies, with “The Stags”printed on the back of their shirts, managed to create an even better chance,in the tenth minute. With Dan Tanner having been caught upfield, when pressingforward, we were a bit short-handed at the back, and Victor Renner worked anice one-two on the edge of the Ashford area, to put himself through on goal.He got his shot on target, from close range, but Simon Overland made a goodsave.

Waltham Forest just about shaded it, in terms ofcoherent, attacking play, in the first 15 minutes, but Ashford, playing intheir home strip (because the black shorts of the new away kit would clash withthose of the home side), worked an opening in the 18^th minute. Amove on the edge of the Forest penalty area,from right to left, involving Marc Cumberbatch and Gary Clarke, found RichardSinden, in a bit of space. Sinders’s effort was either a cross or a shot orneither, and it flashed across the face of goal.

Three minutes later, Joby Thorogood attempted a crossfrom the right, but this was blocked, and we had a corner. This was again slungacross, swinging in, by Ian Ross, and this time Marc Cumberbatch met itrunning, and stuck the ball in the net with an uncontested header.

This was a very important goal, in the context of agame between two struggling teams, as neither side wanted to be the first tofall behind – and, sure enough, the home side’s confidence immediately appearedto drain away. Our boys looked to press their advantage, and had a free-kick,in the left corner, in the 23^rd minute. Anthony Allman dinked theball in low, into the goal-mouth, but nobody in a green shirt read hisintentions, and the ball went straight to the ‘keeper.

I was quite impressed with Anthony today. He ran theshow for us in midfield, and looks to be a well-matched partner for Gary Clarkein the centre; Garyalso played well today, in his usual role of battling and ball-winning. Anthonytook charge of most of the dead-ball situations, certainly those on the leftside of the field, and had another opportunity to put a dangerous ball in, froma free-kick, in the 26^th minute, after Victor Renner was ratherharshly penalised. Again, the ball was chipped into the goal-mouth, with JasonWillis looking a little uncertain; both Marc Cumberbatch and Joby Thorogoodstole in in front of him, but neither could provide that vital touch.

A minute later, Tommy Adlington, who was so ugly as ababy that his mother refused to breast-feed him, (saying that she just wantedhim as a friend), sent in a great long ball to Simon Glover, which found Gloveswith both space and time in the Waltham Forest area. He checked, and turned,and tried to chip the ‘keeper, but Willis did well to just get a palm to theball. I thought that all of the Ashford back four were outstanding today, withMarc and Dan solid in the middle, and the two full-backs providing some qualityballs from deep. Rossi always provides great service with his left foot – andwas, of course, responsible for yet another “assist” in this game – but TomAdlington was more productive in this area than usual. He launched anothergreat ball forward, for Richard Sinden to chase, in the 34^th minute;this caused panic in the Waltham Forest defence, and washurriedly hoiked clear.

After Darren Duporte had hit a free-kick, awardedafter Marc Cumberbatch had controlled the ball with his arm, around a two-manwall, but straight to Simon Overland, Ashford were on the attack again. Adecent passing movement in midfield was ended when Ryan Oliva was late on RichardSinden, in the 38^th minute – this caused the referee to produce hisyellow card for the first time in what was never a dirty game. Anthony Allmanfloated another dangerous ball into the Forestarea, and this was again allowed to go all the way into the six-yard box – JobyThorogood was there to just touch the ball into the net, but the lino wasflagging for off-side.

The home side, winners of the Essex Senior Cup lastseason, gradually recovered their composure after going behind, and it must besaid that they finished the half very strongly, putting the Ashford goal undersiege for the final ten minutes before the interval. A Liam Sango corner fromthe right, in the 41^st minute, was headed out by Tom Adlington, atthe near post, but the ball was soon crossed in again. The ball bounced aroundin the area, and Simon Overland had to take the ball just under his owncross-bar – he was shoved over the line, but the goal was never going to beallowed to stand.

Two minutes later, Sango took another corner from theright, and this time crossed it deep, beyond the far post. Simon went out tofetch the ball, but his 6’6” frame couldn’t get near it – however, the defencestood firm, blocking any attempt at a shot, and bundled the ball out for acorner. With 44 minutes on the clock, but with some first-half injury time tocome, Liam Baptiste tried a shot from well outside the area, which went wellwide. Soon after, Dan Tanner, who was feeling distinctly rough for the durationof the game, conceded another corner, which was headed behind for yet another –finally, the ball was headed away, and we could all breathe again.

The half entered its 49^th minute, andAshford did actually end the period in the opposition’s half. Joffy did well towin possession, near the left corner flag, and pulled the ball back to GaryClarke, who tried quite an audacious chip for goal – this would have gone in ifJason Willis had not tipped the ball over, for a corner. Anthony Allman’sresulting cross actually went straight to Willis, at which point the ref blewhis whistle for tea & biscuits.

I was delighted, at half-time, to bump into today’smatch sponsor – Ottaway & Associates Ltd (Quality, Safety and EnvironmentalConsultants). Not only is Chris a born & bred Ashford boy, but I hadn’tseen him and his Dad for some 33 years ! Users of the Club’s Forum might know him as “The Old Fart”, but Iremember him as the boy in the Ashford Town kit I used to kickabout with in Victoria Park.

There was, alas, all too little time to reminisce aboutAshford’s great side of the seventies – Sillett, Morton, Street, Coventry etcetc – as the second half was soon under way, with Waltham Forest having putDanny Kenny on, as a wide, right-sided player, during the interval. Kenny(that’s the home side’s Kenny) soon made an impact, as, in the 51^stminute, he supplied a deep cross into the Ashford area, which Danny Gabrielheaded wastefully wide at the far post. A minute later, Simon Glover became thefirst of three Ashford players to be booked, when he rather went over the ballin a tackle – at which point Waltham Forestmade their second substitution, with Ryan Hall replacing Darren Duporte.

In the 56^th minute, a period of pressurefrom the home side ended with Ian Ross carrying the ball out of defence. He fedthe ball infield, to Anthony Allman, who slid the ball forward into the path ofRichard Sinden. Richard managed to get his shot in, but this went well over thebar. Sinders worked hard up front, but hasn’t scored since the Bromley game; assomeone who’s used to scoring goals, he needs to hit the net regularly, and hewas just showing signs of getting a little deflated out there today. Nevertheless,he was back in action again a minute later, when Tom Adlington fed a good ballthrough to him along the right touchline. Sinders sent in a long cross to thefar post, which he actually seemed to over-hit, but Joffy managed to makesomething of it, getting up to nod the ball back into the six-yard box.Unfortunately, Jason Willis got there ahead of Simon Glover.

The Stags’ equaliser came in the 58^thminute, and, ironically, given that they’d applied plenty of steady pressure onthe Ashford goal since just before the interval, the goal almost came out ofnothing. Victor Renner picked the ball up in about the middle of the Ashfordhalf, and unleashed as sweet a shot as you’re likely to see at this level. Theball arrowed into the corner of the net, lodging between the net and the backstanchion. It was an absolute screamer, which even Brian Gambrill wouldn’t havesaved. (Okay, so I’m still reminiscing about the seventies, but where’s theharm in that ?).

Of course, with Waltham Forestprobably having been the better side for the past 25 minutes or so of play, theworry was that Ashford would struggle to raise their game again, but they didjust that, and the rest of the match was fairly even. The Management’s reactionwas to throw top scorer George Fenwick into the fray, in the 63^rdminute – but, predictably, this was in place of Richard Sinden, instead of thelargely ineffective Simon Glover. (I reckon I’ve only seen about 25% of whatGloves can do, so far this season, and he’ll make a tremendous difference tothe side once he finds his form).

In the 69^th minute, Ryan Oliva conceded afree-kick, and Forest set up a three-man wallon the edge of the penalty area. Rossi took the kick, and played the Allmanrole of chipping the ball into the goal-mouth – one of three Ashford playerstouched the ball into the net, from close range, but the goal was once again disallowedfor off-side. (A totally unindependent eye-witness reckons that it was neveroff-side, but that doesn’t matter now).

In the 76^th minute, Anthony Allman waspushed to the ground as he was shaping up for a shot. This time, there wereplenty of defenders, and green shirts, in the wall, but Joby Thorogood’sfree-kick was deflected behind for a corner. Then, in the 80^thminute, Dan Tanner spread the ball wide to Joby, who rather pushed it past thedefender and threw himself to the ground – but he won the free-kick. Rossiagain curled the ball in, but this time it was too close to the ‘keeper, whowas able to collect.

Gary Clarke, in defensive mode, conceded a corner, inthe 83^rd minute. This was crossed in deep, and found Ryan Oliva, whogot up, but headed wide. Clarkey was again on the ball two minutes later,spreading the ball wide, to the left, for Joff Thorogood to chase. A Stagsdefender came across with a good covering tackle, after which Joffy’s momentumcaused him to clatter into his opponent. There was nothing malicious aboutthis, but it was enough for our hero to receive yet another yellow card – hereally must be close to receiving a special FA ASBO now. Joffy’s next act wasto limp off, to be replaced by Kenny Jarrett-Elliott, in the 86^th minute.

Both sides pressed for a late winner, and Dan Tanner,probably gagging for a Lemsip by now, had to make a good block, with 88 minuteson the clock. The resulting corner, from the right, was cleared. A minute intoinjury time, an Ian Ross free-kick, from inside the Ashford half after anoff-side decision, was hit long, into the Waltham Forestpenalty area. Simon Glover almost justified the decision to leave him on thepitch, when he managed to get on the end of this, but his looping header wentjust wide of the far post. A minute later, Rossi set Marc Cumberbatch, of allpeople, off down the right; Cumber pulled the ball back from the by-line, butJoby Thorogood’s diving header went straight to ‘keeper Jason Willis.

Four minutes of injury time had been played – and itwas 5.56pm – when Gary Clarke was booked for a late tackle. Foresthad no choice, at this stage, but to put the free-kick into the area; thisDanny Gabriel did, chipping the ball to the far post, but Simon Overland made agood catch. This was the final action of the match.

In the end, I think we were quite happy to leaveWalthamstow with a draw. This was a much improved performance, compared withthe previous Saturday, but there is still plenty of improvement left in thissquad. There was talk, after the game, of the players being tired, which is alittle worrying, given that the squad is now down to 16 players, and the replaycomes up on Tuesday. (The winners will play away at Hastings, in a couple of weeks’ time). Isuppose the merit of today’s performance will be defined by Tuesday’s result.If we win, we can then move on and try to recapture the form shown in earlySeptember; if we lose, then the story will no doubt be that “we can’t even beatWaltham Forest”, and heads, and attendances, will go down even further.

Man of the Match

(to go towardsthe Milton Keynes Bowl)

Marc Cumberbatch

ARCHIVE: Walton & Hersham v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 2004-5 season.

2011-12-29T14:51:00.001-08:00

Walton & Hersham 2 Ashford Town 1

from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

When we left Molesey, following that 3-0defeat in February, there seemed to be not a glimmer of hope. Having beeneasily beaten by most of the teams at the bottom of the table, we were six orseven points adrift of safety, and things were looking grim. Thanks to our homeform, though, we started today’s game at the vertigo-inducing height of 19^thposition, two points clear of the Isle of Wight, with a game in hand. What’smore, recent hard-fought victories against promotion-chasing Leatherhead andTooting & Mitcham have shown that we can compete with teams at the otherend of the table. Unfortunately, today’s defeat – to a 97^th minutegoal ! – together with Newport’s unlikely 0-3 victory at Corinthians, andpoints picked up by Banstead, Dorking (three !) and Molesey, mean that we’reright back in the blender. And those little knives are now starting to rotate !

Let’s rewind to Saturday morning. We weren’texpecting anything from this game – our fate will be decided by how many pointswe get from our next three games, which are all at home. Walton & Hershamare second in the league, very close to automatic promotion, having been in thetop five since mid-October. The Swans went into this match on the back of sixsuccessive victories, the most recent of these being the impressive 4-0thrashing of AFC Wimbledon. (I understand that AFC brought the champagne withthem, on ice, ready to celebrate the championship – instead, they suffered whatwas quite possibly the biggest defeat in their short history !).

Our optimism wasn’t boosted by the arrival ofthe team-sheet ! We’re now sufferingbadly as a result of injuries and suspensions, and this was a pretty weak side.With skipper Matt Bower suspended, and my Player of the Season Barry Gardnerreverting to right back, the midfield of Joby & Joffy Thorogood, EddieAchoko and Solomon Henry (who has looked very skillful, but hasn’t yet reallydelivered) is not exactly the stuff that dreams are made of. (Having said that,all four gave 100% today, so nobody can carp at their efforts). What was mostdisappointing was that recent midfield revelation, Gary Clarke, was absentthrough injury, after just two games in the First XI and his Man of the Match performanceagainst Tooting. Lee Blackman, who was the MoM in the previous home game,against Leatherhead, was also absent (and that’s as much information as I haveabout him).

Paul O’Brien made a welcome return atleft-back – so we had some quality in our full-backs. Tony Ritrovato (today’scaptain) and Chris “Mad Dog” Holmes, both effectively on remand, awaitingsuspensions after their recent red cards, were allowed by the penal authoritiesto take their place in central defence for this afternoon. Jani Seitsonen, ournew, dark-haired, Finnish goal-keeper, once again replaced the injured John“Thank Goodness for John Whitehouse” Whitehouse. With Joby back in midfield,Shaun Bradshaw partnered Paul Jones in attack. The Ashford bench is alsostarting to look threadbare (at least numerically), consisting of MarcCumberbatch, plus Terry McCann and Jason Long, from the Ressies. (Rossi wasalso named, but obviously wasn’t fit enough to play).

Stompond Lane is one of the larger groundsthat I’ve been to this season (which isn’t saying much, admittedly), and it’sfairly compact, considering that it has a six-lane athletics track around it.As at Corby, Grantham and Croydon, there is all the athletics paraphernalia,such as pole vault mats, behind each goal. There is a good-sized main stand,with a mixture of plastic seats and wooden benches – the benches were warm andcomfortable, and were appreciated by Mrs Milton Keynes Correspondents’s bum.The covered terracing on the far side extends to almost the length of thepitch, with open terracing curving around the running track at one end. Nodoubt there was plenty of room for the 2,503 that poured into the ground forthe AFC Wimbledon game last week. (There was also what looked like aninflatable dome at one end of the ground, but this was presumably an indoortennis centre or something).

*** THE MATCH ***

The game began in predictable fashion, withthe home side on the attack and our depleted heroes on the defensive. As earlyas the third minute, Walton had a corner. This was punched awaynot-too-convincingly by Jani, which went some way to establishing the patternfor the rest of the game ! Two minuteslater, this pattern was completed when the referee awarded a free-kick to TheSwans. I tend to avoid criticising referees, as it’s an extremely difficult job– I’m even less inclined to suggest that referees are ever anything other thaneven-handed, as all footy fans claim that the ref favoured the other side, andit always sounds a bit pathetic. However, I would be falling down on my duty asYour Correspondent if I failed to report the bare fact that Walton &Hersham were awarded an incredible number of free-kicks, and I have to confessthat the reason for many of these was a mystery to most of the Ashford fans present.My only theory is that Mr Knight blew up for a foul as soon as there was theremotest contact between one man and another – maybe we appeared to get therough end of decisions because, for most of the game, Walton had the ball andour lads were, quite rightly, trying to close them down. Mr Knight’sperformance was certainly both baffling and frustrating for Ashford’s players,so, given our appalling disciplinary record, our lads did well to avoid pickingup loads more cards. (There were one or two stupid exceptions to this rule, butmore of those later). Also, the question of where eight minutes of injury timeat the end of the match came from will be the subject of debate among academicsin the town of Ashford for many years. I notice on the Walton & Hershamweb-site that the home fans have referred to the ref as being merely “dodgy”,but I must say that Mr Knight appeared to do to Ashford Town what Charlesalmost certainly did to Camilla on Saturday night – and if the Duchess ofCornwall did as much shouting and screaming as Tim Thorogood, then I’m surethat His Royal Highness will have been well pleased !

Apologies, then, if the catalogue offree-kicks becomes repetitive, but that’s just the way it was. The free-kick inthe fifth minute was taken, like most of them, by Lee Riddell, who looked to beWalton’s best player today. His deep cross to the far post was headed behind byPaul Jones; Tony Ritrovato headed the resulting corner clear.

In the eleventh minute, the visitors –playing in their home kit, with the yellow version currently out of commission– put together a good move. Shaun Bradshaw got up well to nod down a defensiveclearance to Paul Jones. Jonah spread the ball wide to Joby, wide on the right.Joby cut into the area, and got to the by-line, but, instead of crossing, choseto shoot straight at Gindre in the Walton goal, from an acute angle. Jones’sshot, from the rebound, was blocked.

The litany of mysterious free-kicks thenbegan, mostly on the left side of the Ashford area. On 14 minutes, Seitsonenmanaged a rare clean catch, and a minute later dealt with a cross from asimilar position by punching clear. (Barry Gardner reacted to the awarding ofthis free-kick by sarcastically applauding the referee – which wasn’t thebrainiest thing to do !). In the 18^th minute, Riddell pumped afree-kick into the Ashford area, and this was the lads’ dodgiest moment so far,with a succession of shots having to be blocked. Six minutes later, Riddellcurled a free-kick in to the near post – Neil Lampton managed to get theflick-on with his head, but the ball passed harmlessly through the six-yardbox, for a goal kick.

It was long ball time for Walton on 28minutes – this was flicked on by the head of a home forward for Mark Nwokeji torun on to, but Mad Dog Holmes came flying across with an excellent savingtackle, well inside the Ashford area. Barry Gardner was heavily clattered as hecompleted the clearance, but the referee …………. (no, I’ve moaned enough aboutthe ref already.)

So Ashford survived the first half hour, inspite of The Swans (curiously playing in all red !) making almost all therunning. [The reason for Walton & Hersham playing in red, instead of whiteas you might expect, is something to do with the long-standing and close affinitythat the club has with Liverpool FC.]

On 30 minutes, Ashford managed to carve outanother clear-cut opportunity. A long clearance from Jani – Tim Thorogood andJohn Cumberbatch had clearly been watching Chelsea in mid-week ! – found thebattling Paul Jones deep inside the Red Swans’ half. Jonah showed greatstrength to get the flick-on; Solomon Henry was also strong enough to resistthe challenge of his marker, but, with only the ‘keeper to beat, he shotstraight at Gindre.

Although our defenders played pretty well formost of the game, there was confusion in the 38^th minute, whenGardner, Ritrovato and Seitsonen made a Mary of trying to clear a ball in thearea. In the end, big Tony kicked the ball behind for a corner, almost out ofSeitsonen’s hands. Four minutes later, there was another free-kick to defend,when part of Joffy’s person touched a Walton player. Riddell’s free-kick wentlong, beyond the far post, and Paul Harkness clearly fluffed his attempt tocontrol the ball first time, the ball squirming under his foot, for a goal-kick– except that the referee awarded a corner. Fortunately, the corner-kick cameto nothing.

There were ironic cheers a minute later, whenwe were given a free-kick, for a foul on O’B. This was taken by Joby, whoselong cross found Tony Ritrovato, rising high, beyond the far post. Ritrovato’sheader went straight up in the air, and would have landed almost on thecross-bar if Nick Gindre hadn’t tipped it behind for a corner, collidingheavily with the far post as he did so. Gindre was down receiving treatment forsome time, so did well to catch Joby’s cross when the corner came in, after there-start.

Three minutes of injury time had been playedat the end of the first half when Walton attacked on the edge of the Ashfordpenalty area. Mark Nwokeji beat Mad Dog Holmes, before Tony Ritrovato cameacross and brought him down in the “D” – in a very similar position to thefree-kick that Tony conceded against Leatherhead a few weeks back. This time,Ritrovato got a yellow card for his trouble, meaning that, together with hisrecent sending off, he’ll probably be suspended until Christmas. Again it wasRiddell who was the free-kicksmith – he beat the wall with a good, curlingshot, but Jani Seitsonen bent low to gather the ball. Or did he ? The ball squirmed away from his grasp, but,unlike at Hastings, when his fumble led to an embarrassing goal, it ran away tosafety and was cleared.

So 0-0 at half-time, which was a score-linethat all of us would have settled for at the start of the match. Having saidthat, in spite of the home side’s dominance in terms of possession and thecorners & free-kicks count, the two clearest chances had fallen to Ashford.

The second half was much more even, in termsof possession. The boys started well, pressing the home team on the far side,winning a succession of throw-ins – (in our current predicament each throw-inis something to celebrate !). Eventually, we progressed to winning a corner, inthe 48^th minute; this was on the right, so Paul O’Brien was thetaker. As is usual for Ashford corners, O’B’s cross was aimed at TonyRitrovato. Tony got up well, but could only put his header behind for agoal-kick. Two minutes later, Paul Jones – who tended to be marked by at leasttwo defenders – won a free-kick. This time Barry Gardner aimed the kick long,to Ritrovato, forcing Sean Thurgood to head behind for a corner.

In the 54^th minute, it was back tothe old routine, when Joffy was harshly penalised for a foul, but Riddell’scross was hoiked clear by the Mad Dog.

The home side signalled their view that adraw was not good enough, when they made a substitution after only 55 minutes –the rotund Scott Steele was sent on in place of Lee Allum. Within four minutesof this change, Walton were awarded another free-kick. Seitsonen really shouldhave caught Riddell’s cross comfortably, but he fisted the ball behind for acorner, which didn’t inspire a tremendous amount of confidence. (JohnWhitehouse, who was in the crowd supporting the team, along with Tom Adlington,doesn’t have much to worry about in terms of his place in the side !).Fortunately, Barry Gardner brought the ball away, following the resultingcorner.

After a second substitution for the Red Swans– Chris Morrison coming on for the dangerous-looking Mark Nwokeji, in the 64^thminute – Joffy got himself booked for a late tackle, in a position where therewas little danger, and has now earned himself enough points for a ban. Thismeans that he’ll miss the last two games of the season, which, given ourdwindling playing resources, wasn’t the most intelligent thing to do. (Howabout “brainless” ?).

Walton & Hersham were awarded a mysteryfree-kick in the 71^st minute– (sorry, but I’m not keeping a total of these) – and this resulted in along-range shot from Scott Steele which smacked of the first twinges ofdesperation from the home side. If frustration were beginning to set in, thenthe home side needn’t have worried, as, not only did they get yet anotherfree-kick in a dangerous position five minutes later, but they managed to breakthe deadlock with it. This free-kick originated from a long-range shot from LeeRiddell – this was straight at the ‘keeper, and Jani managed to save itcomfortably enough, but Joby touched Riddell as he was taking his shot, so thatwas enough for another free-kick, on the edge of the area. (We could arguethat, as Riddell managed to get his shot on target, then an advantage shouldhave, and in fact was, played, but it’s too late to argue about that now). Thistime the free-kick was taken by Paul Harkness. His curling shot was on target,and although Seitsonen manged to get both hands to the ball, he could onlyparry it into the corner of the net, and should really have done better. 1-0 toThe Swans, after 76 minutes.

It looked like the lead was going to bedoubled in the 84^th minute, when Chris Morrison was clean through ongoal after the ball was chipped over an Ashford defence that was holding a lineon the edge of the penalty area. With only Jani to beat, Morrison fluffed hisshot wide, but the lino, who appeared to have a good game today, was alreadyflagging for off-side.

Before this, in the 81^st minute,Joffy limped off injured, and was replaced by Marc Cumberbatch; this enabledBarry Gardner to push forward into midfield. The second Ashford substitutiondidn’t come until the 86^th minute – which was surely far too late –when Long Jason, who’s been scoring goals for the reserves, replaced Joby.Jason took up a forward position on the left side of midfield.

It might have been because Paul Jones’smarkers were beginning to get tired, but things certainly opened up for Jonahas late as the 90^th minute. For once, a long ball from midfieldbounced kindly for the hard-working striker – who had been mostly coming short tocollect the ball, with Shaun Bradshaw usually furthest forward – and, turninghis man, he found himself with a half-chance, in the penalty area. This was adifficult ball to take, dropping over Jones’s left shoulder, and he looped avolley over the bar. With exactly 90 minutes on the watch, Jonah was throughagain, in the inside-right position, but the defence forced the ball behind fora corner. This corner was curled in to the far post, from the right, by PaulO’Brien, and Jones met it with his head, unmarked, in the 6-yard box, with thehome defenders seeming to be worrying most about Tony Ritrovato. A goal againstthe run of play, but it seemed that it had earnt us a priceless point away fromhome – this was also Jones’s 10^th goal in the last 16 matches, whichis a good strike-rate in a struggling team.

For some reason, injury time dragged on foreight minutes – and seemed to go on for twice as long as that – and Walton& Hersham continued to press. After four of the eight minutes, the homeside launched a long throw into the penalty area, and Tony Ritrovato headedbehind for a corner. This corner was swung across into the Ashford goal-mouth.Chris Morrison rose high, but the ball glanced off his head, and went behindfor a goal-kick.

Surely, that was it ! But no. In the 97^th minute, yetanother free-kick was awarded for seemingly very little – and in a dangerousposition, right on the edge of the area. The one consolation was that this wasan indirect free-kick, but this made little difference to the result of thematch. The ball was touched short to Lee Riddell, who smashed the ball into thecorner of the net, giving Jani no chance.

The goal was celebrated like apromotion-clincher by the home side – in truth, The Swans aren’t safe yet, butHorsham’s defeat at Whyteleafe (our next opponents) puts them eight pointsclear in second place. Elsewhere, AFC Wimbledon’s 1-0 victory over the Policeconfirmed them as Champions, whilst the results of other teams in therelegation fight made this a thoroughly bad day for Ashford Town.

This was certainly another sickener, almoston a par with the experience of going to the Met. Police and losing 3-2, havingbeen 1-2 up after 85 minutes. There was a difference, though. Whilst we playedwell against the Police, and deserved to win, we never produced anything thatcould be confused for real quality, but fought hard against a vastly superiorside, and were hard done by to come away with nothing. With three home games,and one away game, left, our fate is still in our own hands – we’re a pointbehind Newport, and two points behind Dorking and Banstead, but have a game inhand of all of them. Against that, both Newport and Banstead have Croydon toplay at home, so we need to win one or two games to avoid coming to a stickyand embarrassing end !

“End ? No, the journey does not end here. Relegation is but another path – andone we all must take. The rain curtain of the Ryman League will part, and allwill turn to silver glass. And then we’ll see it. White shores. A broad, greencountry. And a swift sunrise.”

Was Tolkien referring to the after-life? Or was this a premonition of the KentLeague ?

ARCHIVE: Tooting & Mitcham United v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 2006-7 season.

2011-12-29T14:44:00.001-08:00

Tooting & Mitcham United 3 Ashford Town 0

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

Bymy reckoning, this was the 50^th time that Mrs Milton KeynesCorrespondent had accompanied me to a game. This is a milestone worthy of note,since, without the support of my perfect miniature, I certainly wouldn’t beable to spend every other Saturday at the footy. It all began back in the2002-3 season, on a cold afternoon in January. I remember saying to her: “Getyour coat on, Dear, I’m going to Corby to watch Ashford Town”.“Ooo”, she said, all excited; “Does that mean that I’m coming with you ?”. Isaid “No, I’m turning the heating off”. Fortunately, as it has turned out, shedidn’t hear the last bit, and she endured a goalless game, in a soullessstadium, and became Mrs MKC.

Ihave to admit that she’s had to sit through some rubbish over the past fewyears, and in some fairly uncomfortable locations – but we remain optimistic,of course, as, with Tim Thorogood’s announcement at Corinthian-Casuals that hewas stepping down from his role as Joint Manager, we embark on a new era, withJohn Cumberbatch in sole charge. Not that this is a complete sea-change, asJohn had, in any case, been on his own with the team for several matches as aresult of Tim’s latest touchline ban – and, according to Tim himself, John hasactually been more responsible for team affairs this season than many peoplemight have realised. I expect there will be a large element of continuity aboutthe changeover, at least initially; and, as if to emphasise this point, Johnhad announced that the first line-up of his stewardship, which should’ve beenagainst Horsham YMCA, would be unchanged from the side that had beatenCorinthians, before the Horsham game was called off. Then, last Tuesday, there-arranged match away to Sittingbourne was also postponed, due to awaterlogged pitch, as were the games against Chatham, and then Leatherhead.

Sothe beginning of the John Cumberbatch era was delayed by four consecutivepostponements, before a fairly creditable performance in defeat at home tothird-placed Fleet Town last Saturday. (Acynic might have feared that the delays had given Tim plenty of time to changehis mind, but he didn’t).

Incase people are losing track of the game of Happy Families we have at The Homelands,let’s have a recap. At the moment, we have two Fenwicks, one Thorogood and aCumberbatch on the pitch, with one Cumberbatch in the dug-out. Two years ago,we had two Thorogoods and a Cumberbatch on the pitch, and a Fenwick in thedug-out. About six months ago, we had two Thorogoods and a Cumberbatch on thepitch, with a Thorogood and a Cumberbatch in the dug-out. Well, I’m no experton poker hands, but I reckon that the latter is the best, with a full house ofThorogoods and Cumberbatches beating two pairs.

Onepositive implication of the recent rash of postponements has been the time thatit has allowed for one or two players to recover from injury – whilst the resthave been losing match fitness ! Amongthose returning from short-term injuries have been Drew Watkins (thigh),Anthony Allman (back) and Simon Overland, although we received the news duringthe week that Simon, who was with us on a season-long loan deal, has had hischain tugged by his retaining club, Dagenham & Redbridge. From what I cangather, he’s been involved in a player deal that The Daggers have been puttingtogether, with the result that he’ll now be playing for Ryman One South leagueleaders Dulwich Hamlet. We’ve also lost young Dan Tanner, who has left us tohelp Whitstable in their quest for promotion from the Kent League.

Ithasn’t been one-way traffic, though, as The Management has been busy recruitingquality players whilst local pitches have been lying waterlogged. Last week sawthe arrival of Danny Lye (for his second spell at Ashford) from TonbridgeAngels, and Kevin Lott, who used to be at Dover.Now Lye ‘n’ Lott might sound like a firm of estate agents, but they are bothmidfielders who have good experience at a higher level. Kevin Lott looks astocky, combative player, whilst we already know that Danny Lye has a penchantfor getting stuck in, so I get the impression that they’ve been brought in togive some teeth to a midfield that has missed the battling qualities of GaryClarke since he went down with that knee injury earlier in the season.

Therehave also been moves to replace Simon Overland in goal. Rob Lindley was draftedin for the Fleet Town game, last Saturday, with former‘keeper Sean Glover on the subs’ bench. Today, however, our goalie was JakeWhincup, who was recruited in midweek from AFC Hornchurch, one of the betterteams in Ryman One North.

Butperhaps the biggest coup for Tim Thorogood so far this season is the mostrecent arrival – this week, The Chairman revealed yet another Non-league Galacticowhen he added Walid Matata to his galaxy of stars. (OK, that might be anexaggeration in the wider context, but it isn’t when you compare the currentsquad to the raw materials that Terry Fenwick had to work with a couple ofyears ago !). Don’t confuse Walid with his younger brother, who played for usbriefly, and unsuccessfully, in pre-season friendlies. This is the Matata thatwas playing in the Ryman Premier Division for Folkestone Invicta earlier in theseason, and who scored against us at Cheriton Road in the Kent Senior Cup. Walid also scored forFolkestone in his last game for the club, before being released as part of areluctant cost-cutting measure, after which he went off to play for EastThurrock United, in the same division. Evidently, things didn’t work out forhim there, but this should be Ashford’s gain, as Matata is a quality striker,with a proven goal-scoring record.

Sothe squad is beginning to look very impressive now, on paper – there’s no doubtthat John Cumberbatch has the tools with which to do the job. The challenge, ofcourse, is to unite all the talent, and all the egos, with a common purpose, inorder to get the most from the talent that is now available. Player for player,I don’t think that there will be more than a handful of clubs in our divisionwith a better squad. Whether or not they can gel together to form an effectiveteam is not just John’s responsibility – it’s also up to the lads themselves,as I wouldn’t imagine that the better players are providing their services onthe cheap. (Moving higher up the table than third-bottom would probably be agood start, please).

Nowconfession time. I missed almost all of the first half, due to a horrendousjourney from Milton Keynes that saw us crawlin traffic for 3½ hours. We arrived just in time to see Tooting’s opening goal,from the turnstiles in the far corner, in the 40^th minute – havingnot had any dinner, I was already not in the best frame of mind !

Thefirst thing we noticed, though, was that the boys were clad in an away strip ofall yellow. The original away kit, of yellow shirts, with black shorts andsockies, has suffered from the fact that about a third of our opponents in theleague this season have a home strip that features black (or very very darknavy blue) shorts and sockies – so the yellow shorts and socks are probably aworthwhile investment. I must say that Tooting & Mitcham’s home kit was alittle “off the wall”. Whilst, technically, they were wearing their traditional“Newcastle United” black & white stripes, their shirts were actuallylargely white, with two black stripes sweeping up from the naval and curvingaway over the right shoulder, and a single black stripe mirroring this with asimilar trajectory over the left shoulder. All a bit unnecessary that. Give meproper vertical stripes, any day.

Sohere are the main points about the first half, based on what I can gather fromsome of the 235 souls that were in attendance. First, the team. I’ve alreadymentioned that we had a new goalkeeper – Jake Whincup. My first impressions ofJake were that he appears to be perfectly competent. He looked decisive whencoming out to intercept through-balls, made a couple of good saves in thesecond half and had little or no chance with either of the second-half goals –but he was beaten at the near post for Tooting’s first. The defence was, as inthe Fleet game, a little makeshift, though, with Tommy Adlington playing incentral defence alongside Marc Cumberbatch, and Anthony Allman again filling inat right-back. Ian Ross was at left-back, now that he’s returned from hisholiday. Apparently, Rossi spent his 30^th birthday jumping out of anaeroplane in Australia – healso told me that he stopped off in Bangkokon the way, and got a nose job for 50p (or at least that’s what I think hesaid).

Inmidfield, we had the beauty & the beast combination of Simon Glover andMatt Carruthers in the centre, with Joby Thorogood on the right, and KennyJarrett-Elliott on the left. Walid Matata partnered top-scorer George Fenwick upfront, in a 4-4-2 formation. I’m guessing a bit about the substitutes, but theones that were used were Kevin Lott, Drew Watkins and Adam O’Neill, and I’mpretty sure that Joe Hitchings and Rob Lindley were also on the bench. It wasgood to see Graham Porter, Luke Coleman and Nick Fenwick (still not quite overa back problem) in attendance as well.

Theother salient points from the first half were that Joby went off injured atsome point, to be replaced by Kevin Lott, and Ronnie Green scored United’s openerin the 40^th minute. The consensus among the Ashford faithful wasthat Walid Matata was our best player during the opening 45 minutes.

Thesecond half began with a reshuffle. Ian Ross did not reappear, and was replacedby Drew Watkins, who took up a position on the right side of midfield; thismeant that Kevin Lott moved into the centre, Simon Glover moved out to the leftand Kenny Jarrett-Elliott dropped back to left-back.

Therewere some promising positions early on in the half for our boys. Just after therestart, George Fenwick (of all people) put in a cross from wide on the right;this found Simon Glover, in the penalty area, but, although Gloves took theball well on his chest, it was stolen away from him before he could get a shotin. A couple of minutes later, George had the ball on the left-hand corner of thearea; he attempted a precise, right-foot curler, and, although it didn’t go allthat wide of the target, Dave King, in the Tooting goal, didn’t appear to betoo worried.

Atthe other end, in the 51^st minute, Ronnie Green tried a shot from anacute angle, but Jake Whincup was right behind it; then George Fenwick sent ina shot that bobbled across a muddy goal-mouth, but this was also straight atthe goal-keeper.

Afeature of the second-half play up to this point was that Ashford’s offsidetrap had been working well, but this came unhinged in the 52^ndminute. The yellow-shirted defence came out to catch two Tooting forwardsoffside, and then rather stopped to await the lino’s flag – this allowed PaulVines to stroll onto the ball, from an onside position, but he shot wide. Vinesnearly made amends three minutes later, when he threaded an effective littleball between two Ashford defenders, to put Alan McLeod through on goal, but thelittle bald bloke dragged his shot wastefully wide.

Imust say that what I saw of the game gave me the impression that this was anentertaining game between two good sides. In spite of the eventual scoreline,Ashford played some really good football, albeit in little bursts, so there isalready evidence that John Cumberbatch is encouraging them to get the ball downand play. There was one move, in the 62^nd minute, which illustratedthis perfectly – this was a one-touch move that started from defence, afterAlan McLeod had fluffed a free-kick. Anthony Allman fed the ball forward toSimon Glover, who passed it on again to George Fenwick; there was a back-heelin there somewhere from George, as a quick flurry of passes set the ball up forGloves, but his shot was blocked. Walid Matata and Kenny Jarrett-Elliottfollowed up with a shot each from rebounds, but these were also both blocked.

Therewas action at both ends throughout most of this second half, and, in the 67^thminute, Tooting had a chance to double their lead. A long cross from wide onthe left just cleared the head of the leaping Tommy Adlington; Paul Vinesseemed to be surprised by the fact that the ball came through to him, as he puthis header well wide. Two minutes later, Matt Carruthers, careering through themidfield, tried a speculative lobbed shot, which Dave King took just under hiscross-bar. Shortly after, Kevin Lott teed up Anthony Allman for a shot, frommiles out, that was blocked on the edge of the area; Kevin then lobbed therebound just over.

Thematch took a decisive turn in the 74^th minute – and I reckon that wewere a little unlucky with the decision that turned it. Anthony Allman maderather a mess of what should have been a defensive header, after a long clearancefrom Dave King; Anthony’s header went backwards, rather than forwards, and thispresented Tommy Adlington with an awkward one-on-one situation with Paul Vines.I reckon that Tommy was initially being held by Vines, preventing him fromgetting on the “right” side of his man. As usually happens on these occasions,they were soon in a mutual and warm embrace. Down they went, in the penaltyarea, and, unfortunately, the referee – who had made most of his errors inAshford’s favour this afternoon, saw this one Tooting’s way. As the ref calledTommy over, there was the immediate, horrible realisation that, as the lastman, Tom might also get a red card, but the colour of the card shown wasyellow. Jake Whincup had no chance with the penalty, as Alan McLeod thumped itin, off the underside of the bar.

Shortlyafter the goal, Paul Vines and Tommy again went down in a heap together, in theAshford penalty area, and this time the ref saw it in Ashford’s favour – butthe damage had been done by now. By the 76^th minute, JohnCumberbatch made the very sensible decision to take Tommy off – before he gothimself sent off – and replaced him with a striker, Adam O’Neill, who had, inany case, already been warming up. Two down, with a quarter of an hour left,John Cumber had little option other than to play three up front, but he did soby switching to a 3-4-3 formation – this did leave us a little outnumbered atthe back on several occasions, as Tooting continued to press forward. (I’vepreviously avoided describing us as being “short at the back”, as Tommy is alittle sensitive about his height).

RonnieGreen continued to be a threat, on the right wing, for the home side. In the 78^thminute, he easily beat Matt Carruthers, but his cross was cleared by theAshford defence. Two minutes later, Green again had an opportunity to set up achance. This really came about as a result of Kenny lungeing in, and rather“selling himself” upfield. This presented Tooting with a two v two situation,with Green on the ball; he beat Anthony Allman, and his cross found Paul Vinesin the centre, but Vines missed what amounted to an open goal, with just the‘keeper to beat, from about 12 yards out. Seconds later, Adam O’Neill hadalmost as good a chance at the other end. Simon Glover took great care tomeasure his cross, from the left, and Adam met the ball running, at the farpost, but his headed attempt bounced comfortably into the arms of Dave King.

Tooting& Mitcham’s third goal was the best of the three, and it came in the 81^stminute. Carl Gibbs squared the ball, from the right, into Alan McLeod, who wasin the penalty area, with his back to goal. He controlled the ball, turned andthumped it into the corner of the net, giving Jake no chance.

Ashfordstrived for a consolation goal – as that was all it was going to be at thisstage. In the 83^rd minute, Matt Carruthers went on a determined runthrough the centre, and laid the ball off to George – he was tripped right onthe edge of the area, to give Ashford a free-kick in a dangerous position. DrewWatkins took the kick, and this was the closest we came to scoring, as Drewcurled the ball over the wall, only to see it bounce back off the bar. With aminute to go of normal time, the ball broke to Adam O’Neill, from the midfield;he spread the ball wide, to the left, to Simon Glover. Again, Gloves measuredhis cross carefully, and found George Fenwick in the centre, but George’sambitious overhead kick was never going anywhere but over the bar.

Namingthe MK Man of the Match was tricky, as we’d missed half of it. We thereforewent for a Committee decision, and the verdict went to Walid Matata, largely onthe strength of his first-half performance, as he was fairly quiet in thesecond.

Consultingthe Ryman League web-site, after a relatively trouble-free journey home, itappeared that the defeat had cost us little in terms our league position, asonly Walton Casuals, of all our rivals at the bottom of the table, didn’t lose– they earnt a point at a very muddy Bourne Park. Honestly, though, weshouldn’t be looking over our shoulder at what the relegation candidates aredoing, as we should be looking to climb up to at least a mid-table position,with the squad we now have. It all depends, of course, on how they playtogether as a team. If John Cumberbatch can get them together so that the wholecan equal somewhere near the sum of the parts, then we shouldn’t have too manyproblems.

Man of the Match

(to go towardsthe Milton Keynes Bowl)

Walid Matata

ARCHIVE: Tooting & Mitcham United v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. 2005-6 season.

2011-12-29T14:41:00.001-08:00

Tooting & Mitcham United 2 Ashford Town 2

from Your Milton KeynesCorrespondent

This has to go down as another entry in the “AshfordTown Book of Absolute Sickeners”. As the watch approached the 90 minute mark,we were deservedly 1-2 up, against a very good Tooting & Mitcham side, andthe most recent information from the Isle of Wight had told us that Newport were 0-1 down to our mates at Dover. Tooting were, by this time, down toten men, so it seemed that we were witnessing a pivotal afternoon in our wretchedseason. Four points clear of Newport,with a game in hand ? Unfortunately, no.A few minutes later, we were reflecting on two absolutely priceless pointsthrown away with an embarrassing 91^st-minute defensive mix-up, andwere digesting the news that Newport had also somehowmanaged a late equaliser against Dover.

The fact that Ashford’s players and supporters leftTooting’s impressive Imperial Fields ground disappointed and deflated after a2-2 draw is a measure of how well the boys played today, and of the fact thatthey deserved more than just the point.

Approaching this afternoon’s visit to South London, most of us would have mugged an old ladyfor a point away to Tooting, who began the day in 4^th place. (Ifonly it were that simple !). Feelings of apprehension were heightened by thefact that we knew that we would be without two key, experienced defenders:Tommy Adlington and Peter Mortley. Tommy sustained a nasty gash on his rightankle in the final minutes of the friendly against Folkestone on Monday – welost the previous two games that Tommy missed 5-0 and 0-5, and our last visitto Imperial Fields ended with an 8-3 shellacking. Morts did a groin againstFleet last Saturday, the same game in which Ian Ross tweaked a hamstring, but,fortunately, Rossi was fit enough to lead the team out this afternoon (albeitwith his right thigh strapped up). This was good news from the point of view ofthe defence, and Rossi’s quality crosses and long balls from deep were onceagain just about Ashford’s best chance of creating a goal-scoring chance.

There were a few important changes in personnel to theAshford team, and most of these involved opportunities for members of theReserves squad. One of two Ressies to play all 90 minutes of the game wasScotsman Barry Crawford, who partnered Marc Cumberbatch in a new centraldefensive pairing. This meant that Mark Banks, who’s had a very good season atthe back, was desperately unlucky to be relegated to the bench. Nevertheless,it was immediately obvious why The Management had made this change – whilstBanksy has a huge heart, he’s fairly slightly built for a centre-half, andCrawford gave us much more strength and presence in the middle. In fact, he hadan outstanding game, and the probability is that the Ressies won’t be seeing muchof him for the remainder of this season.

The other lad who stepped up from the Reserves wasstriker Noddy Penfold, who looked OK when he came on for about twenty minutesagainst Fleet last Saturday, and reportedly did well in Monday’s friendly. Hepartnered Joby Thorogood up front, in Ashford’s usual 4-4-2 formation. Neitherhe nor Joby had a clear sight of goal today – so creating chances is still aproblem, in spite of the good, all-round team performance – but Noddy didenough to suggest that he is a better option as Joby’s striking partner thaneither Marc Cumberbatch or Shaun Bradshaw. He showed himself to be strong, bothin the air and on the ground, and we saw some good touches and intelligentflicks and through-balls from him. It might take a game or two for him todevelop an understanding with Joby, but he looks and behaves like a striker, sothis will surely come. It might also be interesting to see, at some stage, howhe plays with Aiden Purseglove, his regular partner in the Reserves. (Aidenscored twice today for the Ressies in a 4-3 victory over Erith Town Reserves).

The back five was completed by Jamie Smith, atright-back, and Dave Wietecha, in goal. The midfield quartet, from right toleft, was made up of Joffy Thorogood, RJ Boorman, Gary Clarke and the improvingKenny Jarrett-Elliott, whose fragile confidence should have been boosted byanother good performance. Kenny is looking stronger with every appearance – hewon a few balls in the air this afternoon – and this is probably as much to dowith his increasing self-belief, as physical strength or fitness.

On the bench with Mark Banks we had Shaun Bradshaw,Danny Jones (another of the Reserves squad) and Dan Tanner (signed fromFolkestone Invicta, but latterly having been on loan to Sittingbourne).

One certainty about today was that it was going to bebloody freezing. Therefore, I came equipped with my thermals and two pairs ofsocks, and Mrs Milton Keynes Correspondent came dressed in about a dozen layersof clothing. In a week in which the hot favourites dropped like flies at Cheltenham, it probably wasn’t surprising that thetemperature expectation also failed to materialise. In fact, in spite of anofficial temperature of 6˚C, it felt positively balmy. This had much to do withthe fact that the large, imposing stand here provided excellent shelter fromthe cuttingly cold wind.

I must say that most things about Imperial Fields areimpressive. The main stand is part of a rather plush health, fitness andleisure centre, which includes a café bar in which we had an excellent lunch. (Afar cry from the cheese roll wrapped in cling-film that you might be lucky toget at the likes of Molesey and Banstead !). There is plenty of seating in themain stand, where the black & white seats spell “TMFC” – (I always thinkthat looks good). There is also loads of standing room; this is certainly theonly ground in our division where the terracing behind each goal extends to aheight above the crossbar of the goal. Given the capacity of the ground,today’s crowd of 233 must’ve been a bit disappointing for our hosts.

Missing from the scene today was a sloping pitch,although the playing surface was quirky in the sense that it was very dry andbumpy – I had to do a double-take when I saw clouds of dust being kicked up,with so many matches in our division having been postponed recently due towaterlogging. The environmental condition of significance today was the strongbreeze, and Ashford, in their all-yellow strip, kicked into this breeze in thefirst half.

Tooting, in their black & white striped shirts (àla Newcastle United, Dorchester, Bromley,Grantham, Juventus etc), black shorts and black socks, exerted the earlypressure, attempting to stretch the Ashford defence with long balls into thecorners, but passes somehow went astray, and they were unable to convertpossession into worthwhile chances. Then Ashford took the lead, in the 16^thminute, with what was really our first attack. A fairly innocuous long ballfrom the Ashford defence should have been dealt with comfortably by Paul Borg,in the home goal, but his attempt to hoof clear was horribly sliced, and theball spiralled out for a corner. RJ Boorman took the kick, on the left, andsent over a deep cross, beyond the far post. Marc Cumberbatch, up for thecorner, timed his leap to perfection, and headed into the far corner of thenet.

This was an unexpected setback for our hosts, who arecurrently looking good for a place in the promotion play-offs, and theyattacked down the left flank, with Amadou Kouman, in the 18^thminute. Kouman’s cross went all along the edge of the Ashford 18-yard box,before reaching Denva McKenzie, who turned and shot well over the bar. (Incidentally,our own Denverwasn’t in attendance today – but I can’t shed any light as to the reason forhis absence).

In the 20^th minute, Ashford had a secondcorner, after Aaron Day put the ball behind when he really should have fed theball back to his ‘keeper. With the corner being on the right, the kick wastaken by Ian Ross. This time it was Barry Crawford who was the target, but,although Barry got to the ball first, he could do no more than knock the ballbehind for a goal-kick.

At the other end, Tooting had a free-kick, in the 22^ndminute, when Jamie Smith fouled his man whilst challenging for the ball in theair. Whilst the free-kick was curled over the three-man wall, it went all theway through the box, for a goal-kick. A minute later, there was disruption tothe Tooting & Mitcham game plan, when one of their full-backs had to besubstituted with Ryan Adams, almost certainly due to injury.

In the 25^th minute, RJ Boorman tried along-range shot from about the centre of the Tooting half – this effort wassliced harmlessly wide, but a shot on goal from an Ashford midfield player isalways worthy of note, due to its sheer rarity value ! Something else to note is that the visitorshad the rub of the green with some strange refereeing decisions from Mr Downey,in the first half, much to the annoyance and frustration of the home bench andsupporters. (Their moans were music to our ears – like a symphony orchestra).

There was no help required from the officials,however, in the 32^nd minute, when Ashford put together their bestmove of the match – and this was very nearly a triumph for the Thorogoodfamily. Joby did brilliantly to rob one of the Tooting back four, break througha tackle from another and then set off down the left wing. Joby sent in a greatcross to his brother, Joffy, whose diving header went over the bar. Two minuteslater, Noddy Penfold did some quality work when holding the ball up well,before turning and sliding an intelligent ball through for Joby, but Paul Borgwas alert enough to come out and save at his feet.

Tooting’s first equaliser came in the 39^thminute, at a time when Ashford looked comfortable with the lead; what was moregalling was the fact that it was a pretty soft goal to give away. There appearedto be no danger as Dave Wietecha was about to claim a tame cross, which wascoming to him all along the ground; he called for the ball at just about thesame time that Marc Cumberbatch virtually kicked the ball out of his hands. Theclearance went straight to Jamie Findlay, on the right. Findlay’s cross was headed goalwards by ScottKinch, and Big Dave appeared to have made a great save, palming the ball overthe bar, but the ball looped up and plopped just over the line. The referee,who was 25 yards away, had no hesitation in judging that the ball was over theline, which was a little surprising, in view of some of the rather more obviousthings that he missed, but I’m pretty sure that it was the correct decision.

On the stroke of half-time, however, the ref was backin strange decisions mode. Ashford were awarded a hotly disputed free-kick,near the right-hand touch-line, after an incident during which Tooting’s ScottKinch went down in a heap. After quite a lengthy break for treatment, thereferee added insult to injury by showing Kinch a yellow card. On the restart, NoddyPenfold got up well to meet Ian Ross’s free-kick with his head, but was unableto direct his effort towards goal.

So a little disappointing to only be all-square at thebreak, especially as the news from the island was that Newportwere holding Dover,0-0.

In the opening seconds of the second half, Tooting hada free-kick, just outside the Ashford area, after Jamie Smith had carelesslyfouled his man – he also protested by knocking the ball away, so picked up aneven more careless yellow card. Again, Ashford faced the danger with athree-man wall. John Shirley curled a cross over this wall, but Dave Wietechapunched clear.

In the 49^th minute, Jamie did some goodwork down the right side of the pitch, which ended with him threading the ballthrough to Joby Thorogood, in the area. Joby headed for the by-line, but wentdown under a challenge in the penalty area. Whilst there were differing views asto whether a penalty should have been given, I reckon that we were unlucky, asthe contact was made with Joby at hip level, and the ball was long gone.Unfortunately, the referee waved away the penalty appeals, thus cancelling outall the little decisions that went our way in the first half !

After 52 minutes, Noddy Penfold rather blotted hiscopybook, when he showed a flash of temperament that the first team squadreally doesn’t need. (There are more than enough short fuses on the pitch andon the bench as it is !). Noddy got involved with Tooting’s Scott Kinch, andkicked out at him several times. The referee was right on the spot, and therewas every chance that he was going to produce a straight red card.Surprisingly, though, the result was a yellow card for the home side’s No.3,Craig Tanner, in what appeared to be a simple case of mistaken identity,(although I suppose it would be wrong to assume that the man’s an idiot, justbecause I don’t know why he took this action).

As the half wore on, Tooting looked increasinglydangerous, and started to make raids into the Ashford area. On the hour mark,Marc Cumberbatch, having done well to head a corner clear (in spite of beingfouled) a few minutes earlier, had to come across with a good saving tackle tothwart Amadou Kouman, and the resulting corner was headed clear by BarryCrawford. Two minutes later, Kouman made another run into the box, and wentdown under pressure from two Ashford defenders. There was a view that thereferee’s refusal to award a penalty evened up the decision involving JobyThorogood, just 13 minutes earlier, but I thought that a penalty would havebeen harsh on this occasion. The resulting corner was curled low, towards thenear post, and was put behind again, by Gary Clarke. The follow-up corner wasfloated long, to the far post, and was punched clear by Dave Wietecha.

There then followed a period of ten to 15 minutesduring which there was almost no football, but plenty of messing about withsubstitutuions, treatment to players and different coloured cards being wavedaround. The first of the substitutions during this time saw Mikael Munday comeon as Tooting’s second sub, with Tyran James replacing John Shirley a fewminutes later. Joffy Thorogood picked up his customary yellow card – this timefor something he said to the referee – in the 69^th minute. ThenScott Kinch was sent off, in one of the strangest dismissals I’ve seen. Thelinesman called the referee over, to report something that he had seen, and theresult was a second yellow card for the amazed Kinch. One theory bandied aboutafter the game was that Kinch had taken a drink during Tooting’s thirdsubstitution, in spite of the Lino telling him not to, and that this was enoughto earn him his second yellow – but who knows ?!

Back to the football, and, after 74 minutes, JobyThorogood sent in what looked to be a fairly harmless cross, from the left, butthis effort only just went over the bar, landing on the roof of the net. Thenin the 77^th minute, shortly after the news came in that Dover had taken the lead against Newport, Joby won the ball near the leftcorner flag, after chasing what looked to be a lost cause – he drew the foul,so giving RJ Boorman the chance to curl the ball into the Tooting area. This hedid, but Tyran James headed the ball behind for a corner, on the right. SkipperIan Ross floated the kick long, beyond the far post, where Marc Cumberbatch wasleft unmarked, as the last man. Marc headed the ball downwards, and, althoughthere might have been a touch from the goalkeeper, or Joby Thorogood, or both,on the line, it was certainly Cumber’s goal. It’s quite ironic really – Marchad been playing as a striker for several weeks previously, and barely gotclose enough to see the goal posts; he reverts to being a defender, and thenscores two goals !

The important thing, of course, was that we were 1-2up, against ten men, with just 13 minutes left of normal time, and Newport were losing.(Happy days !).

In the 82^nd minute, Jamie Smith was alittle harshly penalised for having his foot high, (and also in Amodou Kouman’sface). This was purely accidental, but referees obviously watch plenty ofChampions League footy on the telly these days, so a free-kick was given.Before the kick was taken, The Management took the opportunity to make their firstsubstitution; Kenny Three Names played well today, but he was showing distinctsigns of flagging, and Danny Jones went on for his first team début. Danny’sfirst touch was a good one, heading Ryan Adams’s disappointing free-kick clear,from the edge of the Ashford area.

With three minutes of normal time left, Ashford couldhave wrapped up the points, when Joffy Thorogood broke down the left. He had RJBoorman and Joby to choose from as runners through the middle, but ratherdelayed his pass to RJ too long. RJ checked, and eventually shot, but hiseffort was well saved by Paul Borg. There was another opportunity two minuteslater, when Ashford once again broke from defence. A clearance from Ian Rosspresented Joby Thorogood and Noddy Penfold with a two-on-two situation, but thekiller blow remained elusive, and we got no more than a throw-in, near thecorner flag, on the left.

It was at this time that The Management made whatturned out to be an ill-starred substitution. Dan Tanner (no relation to Tooting’sCraig) went on for a brief début, replacing Jamie Smith – this was less atactical move, and more due to the fact that Smudger’s short fuse was comingdangerously close to smouldering to nothing, (and his Dad had gone over to thebench to advise Tim Thorogood of as much). Whatever the reason, this decisionwas to be a major contributory factor in Tooting & Mitcham’s equaliser.With Dan Tanner taking his place in the centre of defence, and Marc Cumberbatchreverting to right-back, there was a major mix-up between Dave Wietecha and thedebutant, as late as the 91^st minute. There seemed to be no dangeras a long, hopeful ball into the Ashford area fell between Tanner and the‘keeper (who had probably hardly been introduced). Whilst they debated whetherDave should come for the ball, Denva McKenzie nipped in and slid the ball intothe net. Two communication break-downs, two equalisers for the home side.

So another sickener to add to the list, in thetortured history of Ashford Town Football Club. As has already been mentioned,news of Newport’sequaliser then rubbed salt into the wound.

It shouldn’t be forgotten, of course, that this wasstill an excellent point – certainly more than most of us expected us to get atthe start of play. We also ended the day in the same position in which westarted it: a point ahead of Newport,with a game in hand. More importantly, the performance was a good one, whichgives us hope for the future. I’d stick my neck out and say that, if we hadhalf of the season remaining, I’d have no fears of relegation at all with thissquad of players. Unfortunately, we only have eight games remaining, so themargin for error is small.

Work continues to be done to further strengthen thesquad. Even during Saturday, talkswere being held to bring a proven striker to The Homelands. (I don’t know whothis is, but if it’s who I think it is, then he’s someone who’s already beenscoring goals this season for a team pushing for promotion at the top of RymanDivision One, and who averaged more than a goal a game at a lower level threeseasons ago). I have heard that we’ve already signed an experienced centre-half– that you’ve all probably heard of. This isn’t the place to reveal hisidentity, but I’m sure that there will be an announcement soon. That means thatwe have plenty of cover in central defence: Cumberbatch, Mortley, Banks,Crawford, Tanner and this new bloke – quite apart from Tommy Adlington beingable to fill in there.

Plenty of competition for places, then. There was alsoplenty of compo for Man of the Match this afternoon. The main candidates werethe two centre-halves, Crawford and Cumberbatch, and RJ Boorman, who looks likehe’s recapturing the form he showed at the start of the season – he looked goodin possession, and was the one who put his foot on the ball, and changed thedirection of attacks. We thought that Cumber just shaded it, and not justbecause he got the goals. Gary Clarke and Jamie Smith also deserve to bementioned in dispatches, but everyone did a good job today.

Man of the Match

(to go towardsthe Milton Keynes Bowl)

Marc Cumberbatch

ARCHIVE: Tonbridge Angels v Ashford Town. Ryman League Division 1 South. September 2005.

2011-12-29T14:37:00.001-08:00

Tonbridge Angels 3 Ashford Town 1

from Your Milton Keynes Correspondent

After two successive cup games – which welost by an aggregate of 8-2 – it was back to business again today, with thelads looking for their first league points of the season. As we’d all feared,it hasn’t been a great start to the new campaign – but we’re not alone. Hasanybody noticed that we’ve made an almost identical start to that of Everton –we’ve both lost six games out of seven, we’re out of two cups, and we bothconceded five goals in one of those cup exits. Another thing both clubs had incommon this morning was that things didn’t look like becoming much brighter inthe immediate future – whilst Everton have to go to Highbury to face Arsenal onMonday, Ashford Town today faced the prospect of taking on Tonbridge Angels atLongmead Stadium. You could argue that our boys had the tougher task since,with Arsenal struggling to hit their stride this year, Tonbridge have made agreat start in their bid to bounce straight back to the Ryman Premier Division,being unbeaten in eight games in all competitions to date (six wins and twodraws), including seeing off Hastings in the FA Cup on Tuesday.

What makes things more difficult is that westill don’t have a settled side, with several players missing today. This wasto be the start of bans for Tom Adlington (one game) and Joby Thorogood (twogames), after their sendings off against the Isle of Wight.We also knew that we would still be without Club Captain Marc Cumberbatch andEddie Achoko, who are still in Spainacting as body doubles in a TV advert for Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira,respectively. The absence of Cumberbatch Jnr is the biggest loss, given thatwe’ve at least looked solid at the back with him in central defence for thefirst five games. There are some cynics among the Ashford faithful who’d claimthat impersonating a footballer is something that Eddie does all the time, andthat it shouldn’t harm our chances too much, but I actually think that he’slooked a much improved player this season.

With this being my first visit to Tonbridge,the location of the stadium came as something of a surprise to me. It’sactually situated within a large municipal park, along with a bowling green, and birds, and squirrels, andtrees and fings. At least the car parking here is good. The stadium itself hasa strangely makeshift feel about it. Whilst the main, blue-roofed stand islarge, it has relatively few seats, and these are clustered around the half-wayline. The stands behind each of the goals are standing-room only, and the onlyother seating at the ground is provided by a small Press and Directors Box,situated half-way into one half of the pitch, and this must seat about 20. Onthe open side of the ground, behind the dug-outs, there is a broad lawn infront of the club bar. Not quite what I expected of a stadium that wouldprobably expect to accommodate an average home crowd of around 400 or more.

We arrived at the ground to learn that therewere more absences and changes than we had expected. It would appear thatgoal-keeper Jani Seitsonen and right-sided midfielder John-Paull Collier havenow left the Club. That means that reserve ‘keeper Sean Glover made his debut –and is now, presumably, our No.1 No.1. In fact, there were just two survivorsfrom the back five that had previously given Ashford an uncharacteristicallysolid look at the back in the first five games of the season. These wereKennickson Jarrett-Elliott, who only lasted for 45 minutes, before beingsubstituted at half time, and Lynval Duncan, who, with Cumberbatch Jnr, IanRoss and Tommy Ad all missing from the starting line-up, became the fourth manto wear the captain’s armband this season.

The new boys at the back were Gary Croxtonand Denver Birmingham. Croxton, a centre-half, is a big, strong lad, who had agood presence in the air, in spite of not being foot-perfect this afternoon. Heapparently impressed in pre-season matches, and several Ashford fans have beencalling for his inclusion in the side. Denver Birmingham is named after twocities, which I think is a record for an Ashford player. I remember playersbeing named after one city – such as Steve Coventry and Byron Glasgow – butnever two. Denver is very much a new addition to the squad, and all we knew abouthim is that his previous clubs are Orient, Cambridge United, Exeter City,Crawley, St Albans and (last season) Margate. That’s enough to put him head andshoulders above anything else we have in terms of pedigree ! His mini-biography also states that he’s amidfielder, and it was patently obvious this afternoon that he’s not aright-back. He was slow, and didn’t look particularly fit, but, as you mightexpect for a player with his experience, he seemed plenty skillful enough, andit’ll be interesting to see what he has to offer when he’s played in his properposition.

As Tim Thorogood promised in a web-siteinterview during the week, Ashford reverted to 4-4-2, after disastrousflirtations with different formations in the cup games, and the midfield wasentrusted to four talented youngsters: Sol Henry on the left, Terry McCann andGary Clarke in the centre, and Richard “RJ” Boorman, shifted out to the rightside of midfield, having impressed so far with his performances in the centre.With Joby suspended, there was the opportunity of a first start for SteveHumphrey up front, and, with Shaun Bradshaw back from injury alongside him, weat last had a forward-line with a bit of size and presence. It was Humphrey whowas the biggest revelation of all – he won things in the air, showed the sortof strength in holding the ball up that we haven’t had since Paul Jones left,and he showed signs of linking up well with Shaun Bradshaw. Standing severalinches taller than Paul Jones, he transformed the side during the 52 minutesthat he was on the pitch, and could well be the ideal partner for Joby when TheHobbit returns.

There were also some new names on the benchin the form of Darren Raymond and Bradley Woods – both strikers. The othersubstitutes were Ian Ross, who missed the cup defeat at home to Windsor &Eton, Anthony Pace and Ray Riseley, the goal-keeping coach who played in goalin the debacle at Wembley. To complete the roll-call, I’m pleased to reportthat Joby, Joffy, Tommy Ad and Mark Banks were all present to cheer on theirteam-mates – however deep the gloom among some sections of the Club’ssupporters, all these lads sounded up-beat and confident that together they’dget things right and start to get some better results.

In spite of these positive vibes, the openingminutes were, unsurprisingly, characterised by pressure from Tonbridge, whostarted the game in third place in the table. Player-Manager Tony Dolby hadobviously sussed out that one thing that we lacked today was pace in the backline, (and, judging by one or two remarks that I overheard from the home bench,they thought that they had identified Kenny Jarrett-Elliott as a potential weaklink), because the main Tonbridge tactic for the whole of the first half was torelease long, first-time balls from defence. The first evidence of this siegegun attack came as early as the third minute. On this occasion, Gary Croxtonfailed to win an important header, and the ball fell to Ray Powell, but theNo.11 lobbed the ball well over the bar, and over the South Stand behind thegoal. Three minutes later, Dolby tried a shot from just outside the area, butstraight at Sean Glover – the ‘keeper caught this shot cleanly, so this was agood confidence booster for Sean, on his debut.

The first attack from the visitors, playingin all yellow, in contrast to the home side’s all blue, came in the ninthminute, and this was the first sign that our attack had some teeth. DenverBirmingham put Steve Humphrey through in the inside-right channel – Humphreyshowed that he had the confidence and aggression to attack the penalty area,but his shot was blocked by John Beales.

In the 12^th minute, Kenny Three-Namesslid into a tackle and won the ball – but, unfortunately, scythed the man downfirst, so a free-kick was awarded. Centre-forward Leroy Huggins managed to gethis head to the resulting cross, but nodded the ball wide of goal. A minutelater, there was more danger, with a corner taken by Tony Dolby – again, it wasa Tonbridge player who was first to the ball, but the header went just over thebar.

In the 14^th minute, we were inDreamland, as Ashford took the lead. Terry McCann, whose tackling wasinspirational throughout the match, squared the ball to Richard Boorman. RJ –or “Arj”, for short – chipped the ball through for Steve Humphrey to run on to.Humphrey was there before ‘keeper Jerome John, lifted the ball over theadvancing goalie and then watched it bounce into the empty net.

Having taken the lead, the visitors enjoyedat least an equal share of the first half, but there were plenty of incidentsat both ends. Two minutes after opening the scoring, Humphrey pressurised JohnBeales into conceding a corner. The was taken by Kenny J-E, on the right,floating the ball to the far post. Gary Croxton got up well to beat his marker,headed the ball powerfully downwards, but wide of the post.

In the 18^th minute, the ball wasback at the other end – hoofed there as a result of a long clearance from theTonbridge defence – and Huggins easily outpaced the Ashford defence to gainpossession. He held the ball up in the area, but Gary Croxton, tracking back,put the ball behind for a corner. There was a bit of a scramble in and aroundthe Ashford area, from the resulting cross, which ended with Ian Parkesshooting over the bar. (Parkes was wearing the No.8 shirt previously worn byformer Ashford midfielder Danny Lye, who did not take part today).

After 20 minutes, Shaun Bradshaw and SteveHumphrey combined well, with Humphrey lobbing a through-ball for Shaun to chasedown the right flank. Shaun managed to get a cross in to the far post, butHumphrey, steaming forward for the return, was unable to get the vital touch.

A minute later, and the end-to-end exchangescontinued – Ray Powell latched onto yet another long ball launched from deepinside the Tonbridge half. Although the home side wasn’t exactly blinding uswith science, the ploy again worked perfectly, but Powell wasted theopportunity, his effort being neither a cross nor a shot.

In the 24^th minute, there werescreams from the Angels bench for a penalty, as Lynval Duncan’s foot was high,and he appeared to catch Leroy Huggins in the face – however, the referee sawnothing wrong with the challenge, and Lynval’s claim was that it was actuallythe ball that had caught Huggins in the face, and not his boot. Two minuteslater, and it was long ball time again – on this occasion it was DenverBirmingham’s lack of pace that was cruelly exposed, with Leroy Hugginssprinting clear of him and running onto the ball down the left. Huggins’ crosswas deep, to the far post, where Ray Powell was there to nod the ball back intothe centre – but there was no blue shirt there, and the ball was cleared.

In the 29^th minute, Steve Humphreyagain showed good strength to hold the ball up, and released Shaun Bradshawdown the right. Sensibly, Shaun waited for support, and eventually squared theball to Terry McCann. Whilst you have to praise the midfielder for gettingthere in support of the strikers, it should also be said that McCann’s shotprobably missed by as far as it’s possible to miss, sailing miles over the bar.There are times when Terry looks like a young Matt Bower, but he needs to workon the more creative aspects of his game ……. and his finishing.

Thirty-three minutes gone, and Lee Careyspread the ball wide to Leroy Huggins, on the left – the home side trying to goaround our defence for once, instead of over the top. There were palpitationsas Sean Glover failed to come for Huggins’ low cross across the face of goal, butthe ball went out for a slightly fortunate goal-kick. A minute later, Tonbridgehad a free-kick in a dangerous position, near the by-line, but Gary Croxton wasthere to head clear. The ball was soon at the other end, with Sol Henry, whoshowed few signs of his usual pace this afternoon; on this occasion, Solly’slong and patient dribble down the left wing resulted in a corner. RJ Boormanwent all the way over to the left to take the corner, and crossed the ball deepto the far post, looking for Steve Humphrey, but Humphrey could do no more thanbundle the ball over the line for a goal-kick.

As half-time approached, with Sean Glover nothaving been seriously troubled in the Ashford goal, Tonbridge began to show afew signs of frustration – a few passes were going astray, and there were somemurmurs of disappointment from the 383-strong crowd. The equaliser almost camein the 40^th minute, though, after a misplaced pass from Boorman,which went backwards, rather than forwards. Leroy Huggins did well to capitaliseon this, and, after some good work in the Ashford penalty area, forced SeanGlover into making a good save, and the rebound was put behind by the Ashforddefence for a corner. John Beales rose to meet the resulting cross, but headedover the bar.

A minute later, the visitors had a goldenopportunity to take a 2-0 lead. A long clearance from Glover was flicked on byShaun Bradshaw’s head, and this put Steve Humphrey clean through with aone-on-one with the Tonbridge ‘keeper. You have to say that Jerome John didextremely well to dive at Humphrey’s feet, and come up with the ball.

As so often happens, “almost 2-0” very soonbecame 1-1. In just another two minutes, in fact – and it came as a result ofthe home side getting the ball down onto the grass and knocking it around forthe first time in the match ! After agood passing movement, it was Ray “Razor” Powell who shot the ball into thecorner of the net.

As well as Ashford had played in the firsthalf, they now rather fell apart for a few minutes, and the half-time whistlecouldn’t come soon enough. Tonbridge reverted to Plan A, and lofted a long ballinto the Ashford half. Lynval Duncan, who had his dodgiest game to date, at theback, missed an important header. This put Leroy Huggins clean through on goal– Glover came sprinting out of his goal, and somehow managed to save with hisknees. A minute later, on the stroke of half time, Tonbridge had anothercorner, which ended with Lee Carey shooting over the bar.

So the lads went in all square, havingcontributed a great deal to an entertaining half, but there was always thefeeling that an obviously talented Tonbridge side would click up a gear or twoin the second half.

Ashford made what I would guess was anenforced change at half time – Ian Ross came out for the second half as areplacement at left-back for Kennickson Jarrett-Elliott. Whilst it was a reliefto have a much shorter name to write down, it was slightly worrying to see yetanother Ashford player playing out of position, especially given Rossi’srelative lack of pace these days. In the event, though, he did a pretty soundjob, and he provided a different mode of attack, spraying cultured ballsforward from the left side of the defence.

After a strangely low-key start to the half byboth sides, things sprang into life in the 49^th minute when SolHenry caught Tonbridge right-back Darren Smith in possession, but was unable toput Shaun Bradshaw in on goal. Three minutes later, Sol picked the ball upagain after a Tonbridge attack broke down, and was fouled as he cut infield. Itwas whilst Sol was being treated that Steve Humphrey limped off, to be replacedby Darren Raymond – a Sinama-Pongolle lookalike, who looked useful, in spite ofnot managing an attempt on goal.

With 18 year-old Richard Boorman once againimpressing, and looking much more mature than his years might suggest, GaryClarke was having a disappointingly quiet game. His only notable contributionscame in the 54^th and 57^th minutes, first hitting a weakshot straight at the ‘keeper, and then lungeing in with a late tackle on DarrenSmith which earnt him a yellow card.

Ashford were continuing to hold the home sideafter an hour’s play, when Sean Glover threw the ball out to Sol Henry. Solwent on another long dribble down the left, without really threatening to leavedefenders for dead, but he did manage to pass the ball infield to ShaunBradshaw, on the edge of the Tonbridge penalty area. Shaun shot on the turn,but his effort was wide.

In the 62^nd minute, Tonbridge madethe first of their three substitutions, Warren Haughton replacing thehard-working Leroy Huggins. Two minutes later, they were in front. Again, itwas a well-crafted and well-taken goal. A sequence of quick interchanges on theedge of the Ashford area ended with a deft flick over the defence for LukePiscina to run onto. Piscina – which, in case you didn’t know, is the Spanishword for swimming pool – had all the time in the world to smash the ball pastSean Glover. So much for the long-ball theory, with three points almostcertainly in the bag as a result of two slick moves and two good finishes.

It was always likely that Tonbridge wouldease clear from here, and it was almost 3-1 two minutes later. On thisoccasion, Ian Ross was beaten on the left, and a long cross into the penaltyarea found Tony Dolby unmarked, but the Player-Manager planted a firm headeragainst the bar.

The momentum was then taken out of the gameby a succession of stoppages and substitutions, but, in truth, Ashford neverlooked likely to pull a goal back; this might have been partly due to the lossof Steve Humphrey for most of the second half, but it was more likely due to thefact that Tonbridge, the superior side, settled down to assert some control onthe game.

For the record, Mikhail Czanna replacedDarren Smith for Tonbridge in the 67^th minute. After 71 minutes,there was a lengthy delay after Steve Aris decided to use his face to block aRichard Boorman piledriver – and any Status Quo fan will tell you that THAT wasan album ! Eventually, Aris (that’s anunfortunate name if you happen to be a cockney !) was replaced by Jay May inthe 74^th minute. Ashford made the sixth, and final, substitution ofthe match in the 79^th minute, when Bradley Woods replaced ShaunBradshaw. This left us with the unlikely, brand-new front pairing of Woods andRaymond.

Bradley Woods hardly had time to get into thegame, so we learnt little or nothing about him, and any further goals werelikely to come from Tonbridge. The home side went 3-1 up, and sealed thepoints, in the 81^st minute. The chance originated from Gary Croxtoncarelessly giving the ball away in his own half, but the goal itself ultimatelyhad an element of good fortune about it. A speculative shot from outside thearea by Tony Dolby ricocheted, as if on a pin ball table, between two Ashforddefenders, and nicely into the path of substitute Warren Haughton. The No.12had all the time in the world to put the third goal past debutant goalie SeanGlover, but it should be emphasised that Sean was not at fault for any of them.

Any addition to the scoring would haveflattered the home side, but that didn’t deter them from trying, and there wereseveral chances for a fourth goal. In the 84^th minute, the ball wasswept out to the left wing by the Tonbridge midfield, to one of the other subs,Jay May; he cut inside, onto his right foot, but his shot went straight atGlover, who was able to gather cleanly. Four minutes later, Sean had to make asimilar save, from a long-range shot from Lee Carey, but the effort was onceagain straight at him.

On the stroke of full time, but with plentyof stoppage time expected, Tony Dolby attempted a shot from just outside thearea. This did not trouble Glover, since it was as spectacularly high over thebar as Terry McCann’s vertical effort, from about the same position, had beenin the first half. Dolby delighted the home fans by signaling “six” in thestyle of Silly Billy Bowden, the cricket umpire. The Tony Dolby show continued,with 92 minutes on the watch, when he stepped up to take a free-kick, justoutside the penalty area; whilst he managed to get the shot up and over thewall, it was once again straight at Sean Glover. With 94 minutes on the watch,the Player-Manager was at it again, taking the ball forward, towards an Ashforddefence that was determined to hold the line; Warren Haughton took the ball offhis boss’s toes, but his snap-shot went just wide of the post.

So no goal for Dolby this afternoon, but hedid have the consolation of being presented with a bottle of something bubblyin the bar afterwards, having been named as Man of the Match. Of course, hisbiggest consolation for not scoring would have been seeing his team collect allthree points. The fact that Hastings, who were knocked out of the FA Cup onTuesday in this very stadium, bounced back to beat Cray Wanderers 4-0 thisafternoon means that Tonbridge Angels went to the top of the league (althoughDover, who didn’t play today, have a game in hand of them). The fact thatTooting & Mitcham beat Bashley today, to gain their first points of theseason, means that Ashford have now pulled two points clear of their rivals atthe bottom of the table.

So in the end the natural order of things wasrestored. The division’s bottom team went to one of the division’s top teamsand led for 43 minutes, then held them up to about the hour mark, and theneventually got well beaten. Although it doesn’t look good, staring up from thefoot of the table with no points, there were enough positive signs in thisperformance to keep optimism alive – after all, it’s very early days still,with five games played and 39 still to come.